Bitcoin Forum

I hope most of you already known about this matter that Indian government wants income tax from bitcoin holder. Its means now indian income tax authority charge tax from all bitcoin or altcoin holder. If you have to work on crypto from india you have to pay tax.

Now what do you think is it fair or not? Is others irregulated country make crypto legal by also taking tax.what do you is this possible? 

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/india-plans-to-tax-income-from-bitcoin-investments-report

If someone's earning money the government will have to come see take their part of it. This is how they regulate things even when BTC isn't legal nor banned, they still consider to take tax.  And 30% tax on cryptocurrency gains is a bitch.  I'm curious if they are going to take tax from investors who are not cashouting?

Fair or not, it is the reality. A number of nations are going down this route and imposing taxes on bitcoins whether capital gains or as income earned from trading. Although I would assume Bitcoin holders would favour countries which are more receptive and generally tax free over those which aren't.
I made a thread which container nations which are tax free;
Some of the nations on the list has a caveat; *Germany for example doesn't tax gains on Bitcoin only held beyond 1 year.

It's absolutely ridiculous to tax people on their profits out of bitcoin investment and how can they do it as it stalemate sort of think for crypto in India wherein nether they have termed it legal nor illegal, even if they want to tax then on what basis they are going to decide the tax amount as investors might not just store his fund idle, whether profit or loss the user will keep reading or shifting to different coins wherein they cannot accurately decide a taxable figure and this will lead to chaos.

This is probably the reason why they lift the ban in Bitcoin, so that instead of stopping Bitcoin from overtaking them, they are just going to milk the poor investors so that they either stop using cryptocurrencies, hide from the authority, or comply with that absurd tax.

But hey look at the bright side. At least one more country supports cryptocurrencies now. Who knows, maybe 30% might not come true at all since people are just anticipating it anyway.

It is depend how large percentage they are asking for tax. It's ok to have tax if that the only way to make it legal but asking for too much for those who also looking to earn money using investment in crypto currency for me is too much.they may even reduce their desire to invest in bitcoin if they continue to collect large taxes to even newly investors that only want it to try.

Oh, it sounds not very positively. And it is a pity, but there is such a tendency mostly in lots of countries that we can see nowadays. For example in my coutry the draft legislation not so long ago appeared and it has been voted even - the main question of it is something like in your country, connected with crypto and taxes.. So nowadays we keep our fingers on the pulse and are waiting what the result for crypto traders and holders will be.  

I would say it's a good and necessary step! Because bitcoin doesn't have a legal definition in India and this step from income tax department may help in getting that legal things done for our betterment. At the end of the day, government wants revenue. So if Indian government sees that the tax income from cryptocurrencies is good enough, there may be a possibility of a positive policy around cryptos.

Right now, the legality around crypto doesn't exist in India. This may help to fast-track that most awaited legal matters for us!

India is a country that is very difficult to provide any freedom, especially with regard to taxation. considering India's economy is so bad, the impact is that the government is targeting bitcoin users. as long as the tax provided is not too burdensome for bitcoin users.
Apart from India, there are still countries that impose these tax regulations. but as of now, I still haven't heard any complaints from those who are taxed from bitcoin.

I agree with your few things but not with all because Indian economy is not bad its one of fifth in world but system is not good most of government officals need bribary and kickbox which hurting very badly and can do some good things but due to some geographical problems and local system they faced some serious issues they have strong democracy but not strong and good enough system which support this all now recently some religion issue is also hurting very badly due to current ruling party.

It doesn't matter. As per income tax act in India, you have to pay taxes on all types of incomes - legality doesn't matter. Even if you are engaged in drug selling business and get caught, you are still required to pay taxes on your income first and then you are proceeded with criminal trial. I was searching for the exact lines from my old tax books and finally found it:

https://i.ibb.co/j8GNM91/Capture.png

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Actually it won't lead to chaos. Income Tax Act is very flexible in regards to traders. If you are doing large number of trades, shifting between coins every now and then, then there is a provision of 'speculative business' in the Act. You don't have to calculate exact amounts of profits, just take the total of all sales value and all purchase value, deduct the total of sales from the total of purchases and the net amount is your speculative profit if it's positive.

Note: Only short-term buy/sell transactions can be considered for speculative business. If you are holding coins for over 3 years then you can't mix those with speculative business and have to pay Capital Gains on the profits of those coins separately.

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Actually article is slightly misleading. No one is saying cryptocurrencies are going to be taxed @ 30%. Cryptocurrencies so far and I expect in future are be considered as any normal trading instrument. So if you are holding it for more than 3 years and then sell, the tax rate is 20% (20.8% with cess). If you sell it within 3 years, the tax rate depends upon the total income you earned. The lowest tax slab is 5% (5.2% with cess) to the highest of 30% (31.2% with cess).

