UK Won’t Excuse Ignorance in the Hunt for Unpaid Crypto Taxes, Experts Say
The United Kingdom is cracking down on unpaid crypto taxes. Investors may not know that they owe the government money, but ignorance won’t work as an excuse, tax advisors told CoinDesk. In fact, the government could employ several different tactics to track down who’s not paying taxes or hiding crypto holdings, David Lesperance, founder of tax advisory firm Lesperance and Associates, told CoinDesk in an interview.
On Wednesday, the country's Treasury asked crypto investors to voluntarily calculate and disclose any unpaid income or capital gains taxes to avoid penalties or additional interest. Disclosure requirements apply to exchange tokens like bitcoin (BTC), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and utility tokens. Some investors may not have even read the guidance or realized that their NFT trades could constitute taxable events, Dion Seymour, crypto and digital asset technical director at tax firm Andersen, told CoinDesk in an interview. "The Treasury is going to say, okay, if you're going to make us look for you, it's gonna cost you," Lesperance said.
