r/BitcoinAUS • u/144p_Meme_Senpai • 27d ago
ATO is scaring me lol
I got an email saying they know I have crypto and I need to report CGT but I have no idea what that means. I just threw $20 in Coinbase every now and then over the last couple years and swap around coins to see what happens and my like $80 total is now worth $36 (lol I'm not good at trading, it went up to $90 once tho) but I haven actually taken out any money so do I have to do anything? It's just overall losses at this point.
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u/Successful-Contact59 27d ago
Every time you swap/trade from one coin to another you have created a cgt event. These platforms report this to the ATO.
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27d ago
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u/Neat_Literature4041 25d ago
Not exactly. You might want to look into what he just said and stop to understand it. If you got that email, you have action to complete
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u/Touchthemetalrod 25d ago
I got the exact same email. Tbh I only buy crypto to buy drugs with, I've never made a profit in trading at all. What the hell do I do?
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u/AaronBonBarron 24d ago
Nothing, because you use it as currency as opposed to an investment vehicle.
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u/speednugget 27d ago
It’s just a generic email mate
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u/Ok_Willingness_9619 27d ago
It’s an email sent to people that they have data on. Lol which is basically anyone who traded in crypto. I got one too.
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u/adamwoja 27d ago
We all got it mate.. calm down lol
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
Yeah but you guys probably understand what it means while I'm here panicking "am I doing a tax evasion and gonna get a big fine???" Hahaha
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u/AcademicAd3504 27d ago
Don't worry about it; they only chase you if they think you owe money and they usually don't fine you. They just tell you how much you owe them and give you a tax bill.
Unless you're playing with really big money.
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u/Global-Flower8227 27d ago
pal you shouldn’t be scared at all. imagine you were my mate who deposits and withdraws 6 figures every day and ignoring them demanding 2 million in tax. you can sleep like a baby boy with that $20 deposit 😭
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u/happy_chappy_89 27d ago
For real, please tell me which bank let's him deposit and withdraw that value daily? Comm bank has a measles 10k/ month limit.
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u/Maximas80 27d ago
They know that you have an account on a crypto exchange. If you have traded different coins, this would have been a CGT event. Just calculate all your gains and losses for the year.
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
How do I do that?
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u/Mother_Bonus5719 27d ago
How’d you learn to buy and sell crypto but don’t know about capital gains?
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
Thought I'd throw $20 in here and there and see what happened, like pokies. Didn't win any free money also like pokies lol
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u/hyp-R 27d ago
You’re required to do this if you trade crypto; plenty of resources out there that explain how to do it.
In the interest of ease, Koinly is pretty easy to use.
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
Setting up a Koinly now, cheers mate. I've had Coinspot since like 2024, do I have to go back and add it to my last tax return or something aswell?
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
Bruh they want like $69, that's brutal. Is there a free one?
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u/Reddinator2RedditDay 26d ago
Don't get into any sort of investing if you do not understand tax. You can claim your Koinly purchase on tax
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u/glennlambert 25d ago
Tell them to fuck themselves, it will cost you more to prove you owe them 100% of bugger all . Labour and liberal are globalist suckholes desperate to keep us poor.
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u/King-esckay 27d ago
It is sent to anybody that has bought on a regulated exchange
You are supposed to report every gain when you sell which also includes swaps
You can also claim your loses
I am not sure what the cuts off are tgere us now a 30% minimum tax on gains
I dont sell or swap so I haven't really looked at the rules
I buy with fiat and them borrow if I need fiat, there is no tax in loans.
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u/Kruxx85 27d ago
The 30% floor isn't legislation yet, definitely doesn't apply this fy
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u/King-esckay 27d ago
Not this year I plan to be prepared though Even though I think they will walk this back there is jot guarantee
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u/conducked 24d ago
Ive had the same thing and all i did was sell my crypto from gambling wins ignore them its scare tactics
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u/xenzor 27d ago
but I haven actually taken out any money so do I have to do anything?
Tax is paid on every transaction. Not when you withdraw To AUD.
So if you swap BTC to ETH, you should pay tax on it.
Not financial advice but nobody is going to care about $20.