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PS: If anyone wanna read in-detail thread about taxation of cryptocurrencies in India as per current situation: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5206607.0

Bitcoin in India is taxed under long term capital gains. Which actually taxes it around 30% gains if the source is to be followed. One have to remember that it's something that is not made by the government, nor does the government do anything to make it more beneficial, more profitable , to make it better, therefore asking taxes for Bitcoins is in a way : ridiculous BUT then again they are asking for 30%!!!!! This is in no way fair.
Let me put out a statement:
The government of India have not yet made cryptocurrencies like bitcoins legal , the banks are deliberately blocking the accounts of people engaged in cryptocurrencies , after every 2-3 months the government releases statement like : How you can be imprisoned for 10 years if you use bitcoins, how the government is trying to launch digital rupee that they think is a worthy competition for bitcoins !(lol) BUT NO ! YOU GOTTA PAY TAXES , that too 30% of your gains.
Just tell me how superficial, how horrible this is... They just need money 💰 and about the Corruption we all know a lot already.

Sad to say for the indian people that they are need to pay taxes for the holder or investing to the bitcoin and I hope in my country it will not happen because we earn only little and they want us to pay taxes. I do not know how they  identify who indian people are having bitcoin and how the taxes works. Hoping also because they implement tax to the bitcoin it's better for then to accept and promote bitcoin

India has suffered from the pandemic and many have lost their jobs and many economic sectors have been destroyed, so you will not find much tougher laws or at least they will not impose such taxes.

I remember some time ago that there were some taxes on cryptocurrencies and many of these laws require converting BTC into paper money but categorizing bitcoin as assets.

30% mean more than 1/4 and this is not a logic amount at all...its better to ban all cryprocurrencies better than do such  a dictatorial thing...a task like this mean the total oposite of what crypto users really want

They did? I still heard they are struggling to get into crypto.
But yes that is makes sense, like if you want bitcoin legal in our place so please obey the rules and your holding will get taxed.
This is ridiculous , is it even possible to detect all of those bitcoinholders in india?
This kind of tax is complicated , requires some deep research and right formula , otherwise the tax will get randomly punished to bitcoin holder there, which it is unfair.

Most governments will always have ways to find out on which or from they will get their financial resources.  In my country even though celebrities who have no fixed income and hard to identify the exact figure of their profits our government are still able to identify the amount of tax that they should be paying, I think it didn't bring any chaos to our tax system, should anyone won't pay their tax then that is the time that their life will be in chaos, IMO  :D.

Seriously, if this will be implemented in India I'm pretty sure that their government has a reason maybe not just for tax revenue but also they are trying to have control over their activity and as to each crypto-assets of their citizens.  Even though ain't come from India but I can compare here in my country either income or capital gain profits are subjected to tax as long as it reaches the taxable range then the government will take their part from it, the same goes to India as well.  Probably this implementation has a good purpose.

The great Benjamin Franklin said : in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. And he said this after basically having participated in the creation of a country (the USA) in revolt over taxes !

30% isn't that bad.

If I'm not earning good from trading bitcoin, this regulation from indian government isnt fair and our financial freedom will really suffer because we all knew corruption will probably step in. Income will supposedly be done with fiat currency, and has nothing to do with bitcoin in the first place due to its not part of the economy as it's a decentralized asset.
Life gets harder if government will took over on this matter, hopefully this country will soon realize what they're doing to their fellow country men.

30% is not a big of a problem for big bitcoin holders in India, but for small bitcoin holders surely it will be a problem. 30% may sound small for big players but for small holders that will be a pain to pay for sure.

So bad? I think not. India is at rank 5 of GDP ranking right above United Kingdom surely we can't say that India's economy is bad it is just the the government could not handle the economy well that's why the situation there looks bad.

Banks doing unreasonable things such as closing their users account for buying bitcoin is not a new thing and is happening in the rest of the world too. It doesn't have anything to do with legality of bitcoin though. Also keep in mind that stupid people on the internet or stupid people in government suggesting stupid things doesn't make them law. Some idiot last year suggested 10 year prison and it was never even considered let alone become an actual law, as far as I can tell.

So the article says that it might be around 30% tax, if that’s really it then they must be kidding me lol ;D 30% tax on Bitcoin earnings? That’s a joke please. Well, I think for the government to tax you on Bitcoin depends on where that Bitcoin was invested in, if it’s a centralized exchange that you invested your Bitcoin, they will be getting the reports and monitor everything.

If you’re holding in a private wallet and sell with other means, how exactly are they going to know? They wouldn’t. Anyway,  nobody would want to get into trouble with the government, so they’d comply.

There is no tax to pay unless you sell it. If I earn 1 bitcoin how are they going to make me pay tax on that? I am not converting it to fiat and will make purchases in bitcoin. They will probably want you to do the following.

1 btc = $20000 and you pay 30% tax to $6000 tax. These clowns are saying you need to pay fiat tax on that 1 btc? >.< Hahaha How can I pay tax on something the people have given value to?

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with the government imposing taxes on Bitcoin holders, because the government does require
income from taxes.The current economic situation is very worrying, because the pandemic has a major impact on the economy.
So the government needs taxes from Bitcoin to help restore the economy, what is wrong is the amount of tax imposed by the Indian
government of 30%. That's very big and can be burdensome for Bitcoin holders in India, the Indian government should only impose
a tax of 5%.

