Indian Tax Authority Eyes 700 Crypto Investors for Non-Payment

India’s income taxes department announces they are coming after 700 cryptocurrency investors who failed to pay taxes on high-value crypto transactions.

The officials said most of these people have either omitted declaring crypto gains on their tax returns or have not filed tax returns at all. They could face 30% tax, penalty, and interest. The list included high-worth people, students, housewives, and some people who have never filed a tax return.

These people have gains exceeding Rs 40 lakh, which equals $52,495.92, but have either not filed tax returns or declared zero income on their returns. Also, Taxpayers have been treating crypto transactions differently, meaning some declaring income has been treated as capital gains while others as business income.

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Indian Finance Minister, proposed in her budget speech last month a 30% tax on capital gains from cryptocurrencies for the next fiscal year. The budget also stated that a flat tax would apply irrespective of how long a person has held the crypto assets.

J. B. Mohapatra, the Indian Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) Chairman, commented on the late news saying that “a large number of cryptocurrency investors had not been declaring income and the income tax department has collected enough data on them.” He added, “the department will initiate enforcement action after March 31.”

A senior official with CBDT also said:

We have a long list of people who were transacting in crypto assets but were not paying tax. Initially, (we) have shortlisted about 700 transactions, where tax liability is very high.