Taxing Digital Assets Does Not Give Legality To Such Transactions: CBDT Chief

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Taxing crypto assets will not provide any legality to their transactions, CBDT chief has said

The budget announcement of taxing 'virtual digital assets' or crypto currencies will help the income tax department measure the "depth" of this trade in the country, know the investors and the nature of their investments and it does not "attach any legality" to these transactions, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman J B Mohapatra said.

He said that this is "the right time" for the taxman to enter this arena, about which, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government was undertaking a stakeholders' consultation to frame a national policy and regulator in the coming days.

Stating that there has been a "phenomenal increase" in transactions in virtual digital assets, Ms Sitharaman announced in her budget speech that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent along with some other direct tax measures like application of tax deduction at source (TDS) provisions.

"The department does not sit in judgement over the legality of any transaction. The income-tax department and the income-tax Act only looks at whether the transactions that you have entered into are resulting in income. We are not into legality of any income but we are into the taxing of that income." "That is the reason, I would say, that taxing crypto currency under the new legislation does not attach any legality...it does not...," Mr Mohapatra said in a post-budget interview.

The crypto trade or the digital assets transactions "do not ipso facto become legal or regular just because you have paid taxes on that", he said.

"The regulation policy on a national level (for crypto currency) is under work