British tax agency demands customer information from exchanges including Coinbase

Startups • August 6, 2019, 10:33AM EDT
The Block

British tax agency HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is demanding customer and transaction information from cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, eToro, and CEX.IO, according to a Coindesk report. 

HMRC has sent out letters to these three exchanges requesting customers' names and transaction histories, stating that “these transactions may result in potential tax charges and HMRC has the power to issue notices requiring exchanges to provide this information.”

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Across the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also sent out letters regarding cryptocurrency taxation, urging potential digital asset holders to report and pay cryptocurrency-related taxes properly. The IRS obtained these letter recipients' information from Coinbase, through a demand similar to that of HMRC for customers’ names and transaction histories.  

Additionally, the IRS will receive a copy of the Form 1099-K that exchanges send out to their users who have conducted transactions that exceed certain thresholds in a given year. This means that the IRS can access information including gross gains from selling digital assets.

About Author

Celia joined The Block as a reporter after earning her BA in the History of Science from the University of Chicago. Having spent years pondering over why 2+2 cannot equal 5, she is interested in the history and philosophy of mathematics, computation, and cryptography. She also had a very brief stint at Crunchbase News.

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