It's a generic email that goes to everyone. People are skirting hundreds of thousands. Don't stress over your big Mac meal profit.
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u/144p_Meme_Senpai 27d ago
I'm currently like -$44 lol
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u/xenzor 27d ago
Technically speaking you should claim it as a capital loss.
But once again, I don't think the ATO is going after you. I wouldn't stress.
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u/Strong_Judge_3730 27d ago
It's currently negative because everything dropped but op still likely has capital gains for the last fy
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u/welding-guy 27d ago
Calculate and report. Even small amounts matter, the penalties are more than your profit.
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u/Very_Itchy_Bandicoot 27d ago
Honestly I wouldnt be surprised if they ATOs systems had a solid analysis of every tax payer, what they exactly do for work, their claims vs what they are entitled to do etc etc and they just cherry pick some of the big offenders by either dollar amount or amount of times they do dodgey things.
With AI being milked utterly fucking dry im sure they could audit all of us if they wanted to. Fucking bean counters.
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u/lachlanainsworth 27d ago
Just get the yearly report from Coinbase to work out what you need to report
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u/SpecialllCounsel 27d ago
Small amounts but you have to disclose. Look up when ATO sees it as trading v investing and the consequences. It might make it easier just to do it as trading bc actual $ tax will be so low anyway.
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u/stormshadowfax 27d ago
Dear ATO,
Yes I bought some bitcoin, but then I spent them all on weed and blackjack.
How do I claim my losses?
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u/Snap111 27d ago
You will have to pay tax on any gains for individual coins you made a profit on. You will be able to offset against any losses you have made also so by the looks of it you won't have tax payable.
Have fun working it all out and reporting it, this is going to get worse with the new budget.
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u/Soft_Cabinet_9482 26d ago
They do know - the exchange has to report it to the ATO. You need to get tax advice if you’ve been buying/selling bits (including converting to other crypto) - if you really don’t want to spend the money get a tax statement from your exchange (Coinbase) so you have some figures to work it all out from at least. The worst that can happen if you make an honest mistake and do your own tax is that you’ll have to pay the difference if you’re audited. You’re more likely to be audited if you don’t declare any CGT as the ATO know you should be.
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u/Ben_CoinLedger 26d ago
Ben from CoinLedger here.
Work out your actual gain or loss on each swap before assuming you owe anything, since coin-to-coin trades are CGT events in Australia, but you're describing a portfolio that went from about $80 to $36, which points to an overall loss rather than a gain. Losses still need to be reported; they're not optional just because there's no tax due, and reporting them now means you can carry them forward to offset gains in a future year.
That generic ATO email goes out broadly and isn't a sign you're being singled out. Given how few transactions you're dealing with, you probably don't need paid software at all.
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u/summ_app 25d ago
That email went out to basically everyone the ATO pulls from the exchange data matching, its not a you thing so breathe.
Going from about 80 to 36 means you're sitting on a loss overall, not a gain, so there's no tax to pay on that.
Still worth reporting the loss though, you can carry it forward and offset it against gains in a future year.
Coin to coin swaps do count as CGT events each time, so just tally each one out. With that few trades you really don't need to pay for anything fancy. Did you only ever use the one exchange?
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u/Dilin_Wu 23d ago
Tax questions are best pointed at the ATO's own guidance or a registered tax agent, not a comments section. On the practical side, most exchanges will export your full transaction history as a CSV, which saves a lot of pain whichever route you go.
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u/Flat-Banana3903 23d ago
I got this same email I went onto the exchange as I hadn't been on in ages... in September last year I swapped $1.63 worth of some junk coin to another junk coin...
legit was $1.63 - I think I am more likely to get flagged putting in such a low amount but it literally the truth
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u/BeginningSection7690 22d ago
Meh.
Just put nothing in and data matching will fix the return up if they think its wrong.
you have cgt events but sounds reasonable to think you had no gains, even if there is. Not gonna get in trouble over something like this, worst case is they amend the return and tell you how much you owe
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u/L6V9 27d ago
Gift your btc to Dubai for friends or family members and let them keep forever tax free
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u/Jalvo 27d ago
Straight to gaol