What is Banxa
Banxa is a financial technology platform that primarily facilitates the purchasing and selling of crypto within applications or websites using local fiat payment methods. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Banxa is playing a significant role in enabling economic innovation through crypto infrastructure.
- Convenience and speed: Banxa offers Australian crypto investors a streamlined and intuitive checkout flow, and a simple 'on & off' ramp widget, making the crypto buying and selling process fast and efficient.
- Broad crypto support: The platform supports a wide range of blockchains, networks, and tokens providing Aussie investors with access to a diversified range of digital assets.
- Regulatory compliance: With a strong commitment to regulatory compliance, Banxa provides a secure and trusted environment for Australian crypto investors, ensuring that their transactions are within the purview of Australian law.
Do you have to pay tax on crypto?
After the ATO set crypto tax guidelines back back in 2014, it was clear: crypto is taxable.
As someone paying taxes in Australia, you must declare all your earnings, including any from crypto gains. This includes your crypto gains on Banxa and any other Australian or overseas crypto platforms.
ATO tax treatment of crypto
There are two types of assessable income that your Banxa investments are taxed on in Australia:
Capital Gains Tax (CGT): You’ll end up with capital gains whenever you purchase a crypto asset, and later sell it for a higher price. Capital gains and losses can result from trades, gifts, disposals and many other types of transactions.
Example: You buy Polygon on Banxa and later sell it, creating a Capital Gain that you must pay CGT on.
Ordinary Income: You can easily end up earning income from a number of sources such as referrals, rewards, earn programs and many more. These sources of income must be declared on your income tax return.
Example: You receive an airdrop on Banxa, causing Ordinary Income which must be declared.
Crypto tax isn't always straightforward. Make sure you have all your records and understand how to calculate what you owe. This helps prevent an unwanted ATO audit
Penalties for not declaring tax
The ATO, equipped with a $3.6 billion yearly budget, is responsible for Australia's tax administration. It employs a specialised Black Economy Taskforce to crack down on the shadow economy, including undeclared crypto. Failing to declare taxes in Australia carries serious penalties, including fines, interest charges, and even criminal prosecution for tax evasion.
Investors on Banxa who skip declaring their crypto income are under tremendous risk. The good news is, Australia has one of the highest rates of tax adherence, with over 93.7% of taxpayers fulfilling their obligations, making those attempting to evade taxes a tiny minority.
Even being late to lodge your tax can be risky, putting you into bad standing with the ATO and the Australian Government, and increasing the likelihood of a review or audit. You’ll also find it much harder to get a loan or borrow for a home mortgage.
Does Banxa report transactions to the ATO?
Banxa is an Australian registered entity, Global Internet Ventures Pty Ltd (ABN 82 160 820 315). As an Australian digital currency exchange, it's a legal requirement for Banxa to register with AUSTRAC, perform KYC and know the identity of their customers. This is important for preventing scammers and criminal activity.
Since 2019 the ATO has been operating a data sharing program with Australian Digital Currency Exchanges. Under the data sharing program, Banxa must provide transaction data of their users to the ATO.
In short, the ATO knows about your transaction history on Banxa.
You’ll know the ATO has your crypto transaction data, as it will show in the prefill report on your tax return. That means it's important that you do calculate and declare your crypto gains, otherwise it’s only a matter of time before you end up under audit by the ATO.
ATO record keeping requirements
To complete your crypto taxes each year, there’s some important records that you need to keep. Having these records will help you to calculate and declare your crypto tax, and are also your evidence if you need to prove how your crypto tax was calculated.
The ATO record keeping requirements for crypto require you to keep the following:
- receipts when you buy, transfer or dispose of crypto assets
- a record of the date of each transaction
- a record of what the transaction is for and who the other party is (this can just be their crypto asset address)
- exchange records
- a record of the value of the crypto asset in Australian dollars at the time of each transaction
- records of agent, accountant and legal costs
- digital wallet records and keys
- a record of software costs that relate to managing your tax affairs
The ATO has also advised that records should be kept for at least 5 years.
