Post
Topic
Board India
Re: [GUIDE] How Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies are taxed in India?
by
mooncoinman
on 21/03/2021, 05:38:53 UTC

Now let us say I'am free lancer i have paid $5000 in btc next i have converted it to other coins like eth

and sold and converted it to inr which one should i show the price for it returns i mean i should show $5000..?

And also does converter also treated as trader or investor.......?

Thanks!


If I am understanding correctly then you are saying that you received $5000 as your freelancing fees and then you invested that income in other coin, say ETH, right? Now read the details below carefully. I hope it will help you.

See in this situation, theoretically there are two taxable events arising:

  • First when you received freelancer payment, you made the income of $5000 hence tax is payable on $5000.
  • Second when you bought ETH, you are now investing as an investor. Imagine you sold ETH for $5500. So any profit you made over and above $5000 i.e. $500 will be taxable as capital gains.

This should be correct taxable treatment for your case:
  • Suppose exchange rate was $1 = ₹78  on the day when you received freelancer payment. Hence, your income will be 5000*78 = ₹3,90,000. So tax as per normal bracket is payable on ₹3,90,000
  • Suppose exchange rate was $1 = ₹75 when you finally sold the ETH. Hence, your profit on investment will be (5500*75) - (5000*78) = ₹22,500. So tax as per capital gains is payable on ₹22,500.



The above treatment I described is as per normal currency i.e. fiat currency i.e. INR or USD. However, we are dealing here with more complex issue i.e. cryptocurrency. So overall, we can eliminate first taxable event if we like as we are dealing in cryptocurrencies. Consider the following two situations:

Number One: You receive $5000 worth BTC in private wallet (such as MyCelium or Electrum) and then you send BTC to Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange where you haven't done KYC like Binance. Then you exchange ETH to BTC on Binance. Finally, you send those ETH to exchange like WazirX and convert those to INR.

Number Two: You receive $5000 worth BTC in Exchange wallet like WazirX directly. There you convert BTC to ETH and keep ETH on WazirX as well. Finally you sell ETH on WazirX for INR.

Now note: In case of 'Number Two' situation, you have to follow the treatment I described in first half of my post. You should consider your whole trade as two taxable events because you have done KYC with WazirX and they have record of your all transactions. But in case of 'Number One' situation, your first taxable event is completely anonymous so rather than showing whole trade as two taxable events, you can simply show the final conversion i.e. selling ETH for INR as you income and pay tax as per normal bracket on 5500*75 = ₹4,12,500. No need to show capital gain transaction at all.

I hope it clears most of your doubts.

First of all thank you webtricks for all that gold information. Crypto Noob here so hoping you can clear some of my doubts regarding this. Recently got into bitcoin and got myself registered on wazirx and binance to buy bitcoin and HODL, unfortunately I KYC'd on both and connected both the accounts. After doing some research on tax and other things, I realised it's better to buy it P2P, please correct me If I'm wrong here.

You mentioned that ""Since bitcoin has no legal/illegal status in India, you don't have to pay tax on keeping/holding bitcoin. You may have 0.001 or 100 BTC in your wallet but no tax to be levied as far as amount is kept in the form of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is currently considered at par with securities such as shares for taxation purpose." and  "Whenever you convert your crypto holding to Indian Rupee and you have made some profit/income, you have to pay tax"

So the question is if I'm planning to buy bitcoin via P2P, transfer it to my wallet and HODL for as long as I want and then when I want to sell it, transfer it to binance, convert BTC > USDT and then transfer it to wazirx and convert USDT > INR and withdraw it what will be the implications? will it be a one time taxable event? what is better way to approach this if I'm HODLing? should I resort to buying through exchanges? (I'm worried about the new cryptocurrency ban in India)

Also "Number One: You receive $5000 worth BTC in private wallet (such as MyCelium or Electrum) and then you send BTC to Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange where you haven't done KYC like Binance. Then you exchange ETH to BTC on Binance. Finally, you send those ETH to exchange like WazirX and convert those to INR."

Q. in the above case If KYC has been done with binance then how to proceed?

sorry for these noob questions, hope you can answer them, thanks.