Ever since cryptocurrency trading gained its popularity, the Swedish Tax Agency (STA), indicated their interest in prosecuting crypto cases. The agency started their investigations of around 400 Swedish crypto traders in 2018 alone.
Henrik Kisterud, STA’s control coordinator, stated that last year’s results would result in more resources being allocated to crypto investigations this year.
Back in 2014, Swedish tax laws were not clear regarding crypto trading. In 2016, the tax agency reached out to crypto traders for their filing of crypto trade under the category of capital income.
This year, due to large number of executed transactions, Linus Dunker, a Swedish crypto trader, received a bill for almost $1,000,000 from the STA much to his shock. This is one of the growing number of crypto-related cases being taken up by the STA.
The STA’s tax demands are “unreasonable,” according to Dunkers, because he is being charged 300 percent of his total profits rather than 30 percent.
It is reported that Dunkers traded bitcoin worth SEK 25 million (~$2.75 million) and made only moderate profit. The reason he is being deducted such amount is because he did not deduct the price of his initial bitcoin purchase that was paid in cash. The agency stated that this makes his tax higher in accordance to the law.
Dunkers included his crypto trades on the tax forms but he included a side note agreeing to corrections if his reports were wrong, since he was not aware of how exactly to declare the trades. He claims he got no response from the agency until he was audited and billed 300 percent. Dunkers added that the STA treats his trades as business activities instead of personal, to which he must may more.
This could mean that thousands of Swedish crypto traders are at risk of receiving the same demand notices from the STA.
The deadline for payment is on January 28, and Dunker is seeking help from the public and the crypto community to pursue the legal process to an acceptable conclusion.