How crypto investors are living with 30% tax

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Your gain is my gain, but your loss is not my loss: This is perhaps the feeling among many Indian crypto investors about the government's stand on taxing crypto gains at 30%, the highest slab, but not allowing losses to be offset against other income. If you had invested Rs 1 lakh in Bitcoin a year ago and sold it now, you would get back just about Rs 56,000 as the token's price has fallen. However, this 44% loss will not be adjustable against other income while filing taxes. As a result of this double whammy, many investors have started to explore ways to minimise the tax impact. «Crypto investors don't seem to be happy with the 30% tax. Many say it may have dampened the excitement around Indian crypto investments,» said Vihang Virkar, partner at Lumiere Law Partners. The tax has forced most investors and startups to take a relook at their strategies. Many backers are looking to hold their assets for the long term and have stopped daily trading. This trend, in turn, has hurt crypto exchanges' volumes and revenue.

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«One of the ideas that investors seem to be toying with is trading through decentralised crypto exchanges. These are blockchain-based applications that facilitate peer-to-peer (P) trading of cryptocurrencies,» Virkar said. According to industry players, the shift to decentralised exchanges is happening at the cost of the popular centralised ones in India, which collect KYC data from customers. Volumes at popular crypto exchanges