Banxa Account Statements
All reputable digital currency exchanges have account statements available to download, as they are required to ensure you can meet your record keeping requirements in Australia.
You can find your Banxa account statements by logging in to your account and searching for them.
You'll want to export a complete record of your:
- trades,
- deposits,
- withdrawals,
- and any other transactions.
If you're having trouble finding your account statements then reach out to Banxa support for assistance.
Having your records is just step one, because now you’ll need to calculate the tax outcomes for each and every transaction. You’ll need to make sure you do it accurately, or you’ll be at increased risk from the ATO.
How is crypto taxed on Banxa?
We all know that crypto is taxed, but the exact tax treatment can vary. Understanding exactly how your different crypto transactions are taxed can not only help you meet your tax obligations, but it can actually help you to make smarter investment decisions.
Important: In the following sections we are considering the tax treatment of an individual investor. If you’re a trader or a different entity such as a Company, Trust or SMSF, your tax treatment may vary.
Buy and sell crypto
Capital Gains
When you buy crypto on Banxa, it is a purchase of a CGT asset for tax purposes. Whenever you purchase a CGT asset you must record and track the cost base.
When you later sell crypto, you’ll need to record the proceeds from the sale. By subtracting the original cost base from the proceeds, you'll be able to calculate and declare the resulting capital gain or loss.
The basic idea works like this:
- If your crypto went up: declare the increase in value as a capital gain.
- If your crypto went down: report the decrease in value as a capital loss.
- If you held crypto over 12 months: it’s eligible for the 50% CGT discount.
The calculations for CGT can get very complicated, which is why our tax team wrote an in-depth guide on how to calculate CGT on crypto.
Foreign currency
Foreign Currency Gains
If you've deposited or traded foreign currencies such as JPY, NZD, CAD on Banxa, then you’ll need to calculate your foreign currency gains and losses.
Foreign currencies are treated differently to crypto. In Australian tax law, foreign currencies are treated under Division 775 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. Instead of capital gains and losses, you’ll have foreign currency gains and losses.
Just like your crypto investments, you’ll need to calculate and declare your foreign currency gains and you can claim any foreign currency losses.
Watch out: Treating foreign currency as crypto is a common mistake from less accurate tax software. Make sure your crypto tax software actually handles foreign currencies correctly, otherwise they are putting you at risk with the ATO.
How to do your Banxa taxes
By now, you've likely realised there can be a lot to crypto tax, and getting it done correctly can be tricky. Let’s find out how you can actually get your Banxa tax sorted.
ATO tax lodgement deadline
Our Australian financial year starts on the 1 July and ends on the 30 June each year, and you can prepare and lodge your tax return anytime after the 30 June up to 31 October.
The tax deadline for individual taxpayers is 31 October. Once you go past that date, your tax return is overdue, and your risk of penalties is increasing.
There is one way that you can easily extend your lodgement deadline though. You can receive an extended lodgement deadline till 15 May when lodging through a registered tax agent.
Some taxpayers find themselves with years of overdue tax returns. Unfortunately, the problem won’t just go away by ignoring it, and it’s only getting bigger in the meantime. With the ATO no doubt using the data collected from Banxa more effectively each year, it’s only a matter of time before they catch up with you.
If you do have overdue tax returns, then it’s always worth working with a good tax accountant. They’ll be able to help you get your tax affairs back up to date. In many cases, investors can even end up receiving tax refunds from years of unlodged tax returns.
Self-lodge vs using an Accountant
When lodging your tax return, there’s two ways to go about it. Self-lodge yourself through myTax (myGov), or by lodging through a tax agent.
Self-lodging your tax return is definitely more affordable, as it means you don’t have to pay for an accountant. However, you’ll need to be much more careful about how you calculate and declare your tax outcomes. Follow our comprehensive guide to self-lodging your crypto tax.
