On November 30th and December 1st, 2018 the leaders of the G20 met in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the topic of cryptocurrencies, especially the issue of taxation. The result was a joint statement which was also published on the EU Council website.
Point 25 of the declaration reads as follows:
“An open and resilient financial system, grounded in agreed international standards, is crucial to support sustainable growth. We remain committed to the full, timely and consistent implementation and finalization of the agreed financial reform agenda, and the evaluation of its effects. We will continue to monitor and, if necessary, tackle emerging risks and vulnerabilities in the financial system; and, through continued regulatory and supervisory cooperation, address fragmentation. We look forward to continued progress on achieving resilient non-bank financial intermediation. We will step up efforts to ensure that the potential benefits of technology in the financial sector can be realized while risks are mitigated. We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards and we will consider other responses as needed”.
It was also stressed that member countries should cooperate to improve the international system of digital taxation, but the discussion was postponed until 2019 during the Japanese presidency of the G20.
The aim is to complete a final report by 2020.
In fact, section 26 reads:
“We will continue our work for a globally fair, sustainable, and modern international tax system based, in particular on tax treaties and transfer pricing rules, and welcome international cooperation to advance pro-growth tax policies”.
The reform was considered necessary, given the high pace of digitization of the global economy, but there are already those who doubt the real ability to intervene promptly in order to regulate this rapidly evolving market.
For example, Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTC China and BTCC, as well as a board member of the Bitcoin Foundation, said on Twitter:
“National governments are slowly but surely losing their monopoly and ability to issue fiat money. It’s slow at first, but this revolution is irreversible“!
