Australia's Department of the Treasury launches consultation on 2027 crypto tax reporting and Common Reporting Standard reforms

Australia's Department of the Treasury has released draft legislation for consultation to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, establish a Domestic Crypto Reporting Regime and update the Common Reporting Standard. The measures would expand tax authorities' visibility of crypto transactions and align Australia's financial account reporting rules with current international standards from 2027. The draft would allow international tax reporting frameworks to be prescribed by regulation, with ministerial rules setting reporting entities, transactions, information, due diligence, reporting periods and administrative penalties. Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework providers would collect information for the 2027 calendar year, with their first reports due to the Commissioner of Taxation in 2028. Separately, registrable virtual asset service providers would report exchanges and transfers involving Australian tax residents for financial years or other specified periods beginning on or after July 1, 2027. Quarterly reporting is intended, although annual reporting would apply unless the Commissioner specifies another period. The Common Reporting Standard changes would extend coverage to specified electronic money products, central bank digital currencies and indirect investments in crypto-assets, while strengthening reporting and due diligence requirements. They would also exclude specified electronic money products with a rolling 90-day average value not exceeding USD 10,000, permit qualifying nonprofit entities to be treated as nonreporting institutions and remove scholarship plans from the excluded account category. Reporting financial institutions would face a one penalty unit administrative penalty for failures involving self-certification validation or required action following changed circumstances.