Of course, in general, I think that tax collection is of course normal, given that cryptocurrency is recognized as a digital asset, but I accept a tax of a maximum of 5%, but no more, and what they do in India I consider a complete robbery, since the tax is too big for cryptocurrency holders and this will significantly slow down the legalization of cryptocurrency in this country, there will be many shadow options in order not to pay taxes, and so on

LOL.. it is up to the government to decide the tax rates and there is nothing you can do about it. You can try tax evasion in case you don't want to pay your taxes, but then be ready to face the consequences. And I don't know whether there is any country out there, where the tax rates are as low as 5%. Normal range is 20% to 40% and it depends on the country where you reside.

I think that it is too much for the crypto earners in india just imagine if they are earning in trading they would already be paying transaction fee and withdrawal fee then they would also be paying their government tax.
What if they are only making a small profit then it would just be a waste for them might as well quit than to continue losing money because of all the fee and tax.

I consider it big, maybe 5% -8% is reasonable. Neither the whales or not I thought would be heavy. 30% is a big thing, if you have 1 then 0.3 you have to give to the tax collector, the remaining 0.7 is like unfair. They need to do a review before this takes effect.

In my opinion, if Bitcoin is legalized in a country, it is certain that the country will impose income tax from Bitcoin, because in state regulations if a company enters a country it will definitely be taxed, maybe they think the income in Bitcoin is very large. big so they made new regulations for Bitcoin taxation there I think it's very fair.

Dude, you are aware that income tax can be up to +- 40%. I would love to only pay only 5% tax that sounds like a dream. The taxes from bitcoin will not help restore the economy. Not even the entire capital of all crypto will do much against the entire economy. Other economies are much bigger than crypto but that is not to say crypto isn't big, it is, just not as big as other fiat-driven enterprise/companies/services/stocks and the like.


That's what I was thinking too. I think that guy lives in dreamland if he thinks he will only pay 5%. You pay more than 5% just in VAT. Different income brackets pay different taxes. If you earn less than a certain amount you don't pay tax. So if you slowly convert your crypto into fiat without going over the threshold you don't have to pay tax.

Its good to be reminded that we also need to revolt  ;D

The government will not collect tax as BTC but as rupees anyway. I think it will be fine because there is just no way of escaping from the government if you wanna live in a society that ask for your contribution. Not 30% though. Its like they only want to make crypto investors to suffer.

The US government also wants you to sell and pay them in fiat. If you bought ETH and sold it for BTC and then that BTC pumped you got profit and should give them some of it even if it means selling.

I know this is stupid but if you don't agree with it you can always take your coins and move abroad.

30% is too much I would never pay that and would rather hide my coins or leave the country.

Very sensible post. A lot of the users here are living in dreamland and they don't want to face the reality. In real life, there is no option other than paying your taxes that are due. It is ridiculous to claim that 30% is too high and therefore only 5% should be paid. It is not up to the individual to decide his tax rate. If that was the case, then no one would be paying any taxes on their capital gains.

I have a question and that is Bitcoin is decentralized  so how can  the  government or the income tax officers trace the bitcoin holder and ask holder for tax?

Well exchanges require KYC verifications, for starters. If you find a way to sell your coins in person, in cash, then they can't know. Unless they bait you and you sell to the police, that is ! But of course there just has been a big move against cash by the Indian government, so if you try to deposit a big amount at the bank, you will also have to explain how you got the money, and the government will know.

Well I don't live in the US xD The government here isn't insane here. The people who own bitcoin are the same people who make the country work and being in most of the money anyway so It wouldn't be clever to piss them off. It's not stupid, I would move abroad if I stayed in the USA. 30% is too much. I was just thumb sucking a number out for example.


Thank you xD Yes exactly!! There are ways to reduce the amount you pay but you will still be paying something. If you sell bitcoin you must look at the price you bought it at and choose coins that you bought or were sent when the price is very close to the current one. For example, If you have bitcoins you bought in 2010 for $1 do not ell those. Rather sell the ones you were paid last month so the difference in price is much smaller. So you say bitcoin is $20 and you get paid $17 not you pay tax on $3k but ig you sell the bitcoin from 2010 you will pay almost $20000 of it in tax. Though it is difficult to tell exactly when to calculate income tax from sold bitcoins it should be fine as long as you declare something and pay a reasonable amount. No government should snoop around if you do that.

This coming to their attention because of the profit cryptocurrency investors make while another business setting was depreciating during the season of lockdown but its still a fair decision since they are not against cryptocurrency and the tax was said to be pay from the profit made through Bitcoin investments or holder as the OP topic says.

I guess that only affects people who use companies operating under the Country's authority/jurisdiction? If the taxes are high/unfair, people should probably use decentralized crypto platforms that are autonomous, or foreign platforms with fair taxes . I believe people should be free to do so.

I am really against it but I don't fully understand how it would work so I guess I would still do some research about it to make it clear for me.
But I don't really like the idea of having tax for crypto earners because some of us could be considered as lower than a minimum wage earner.