Spanish Tax Authority Seeks Cryptocurrency Users’ Details from 60 Companies: Report
Spain’s official tax agency has reportedly sought names and trading data of cryptocurrency adopters by requesting the details from over 60 companies.
Citing an official from the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT), the revenue service of the kingdom of Spain, El Confidencial is reporting that the authority is launching the country’s biggest dragnet yet to look into tax evasion and money laundering via cryptocurrencies.
The AEAT has reportedly sent requests to 60 companies including banks, securities firms, cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto-accepting businesses to gather details including the identities of their crypto clients, bank details, payment card information and transactional amounts. The move comes amid a broader crackdown on online tax evasion by Spanish authorities which extends to platforms like Airbnb.
Spain’s official tax agency joins a number of other global counterparts staking and even pursuing their intent to collect taxes from cryptocurrency adopters. The likes of South Korea, Australia, India, the United States, Thailand, and Israel are among a growing list of nations working toward or already establishing tax guidelines for adopters.
Meanwhile, Spain’s ruling government is also preparing tax incentives to lure startups and companies from the crypto and blockchain sector to the country, with the added possibility of legislating initial coin offerings (ICOs) in a regulated manner. “We want to set up Europe’s safest framework to invest in ICOs,” lawmaker Teodoro Garcia Egae from the People’s Party (PP) said earlier this year.
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