Tax authority HMRC confirms data collection from Coinbase, exchange says less than 3% of U.K. customers impacted
H.M. Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the British tax authority, has confirmed to The Block that it has sought customer information from Coinbase U.K. and other crypto platforms searching for tax evaders.
“We want to help people get their tax affairs right and believe that taxpayers want to get it right,” an HMRC spokesperson told The Block. “HMRC regularly gathers data from a range of information sources using powers provided by Parliament. Data collected by HMRC is used to improve the integrity of the tax system and to identify those that have failed to declare their gains.”
A spokesperson of Coinbase also confirmed the development, telling The Block that HMRC contacted the exchange in September 2019 requesting information about U.K. customers.
“These requests are commonplace for financial services companies. Through a series of constructive conversations with HMRC, we agreed upon on a more limited and focused disclosure, eventually narrowing it down to customers with a U.K. address who received more than £5,000 worth of crypto assets in their Coinbase account during the tax year of 2019/20,” said the spokesperson.
They went on to say that the development would affect less than 3% of Coinbase’s customers in the U.K.
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79722/uk-hmrc-coinbase-tax-data-customers
