While India’s central bank warns citizens against investing in bitcoin, the country’s central tax agency is keen on taxing transactions and investments.
A spokesperson from India’s Income Tax (IT) Department has confirmed yesterday’s ‘surveys’ of multiple bitcoin exchanges across the country, looking into investments into cryptocurrencies. As reported yesterday, the tax department reportedly visited the premises of 9 bitcoin exchanges to look into ‘alleged tax invasion’. Contrary to those claims, Reuters cites a tax department official as stating that the authority is investigating bitcoin exchanges to learn how investors are trading bitcoin on the exchanges with the intent to collect taxes.
The income tax department’s spokeswoman said:
We are looking at collecting information about modus-operandi of bitcoin exchanges, investors, their source of investment and possibility of collecting tax.
‘The tax official declined to comment on the central bank’s concerns, saying the tax department was looking only into the tax implications,’ the report added.
Bitcoin’s meteoric gains this year have seen Indian exchanges unable to cope with new adopters and demand for the cryptocurrency despite soaring premiums for buying bitcoin through exchanges.
The ever-growing appetite among everyday investors for bitcoin comes despite the central bank’s recently (repeated) caution on investments in cryptocurrencies and, specifically, bitcoin.