Because, unlike at the stock market, the government provides no assurances regarding any part of the crypto trade that is being made. When things go south, fraud happens in crypto, government is pretty much zero help in most countries of the world at most times.
I imagine if it turned out you never possessed any AMD or Nvidia stocks and all of that was just fake number on a fake piece of paper there would be serious government involvement pretty much everywhere.
Also on more practical note, a single sale of crypto can really be a 50 sales to 50 people at various prices. Calculating gain is virutally unworkable. Especially between crypto pairs where the value of one or the other isn't really known.
When you sell NVidia stock and buy AMD it's a sale and a purchase. But if somebody gave you some AMD stock for your NVIDIA stock, there's no sale or purchase and the value of each is only a guess.
That's why reasonable countries decided it's way better to tax stuff on exit to fiat, via conversion or purchase. And it works just fine. When it's crypto it remains Miki Mouse money, but when it exits to fiat and there's more of it than was put in, there's real and taxable gain.
The lack of comparable regulation isn’t a good argument for (or against) regulation. All regulation was born at some point. It’s not all-or-nothing.
You example about trading equities (gifting? sharing?) is wrong. You owe tax on trading your stock for another stock. Even if you circumvent a broker and deal in literal certificates. This is a disposition in the eyes of every major tax authority. There are very few exceptions (rollovers or corporate reorganization are some examples). Difficulty in calculating the FMV of the disposition is entirely your problem.
scotty79|3 months ago
I imagine if it turned out you never possessed any AMD or Nvidia stocks and all of that was just fake number on a fake piece of paper there would be serious government involvement pretty much everywhere.
Also on more practical note, a single sale of crypto can really be a 50 sales to 50 people at various prices. Calculating gain is virutally unworkable. Especially between crypto pairs where the value of one or the other isn't really known.
When you sell NVidia stock and buy AMD it's a sale and a purchase. But if somebody gave you some AMD stock for your NVIDIA stock, there's no sale or purchase and the value of each is only a guess.
That's why reasonable countries decided it's way better to tax stuff on exit to fiat, via conversion or purchase. And it works just fine. When it's crypto it remains Miki Mouse money, but when it exits to fiat and there's more of it than was put in, there's real and taxable gain.
nebezb|3 months ago
You example about trading equities (gifting? sharing?) is wrong. You owe tax on trading your stock for another stock. Even if you circumvent a broker and deal in literal certificates. This is a disposition in the eyes of every major tax authority. There are very few exceptions (rollovers or corporate reorganization are some examples). Difficulty in calculating the FMV of the disposition is entirely your problem.