Thailand puts on hold 15% crypto capital gains tax following strong public opposition
The Thai government has decided suspending the implementation of its 15 per cent tax on cryptocurrency capital gains tax for the time being. The proposal for this tax had been presented earlier in 2022, leading to great opposition.
As traders in the country expressed strong opposition to the decision, Thailand has announced it would not proceed with the 15 per cent tax plan for now, as reported in The Financial Times. Discussing about income taxes, Thai tax officials have said that the earned profits from cryptocurrency trading or mining would be taxable as capital gains.
The Thai Revenue Department had proposed its intention of tightening the oversight of cryptocurrency trading after it witnessed a substantial increase in both the size and value of the market in 2021. Industry stakeholders, however, have issued dire warnings that the heavy taxation might stifle the future development of the newly emerging sector.
The Thai Finance Ministry had first announced its plan of taxing the crypto market in January, but it was back then considered difficult to be brought into practice. For instance, it hadn’t been made clear if the taxes would be levied on annual reports or whether the Thai government would force exchanges into deducting them at the source.
The previous week, The Bank of Thailand, Ministry of Finance, and the Securities and Exchange Commission had announced that they would soon provide regulations for particular digital assets that do not endanger the country’s financial system.
Where cryptocurrencies regulation is concerned, the governments are focused on taxation to ensure better investor protection and anti-money laundering. Owing to the increasing popularity of DeFi and NFTs, the asset class has been experiencing a significant expansion of adoption in recent years.
Several nations, especially South Korea, has been considering how they can tax the cryptocurrency market. After facing a lot of resistance, South Korea has currently delayed its crypto tax plan until 2023.
