Indonesia plans to charge value-added tax (VAT) on crypto asset transactions and an income tax on capital gains from such investments at 0.1 percent each, beginning from May 1, a tax official said on Friday, amid a boom in digital asset trading.
Interest in digital assets has surged in Southeast Asia’s largest economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of cryptocurrency asset holders jumping to 11 million by the end of 2021.
Last year’s total crypto asset transactions in commodity futures markets reached 859.4 trillion (roughly Rs. 4,54,440 crore), up more than 10 times from 2020’s transaction value, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency showed.
“Crypto assets will be subject to VAT because they are a commodity as defined by the trade ministry. They are not a currency,” the official, Hestu Yoga Saksama, told a media briefing. “So we will impose income tax and VAT.”
