Indian Income Tax Department Sends Summons To Crypto Holders

While we sit tight awaiting judgement on the cryptocurrency case involving the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) v/s the entire crypto community in India, the crackdown has already begun on members.One of the largest cryptocurrency communities in India, IndiaBits stated that an individual has received an IT notice from the Income Tax Department. According to the group, it appears that this notice is similar to the ones that were sent to cryptocurrency holders last year.⚠️ Indian Income Tax Department Again Sending Notices To Cryptocurrency Traders & Investors ℹ️ This is why Crypto needs positive regulations in India. Unsuspecting traders and investors are being dragged into the complexities of Income Tax assessment. pic.twitter.com/uXi6u3kzer— IndiaBits (@indiabits21) July 30, 2019The questions on the form which, from the photograph, appeared to be some kind of summons, asked several questions such as source of income, explanations of income tax return of last three financial years from 2016-2019.Other questions included, “Please explain, since when you have been dealing with cryptocurrencies, in which bitcoin/cryptocurrencies/exchanges you have accounts. In India as well as abroad. Submit the details, what was your source of income for the initial investment in cryptocurrencies,” among others. Some of the questions pertaining to which exchanges, the recipient was using were also asked. The IT office wants to know if holders are using exchanges such as Coinbase and LocalBitcoins and how are they carrying out transactions.We had covered a similar story last July when the Income Tax was sending notices to individual cryptocurrency holders. At the time, we had reported that a notice which was signed by MK Pandey, the deputy director at the Income tax department mentioned that a user was liable to be taxed if, “One has offered profits generated out of transactions in cryptocurrency for taxation in any year.”A cryptocurrency holder will also have to submit details of the unique wallet ID of himself as well as his family members of all the exchanges where he/they may hold an account both in india as well as abroad.Crypto-News India view: Given that the proposed bill has not yet become a law and the Supreme Court judgement is still where it was, we wonder how appropriate is this kind of ‘arm-twisting’. Again, NO RULE HAS BEEN PASSED AGAINST CRYPTO TRADING.Liked what you read? Join us on Telegram