KANALCOIN NEWS – The Department of Tax Handling in India has issued a notice to Investors and traders involved in cryptocurrencies on the taxation of capital gains trading in the instrument. After a National survey in India showed that there were more than $3.5 billion transactions made during the last 17 months of the 2016-2017 period. The data is taken from 9 exchanges in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bengalore. The list of investors involved in investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies includes Real Estate Players, Smart Young Investors and Jewelry Traders.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are of global concern because their value continues to increase from year to year and creates speculation that can cause a bubble.
The government in India has warned investors in the Cryptocurrency field saying that it is like a “Ponzi Scheme” that gives investors an initial advantage. But that doesn’t appear to be the case, as according to an official at the Cryptocurrencies Exchange in India, ZebPay, told Reuters nearly 200,000 monthly users are growing in the Industry with a trading volume of around $315 million.
“Many of our customers use digital currencies like gold,” said ZebPay founder Saurabh Agarwal.
Another exchange official in India also said, Aman Kalra, that every week 150 Bitcoin Transactions go from hand to hand through his platform.
“I don’t think anyone in the Government should label our business as a ‘ponzi scheme’, we are not doing anything illegal” Kalra said.
Director General of Investigation at the Department of Income Tax in the southern state of kartanata, B.R. Balakrishnan told Reuters that the tax notice was sent after the survey, and asked people who deal with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple to pay taxes on capital gains and report their holdings and source of funds on tax returns.
“We found that investors did not reflect on their tax returns and in many cases, investments were not accounted for,” Balakrishnan said.
The survey was conducted by asking for help from experts in the field of Blockchain, the technology that underlies bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies.
However, the concern of local authorities is that there are many complaints from investors who transact in cryptocurrency which turn out to be fake. Alleged Fraud in the name of Cryptocurrencies and other Crypto crimes. The finance ministry official said that is how to protect investors who trade on foreign exchanges. Pavan Duggal, a Lawyer who specializes in Cybercrimes said the need for legality that it is not used in Crypto crimes.
“Given that Crypto emergencies are here to stay, Governments should consider granting limited legality while ensuring that these are not used for Crypto crimes.” Duggal said, as quoted on the Reuters page.
Governments around the world are discussing the policy of trading and exchange of this Cryptocurreny and will plan to bring it into discussion at the G20 Summit Meeting which will be held in Argentina, next March.
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