Azerbaijan’s Taxes Ministry Says Crypto Revenue Is Subject To Taxation

Revenue from crypto-to-fiat transactions will be subject to taxation in Azerbaijan, local news outlet Trend reported Saturday, May 5. Nijat Imanov of the country’s Taxes Ministry outlined the new measures during the second Finance and Investment Forum (FIF 2018) in Baku Saturday.

During the Forum, Imanov stated:

“This is formalized as a profit tax for legal entities and income tax for individuals. If someone bought a cryptocurrency and then sold it after its price increased, this amount is recorded as income and therefore should be attracted to taxation.”

Trend further reports that the Azerbaijani cryptocurrency market has seen significant growth between May and December 2017, with crypto trading becoming an increasingly popular means of income.

Crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat trading, as well as mining, are recognized as taxable events in most countries, falling under either income or profit (known as capital gains) taxation laws. France, for example, has recently brought most cases of crypto trading – excluding mining and ‘industrial level’ trading – under capital gains laws, taxed at a 19 percent flat rate, as opposed to income tax evaluations which can be as high as 45 percent.

The American tax authority, the IRS – which treats cryptocurrency as property and the purchase, sale, trade, and mining of crypto as taxable events – recently required major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase to hand over customer data, after concerns that many traders were failing to file tax returns on their gains.