Taxing Virtual Currencies: An Overview of Tax Treatments and Emerging Tax Policy Issues

Report by OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration

Crypto-assets, and virtual currencies in particular, are in rapid development and tax policymakers are still at an early stage in considering their implications. G20 Leaders and Finance Ministers have called international organisations to analyse the risks posed by crypto-assets. So far, the tax policy and evasion implications have been largely unexplored, although forming an important aspect of the overall regulatory framework.

Prepared with the participation of over 50 jurisdictions, Taxing Virtual Currencies is the first comprehensive analysis of the approaches and policy gaps across the main tax types (income, consumption and property taxes) for such a large group of countries. This report also considers the tax implications of a number of emerging issues, including the growing interest in stablecoins and ‘central bank digital currencies’; as well the evolution of the consensus mechanisms used to maintain blockchain networks and the dawn of decentralised finance.

This report was prepared for presentation to the October 2020 meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. It provides key insights and a number of considerations to help policymakers wishing to improve their tax policy frameworks for virtual currencies.

Download report

Download highlights and key findings

Comments are closed.