Earlier this week, Lithuania's tax service, the Lithuanian State Tax Inspectorate, added $7.6 million dollars to the state budget through the sale of cryptocurrencies seized in criminal investigations. The occasion marked the first time that the Lithuanian government liquidated confiscated cryptocurrencies. In doing so, the country joined the growing number of jurisdictions worldwide that have auctioned off or sold cryptos obtained by the long arm of the law. However, unlike the United States Federal Marshals, which netted $37 million at auction from confiscated crypto last February, the STI opted to sell the crypto through an exchange. According to Linas Rajackas, …

Pascal Saint-Amans, the director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, has asserted that the 37-nation organization will introduce a common reporting standard, or CRS, for crypto assets in 2021. According to Law360, Amans stated that the crypto tax standard “would be roughly equivalent to the CRS” developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to combat tax evasion. The director attributed the likely development of the crypto tax CRS to a desire to introduce stronger standards surrounding crypto regulations among its member-countries: “The timeline to deliver is probably ’21, sometime in ’21, because there is an …

Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin has appeared to express support for the further development of the local cryptocurrency market. At a recent governmental meeting held on Nov. 26, Mishustin proposed the introduction of legal protections for crypto holders in the country in order to contribute to the growth of the new industry. According to Mishustin, such a framework would develop the industry in a “civilized way so that the owners of such assets can protect their rights and interests,” while at the same time preventing “shadow schemes.” As part of the plan, Mishustin proposed amending the Russian Tax Code to …

Per an announcement and series of filings on Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice is calling shenanigans on Intuit's ambitions, at least in part. Intuit owns a stable of user-facing finance software, including budgeting app Mint, digital do-it-yourself tax software TurboTax and QuickBooks, for business accounting. The firm initially announced its acquisition of Credit Karma back in February. By its own account, Intuit was paying $7.1 billion. In its antitrust case released today, the DoJ does not object to the bulk of the new acquisition but has mandated that Intuit divest from Credit Karma's tax business, which it says …

The South Korean National Assembly is planning to delay the implementation of new income tax laws on cryptocurrency gains following appeals from industry bodies. According to a Nov. 25 report on Korean-language news site DongA, the 20% tax, originally due to be imposed from October 2021, will now not come into force until Jan. 1, 2022. The delay is intended to give digital currency exchanges time to implement the changes required to incorporate the new tax infrastructure. As Cointelegraph reported, the new tax structure for cryptocurrencies was announced in July this year and amounts to a 20% tax on any …

The Lithuanian government has reportedly sold a batch of cryptocurrency seized by local enforcement agencies. The State Tax Inspectorate, or STI, the country’s tax authority, sold confiscated crypto assets worth 6.4 million euro ($7.6 million) and subsequently added the funds to the state budget. According to an official announcement on Nov. 24, the seized crypto assets included major cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as well as privacy-focused altcoin Monero (XMR). The STI said this is the first time that the agency has sold seized crypto for fiat. “The conversion of cryptocurrencies into euros took almost a day,” the authority …

As a burgeoning industry less than 13 years old, cryptocurrency has seen its fair share of regulatory crackdowns and changes, especially in the United States. Jake Yocom-Piatt, co-founder of Decred, however, sees the nation as the most crypto-friendly. “Cryptocurrencies are treated as personal property in most jurisdictions, so their tax treatment is relatively uniform,” Yocom-Piatt said. He continued: “Cryptocurrency transactions are a form of speech, so states where free speech is protected are the least likely to restrict cryptocurrencies. While the U.S. currently suffers from many substantial sociopolitical problems, the combination of its freedom of speech with protections against forced …

The Tax Law Office of David W. Klasing, a boutique Californian tax firm, has issued a public release warning investors that the United States Internal Revenue Service is getting serious with Coinbase users. The firm’s dual-licensed tax lawyers and capital allowance specialists say they have been tracking an increase in IRS enforcement activity against Coinbase users who fail to comply with their tax and reporting requirements. Evaders can “end up facing serious civil and criminal trouble down the line,” the firm in its news release on Nov. 11, adding: “If you have failed to report holding Bitcoin or other virtual …

Crypto income taxation is a murky arena at present. It would seem that even the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, has a tough time figuring out who owes what, according to Wendy Walker, solution principal at the tax compliance company Sovos. "In the typical tax system, the IRS uses 1099 reporting," Walker told Cointelegraph in an interview. "So, 1099, W2, that tax reporting, it's the primary tool that they use to enforce tax compliance," she added. When people fail to report their crypto activities, the IRS is left with a headache. In 2019, 10,000 crypto-involved people received warning letters …

Wendy Walker, solution principal at the tax compliance company Sovos, described reporting as the most important aspect of tax filing that people in the blockchain industry should know about. "Even if you don't owe income taxes, you still have to report details of the transactions," Walker told Cointelegraph in an interview. "I think that's probably one of the key things about this moving of the question to the front of the 1040" she said, referencing the IRS' recent updates to the 1040 income tax form. This update requires citizens to disclose whether they've handled crypto assets during the filing year, …

American cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is partnering with tax compliance firm TaxBit to help its customers treport their crypto taxes with TaxBit’s Tax Center Suite solution. Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini exchange, said that TaxBit’s software will help reduce the “pain point of crypto tax,” enabling users to track the real-time tax impact on their crypto trades on Gemini. According to the announcement, the tool will also allow customers to potentially increase their tax refund and lower their tax liability, providing trade alerts when tax-saving opportunities are available. TaxBit’s Tax Center Suite solution is the first crypto tax-related tool that Gemini …

The news that payments company PayPal will support cryptocurrencies has given the industry a major boost — but there are tax implications that are little understood by crypto noobs. PayPal users will soon be able to use digital assets as a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide. The company has almost 350 million active users worldwide and Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of crypto lending platform Celsius, has predicted the integration could result in “millions of new users” getting into crypto. Unfortunately, they could face a tax nightmare arising from the volatile nature of crypto assets and …