Canada Plans to Launch Audits Against Bitcoin Tax Evaders
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is targeting Bitcoin investors as well as other cryptocurrency users with federal tax audits reportedly.
The CRA has also sent questionnaires to determine the previous trading and investing activity.
With many investors using KYC-enabled exchanges which store ID and trading history, it’s likely that the audits will uncover all past trading activity in some cases.
Jared Adams, CRA Project Oversight Director took to Twitter to comment on the use case of Bitcoin as a money laundering vehicle.
The CRA director retweeted a post made by Francis Pouliot, the CEO of Canadian crypto firm Bull Bitcoin. Pouliot’s post, which was tweeted to tens of thousands of supporters, described the process of cashing bitcoins into Canadian dollars “without using a bank account, P2P platform, or Bitcoin ATM”.
CRA director Adams stated that he was taking note of the comment, and added another tweet saying “washingmachine.gif.”
Pouliot challenged the CRA directors efforts at accusing him of money laundering through a meme, stating the fact that hundreds of Canadians have been denied basic banking services simply for legally using Bitcoin. He said his tweet was aimed as advice for such people.