“It’s absurd.” These are the words of a crypto trader after the Swedish tax watchdog slapped him with a 300 percent tax on crypto proceeds made between 2014 and 2016.

The Swedish Tax Agency has increased its hunt on cryptocurrency traders who have earned millions in crypto proceeds. Linus Dunkers is one such trader who has been trading Bitcoin and other virtual currencies since 2014. Now, the Swedish tax watchdog demands that Dunkers should pay close to one million U.S dollars in tax for crypto trades worth more than 2.5 million U.S dollars.

Dunkers said that:

It’s absurd. I will pay 300 percent of the profit instead of 30 percent, it should not be legal… Instead of encouraging people to do the right thing, they encourage people to hide.

According to the control coordinator at the tax agency, Henrik Kiestrud:

We should not go here and say that we are 100% safe. But we think we have a good basis in these investigations where we have made judgments about business activities… In the control we have made in 2018, there have been some unrecognized activities. It motivates that we continue to make controls in 2019.

On the case of Linus, his crypto proceeds are being taxed differently – instead of personal gains, the watchdog is considering them as proceeds from a business activity which naturally raises the percentage of tax paid.

Another reason why Linus’s crypto proceeds attract a higher tax is that “he did not deduct the purchase price when he bought Bitcoin with cash.”

The tax authority is including crypto proceeds made in 2014 when Sweden did not have a clear regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies.

Do you think crypto traders across the globe are confused on how to file tax returns on their crypto proceeds due to unclear laws?

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