India Imposes 30% Crypto Tax, While Thailand Drops Levy Plan

In recent months, both the Thai and Indian governments have been quite active in the crypto space. It was reported in January that the RBI had searched a number of crypto exchanges on suspicion of tax fraud.

Shortly thereafter, there was news that the Indian government had established a FINTECH division to keep track of cryptocurrencies, crypto launches, and NFTs. At Davos 2022 India’s Prime Minister Modi called for was for “global cooperation and a common approach towards addressing emerging challenges posed by cryptocurrencies”.

Modi’s call to global cooperation follows the Bank of England’s call in late 2021 for a global cryptocurrency regulatory framework. The IMF also echoed this year’s call for global cooperation.

Indian Government introduces a 30% crypto tax

Today’s news on Twitter reveals that the Indian government plans to implement a 30% crypto tax, following increased scrutiny of crypto trading in India.

In a speech in the budget 2022, Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister, announced the crypto tax. Sitharaman made it clear that losses incurred from digital assets can’t be offset by other income sources. India announced its plans to introduce the digital rupee in 2022-23, at the same time as the 30% tax rule.

Thailand backs down on 15% crypto tax plan

Just a few days later, Thailand announced that they would withdraw their plans to implement a 15% tax on cryptocurrencies. The Financial Times reported today that traders strongly opposed the plan to eliminate the crypto tax.

Unlike India and other regulators in India, Thailand’s lawmakers have been active on crypto regulatory matters. News announced plans to regulate the cryptocurrency market last week. Thailand had recently banned NFTs and meme coins.

Although India and Thailand have already parted ways over tax, it is likely that there will be a united front for wider crypto regulations in the coming months.

This article originally appeared on FX Empire.

28 Feb
2022
Mark
McGinn