Using an Accountant does cost more, but it will save you a lot of headache, and you won’t have to worry whether your tax return was done correctly. You’ll also have someone you can ask questions and get tax advice from. If your crypto activity is particularly complex, then it might be worth looking at a crypto tax specialist to help you.
Regardless of which approach you take, you’ll need some type of tax software for recording your crypto transactions and calculating the tax outcomes.
If you’re an Australian taxpayer, then it’s advisable to use tax software built specifically for Australia, otherwise the tax calculations may not be done correctly, putting you at risk with the ATO
How to select crypto tax software
When it comes to managing crypto taxes in Australia, choosing the right software is crucial for compliance and ease of use.
Tax regulations and compliance requirements vary significantly across jurisdictions, and what works in one country may not be suitable in another. Australian crypto investors need tax software that is specifically tailored to the unique aspects of Australian tax law. It's essential that the software not only calculates these taxes accurately but also updates its tax logic as tax laws evolve.
Ensure the crypto tax software is built specifically for Australia. Otherwise you may declare your tax incorrectly or overpay more tax than required.
You should also check for the software’s ability to integrate with popular Australian and international crypto exchanges. Having good support for Banxa is a must, but you should also consider any other platforms you trade on.
Quality integrations are vital for maintaining accurate and complete records of all your crypto activities.
Crypto tax is complex, so having software that is user-friendly and intuitive will be a big help. Look for software that generates detailed, ATO-compliant reports which can be directly used for tax filings or shared with your accountant. You should also consider the level of customer support offered, and whether it's actually coming from an Australian support team.
If you don't have tax software for your crypto yet, then sign up for an account with Syla. It's the only tax software built exclusively for Australian crypto investors, and it has an assisted file import process for Banxa.
Using crypto tax software
Crypto tax software is designed to make doing your crypto taxes much simpler. The software will calculate all the tax outcomes for you, so you only need to import your transactions, make any edits as required, and download your final crypto tax report. All the complicated tax calculations are automatically done for you.
It’s really easy using Syla to do your crypto tax:
- Get started with a free account.
- Add Banxa as a data source and import your transactions.
- Add any other platforms and wallets.
- Review your transactions.
- Download your Crypto Tax Report.
Syla does all the heavy lifting for you. Your transactions will be imported and the tax calculations will be done for you. When using LTFO tax optimisation you can even achieve lower tax outcomes than you normally would.
Once you've downloaded your crypto tax report from Syla, you can either give it to your tax agent, or you can use it to self-lodge your own tax return.
Importing transactions from Banxa
The first step to getting your crypto tax sorted is to import your transactions from Banxa.
Syla supports an assisted file import process for Banxa.
File Import
Using a File Import is an effective way to import all your transactions on Banxa as it’s safe and easy to do.
If you get stuck, we also have an Assisted File Import process.
Download your crypto tax report
Once you have all your transactions imported into Syla, you can view them, make edits if needed and import any other Data Sources that you have.
After you’re happy with everything, you can download your Crypto Tax Report.
ATO crypto tax report
Tax software for Banxa
It's very difficult to correctly calculate all the tax outcomes of your crypto by hand unless you're a tax accountant.
If you are using a tax accountant, then you probably don’t want them doing it by hand either, as it's going to take a long time and cost a lot.
That’s where using crypto tax software can save you a lot of time and money, that you'd rather spend doing something else. 😊
Syla is the only crypto tax software designed specifically and only for Australia. Syla not only calculates all your tax outcomes to ensure you are ATO compliant, but it also optimises your tax to ensure you pay the lowest crypto tax legally possible, saving you both time and money.
- Best value - $59 AUD for 10,000 transactions.
- Absolute certainty - purpose-built for Australian tax law.
- Maximise your tax savings - using Syla's proprietary LTFO method.
👉 Get started for free.
