Five Countries Join To Combat Transnational Crypto Tax Evasion

Tax enforcement authorities from five nations have formed an alliance to fight against transnational tax evasion. The organization, referred to as the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement or the J5, will fight combat tax crime through “increased enforcement collaboration.” The organization will share intelligence, gather information, improve the ability of tax crime enforcement officials and conduct coordinated operations.

The J5 is made up of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Dutch Fiscale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst (FIOD), the American Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and the British HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

IRS considers offshore institutions and financial vehicles, which are employed to evade tax and launder money, are detrimental to the fiscal, economic and social interest of countries.

In their homepage, IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has posted

“We will work together to investigate those who enable transnational tax crime and money laundering and those who benefit from it. We will also collaborate internationally to reduce the growing threat to tax administrations posed by cryptocurrencies and cybercrime and to make the most of data and technology.”

Last week, the group met for the first time and discussed plans to identify and prosecute cybercriminals and those who facilitate cross border tax crimes. The organization will also track those who assist money laundering and bring them to justice. The organization plans to announce its initiatives in late 2018.

Bitcoin, which enabled a lot of people to generate a lot of wealth, was categorized as a property by the IRS. The profit or loss is considered as capital gains or losses for taxation purposes. However, only a small cryptocurrency investors are declaring their profits or losses in their annual returns.