Regulatory Series on Cryptocurrencies: Blox Comes-up With CPA Survey to Indicate Gaps in Crypto Tax Disclosure

Of-late, we’ve witnessed a global trend of regulatory tax bodies cracking down on crypto holders. Across the US and the UK in particular, authorities seem to be gearing up to release long-awaited guidelines on how to report on crypto-assets. The US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin voiced at the G20 summit in June 2018, seeking governments across the global perspectives in unison to prevent anonymous cryptocurrencies activities from becoming the next "Swiss bank account."

For now, Blox, a crypto accounting platform, released a survey, complete with a compilation of interviews with 20 leading crypto accounting and bookkeeping experts, revealing the biggest challenges and mistakes their clients make when it comes to reporting. 

Blox.io, an industry-leading platform for crypto accounting, management, and tracking, has released new research on the challenges faced by crypto holders and CPAs when accurately reporting to regulators. The report, titled “The Crypto CPA Insights Report,” is one of the first in-depth looks at the nascent crypto accounting industry, compiling insights from CPAs on the current hurdles that both individuals and businesses face when tracking and managing digital assets. As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) begins to crack down, the Blox report suggests that only 5% of CPAs believe their clients – both businesses and individuals – are able to accurately or completely disclose assets and transactions for tax reporting.

However, this lack of disclosure may or may not be intentional, as 98% of the CPAs surveyed stated that missing or inaccurate data was the number one crypto accounting mistake. In addition, almost all stated that a lack of understanding of crypto tax rules was a key challenge and that more government regulation and guidance was needed to direct prudent clients trying to do the right thing. 

Elsewhere, the tax officials from Australia, the US, Britain, the Netherlands, and Canada have formed a “J5” collaborative group now investigating 60 “lines of inquiry” regarding international tax evasion using cryptocurrencies.