I see where the Australian Taxation Office currently have Bitcoin audit letters doing the rounds for undisclosed capital gains where many thought they were safe in numbered encrypted sites. There may be a few tears around a few wild punters after the ATO spent around 1 Billion on chasing Bitcoin capital gains at a projected return of around 4 billion. Pays to be honest....... (Of course not ALL Bitcoin punters are crooks, just a portion of them). Also was talking to an accountant who had knocked back a couple of SMSF's in Bitcoin. He told me the ATO audit requirements for Bitcoin make it uneconomical for accountants to do the work on super funds with Crypto’s. Also as Bitcoin is being recognised as a currency and every little Pay Pal purchase etc also triggers a capital gains tax event and the accountants will not touch those jobs with a ten foot pole. Don't blame them. Every minor purchase triggers a capital gains tax transaction now efficiently data matched by the ATO. The CGT calculations be a nightmare where there are multiple transactions and uneconomical for tax agents and accountants to deal with Crypto’s. I know my accountant is going to ban any clients with crypto’s as their fees will be too high based on multiple CGT movements and ATO audit risk factors. I often wondered how it can be an investment and a currency at the same time. Might work overseas in different tax systems but now that the ATO can data match transactions it is probably more trouble than it is worth in Australia.
