OECD Says It Is Working on Crypto Tax Reporting Standards for 2021

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looks set to adopt an international set of standards that will change the way crypto taxes are reported – and the body is ready to apply the same kind of tax standards as it uses to police conventional finance in its efforts to tax crypto.

Per Law360, Pascal Saint-Amans, the director of the OECD’s center for tax policy and administration, claimed there was “broad agreement” among the relevant policy-makers that there was a “need for a standard for cryptoassets similar” to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), adopted to help wipe out tax evasion in the conventional finance world in 2014.

The media outlet quoted Saint-Amans as stating,

“Fundamentally, the idea is to have a standard which would be roughly equivalent to the CRS, if it is not the CRS.”

And the director added that the “timeline to deliver” is “probably sometime in 2021,” as all member states now had “an appetite” to introduce a standard.

Indeed, taxing crypto earnings appears to have become something of an issue du jour for the OECD, which last month published a far-reaching report and held a “deep dive” session on the matter.

The OECD has claimed in its most recent research that regulatory efforts thus far have largely focused on anti-money laundering and terrorism funding related matters – often at the expense of considering crypto tax matters and fighting crypto-related tax evasion.

Forkast.News quotes Grace Perez-Navarro, the deputy director of the same OECD tax board, as stating,

“Considerable scope remains to improve guidance on tax treatments, particularly in the emerging areas of stablecoins, proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms, and decentralized finance.”

But the waters may be muddied by the fact that so great is the “appetite” to tax crypto more effectively that member states – or blocs of nations – have already begun working on their own standards.

The EU has recently stated that it was considering altering its directive on administrative cooperation (DAC) tax reporting standards to include crypto – with announcements slated for the third quarter of next year.

Both the EU and the OECD told Law360 that they did not believe their respective work would hinder the other party, however – although there were suggestions that this might not quite prove to be the case.

Saint-Amans was quoted as saying that the OECD’s work would be “complementary” to the EU’s efforts, but claimed that the OECD version would be ready first, providing “the opportunity for the EU to align with our standard.”

The European Commission told the same media outlet that it was working “to avoid overlaps or inconsistencies to the extent possible,” but added,

“At the same time, the specific situation of the EU and its member states needs to be taken into account. We will endeavor to take on board any OECD work on tax transparency for cryptocurrencies that is compatible with the EU framework when developing the EU approach.”

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