The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued a capital gains tax (CGT) treatment guide for DeFi and individual packaged cryptocurrency, clarifying its intention to continue taxing capital gains on Australians when packaging and unpackaging tokens. In May 2022, ATO listed cryptocurrency capital gains as one of four key focus areas. Building on this initiative, the Australian tax authorities have recently clarified a range of behaviors that are considered taxable within its jurisdiction.
ATO stated that transferring cryptocurrency assets to an address that the sender cannot control or has a balance in will be considered a taxable capital gains tax event. ATO also added that the capital gains of capital gains tax activities are equal to the market value of the property you receive from transferring cryptocurrency assets. However, the triggering of capital gains tax events depends on whether individuals record capital gains or losses. Similar methods are also being considered for taxing liquidity pool users and providers, as well as DeFi interest and rewards.