The Finnish government has revealed the number of taxpayers who owe taxes from bitcoin-related income. The country’s Tax Administration claims to have “different ways to combine information and identify people” who owe taxes from crypto profits, which are now “well over ten times higher than last year.”
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Most Finns Have Not Paid Taxes on Crypto Gains
Most Finns have not reported income to the country’s tax department from the sale of cryptocurrencies in previous years, Kauppalehti newspaper reported last week. This year, “the profits made by Finns from cryptocurrencies were well over ten times higher than last year,” the news outlet added.
Senior Adviser from the Tax Administration’s Corporate Taxation Unit, Timo Puiro, detailed:
The majority of people have previously failed to report their bitcoin-related income, which we have found when we compare the information we collect to the tax information reported…The Tax Administration has extensive access to information, for example, to payment information, and we have different ways to combine information and identify people.
Metropolitan.fi elaborated, “the tax office has been given generous access to bank transfers and other data, which enables identifying people. By matching the transfers it is evident that in the past most citizens have not reported profits made with virtual currencies.”
Finland, with its cold weather and low-cost nuclear-based power, is no stranger to bitcoin mining. Both Bitfury and the now-defunct Kncminer have operated mining farms in the country. Today many smaller miners are still in business there. Other well-established crypto businesses are also located in the country, such as Localbitcoins and leading Nordic bitcoin broker Prasos.
Tax Department 30 Million Euros in the Hole
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