On 13 September 2023, IOTA successfully gave a fresh start to the autumn season of its Work Programme 2023 with an engaging Webinar on “International Approaches to Virtual Currency”. Over 300 participants from 30 IOTA member tax administrations gathered in the virtual space to deepen their knowledge of virtual currencies, learn more about the latest trends, and new challenges in terms of risk analysis, and how IOTA member administrations approach the tax treatment of virtual currency.
Digitalisation of money is rapidly changing along with the understanding of what a virtual currency is and how it operates. The concept of virtual currency in the form of crypto assets based on blockchain technology quite differs from the initial purposes.
Various operations with virtual currency as new payment measures emerge in practice, new business development models, and new methods to attract funds, become a financial instrument for speculation and gaining income. Thus, approaches to virtual currency differ according to each country’s national legislation and other particular circumstances. Operations on virtual currency exploit the loopholes in national legislation with the constant risk of evasion and illegal activities.
At the Webinar, the following subjects were covered by IOTA country presentations:
- Lithuania: “Taxation of Cryptocurrency Income of Natural Persons in Lithuania” presented by Vaidas Maksvytis;
- United Kingdom: “UK’s approach to crypto assets” presented by Dr. Liang Tang and Philippa Lewis;
- Finland: “From data to results” presented by Juho Hasa
Webinar participants were actively involved and raised numerous questions in the Q&A session, as they also shared their views and reflected on the poll questions during the digital event. All the materials and presentations are now available online and the event recording will be uploaded soon to the event’s webpage. This webinar was moderated by the IOTA International Taxation Experts Massimo Morarelli and Ivana Donchevska. Due to the moving of the IOTA Studio and the Secretariat, the event was broadcast live via MS Teams.
