UK Government Seeks Views on DeFi Taxation

The U.K. government is seeking views from investors, professionals and companies on taxation of decentralized finance (DeFi) activities.

• Specifically, the government wishes to gather evidence on the taxation of cryptoasset loans and staking, according to an announcement Tuesday.
• “The government is interested in ascertaining whether administrative burdens and costs could be reduced for taxpayers engaging in this activity, and whether the tax treatment can be better aligned with the underlying economics of the transactions involved,” the announcement read.
• Those wishing to submit evidence have until Aug. 31 to do so.
• The government outlined a set of initiatives in April to make the U.K. a global crypto stronghold. Among them was conducting “major surgery” on the taxation system to “make it work more easily for crypto,” according to Economic Secretary John Glen.
• In May, the government published a consultation aiming to reduce risk for investors holding stablecoins by giving the Bank of England power to appoint administrators to oversee insolvency arrangements of failed stablecoin issuers.

Read more: UK Government Backtracks on Unhosted Wallet Data Collection Proposal