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A study last week by the International Monetary Fund, titled Taxes on cryptocurrencies , estimates that up to 400 billion euros are lost each year in global public coffers by not effectively valuing the returns produced by these assets as capital gains or by not taxing operations with VAT. carried out. The international organization indicates that in 2021, a 20% tax on capital gains from cryptocurrencies would have raised around $100 billion worldwide. The figure, according to the IMF, is about 4% of global corporate income tax revenue, or just 0.4% of total tax collections. 2021 was the year Bitcoin hit . At the current market size, global crypto tax revenue would be less than $25 billion a year.
That, in the broader scheme of things, is not a large amount,” the authors acknowledge. In detail, according to the study, if all cryptocurrency transactions were taxed with VAT, they estimate that potential revenue Job Function Email Database would range between $47.4 billion and $118.5 billion. As for the potential tax revenues derived from a more effective tax on capital gains obtained through cryptocurrencies, these are between $10 billion and $323 billion. This entails losses for tax administrations that would reach, at the high end of the range, 440,000 million dollars (about 400,000 million euros). Anonymity makes it difficult to identify the owner and the subsequent taxation But why is it so difficult to raise when it comes to cryptocurrencies? Their nature (they are an investment asset and at the same time pretend to be a currency) and their operation make it still difficult to trace the identity of the owner.
The fundamental obstacle to the application of tax rules in relation to cryptocurrencies is the element of anonymity,” explain the economists at the Monetary Fund. The desire to hide is also explained by the fact that cryptocurrencies remain the preferred tool of evaders. For example, consulting firm Chainanalysis' report Crypto Crime Report 2023 points to an increase in money laundering activities from $14.2 billion in 2021 to $23.8 billion in 2022 through cryptocurrencies. These groups use messaging applications for private transactions that are difficult to trace (and often end up in real estate assets), not only by the Treasury, but also by law enforcement authorities. There is still no consensus on how to tax cryptocurrencies (capital gains (which is more common) or gambling) and it doesn't help that the world's tax systems were designed before the advent of blockchain technology.
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