Tax services are getting pushy to have crypto declared: Law Decoded, Nov. 27–Dec. 4

Published

2 years ago

December 4, 2023

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Last week, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) presented an unpleasant Christmas surprise to hodlers in the United Kingdom, demanding they declare any crypto holdings they failed to report in the last four, six or even 20 years. The tax authority also reminded taxpayers of the interest, charged daily from the date tax is due until it is paid. As an additional tax on previous-year crypto holdings would now be classified as late, it automatically suggests the interest owed. Failing to include the correct interest will result in a rejection of disclosure. After disclosing unpaid taxes, users will get payment reference numbers and have 30 days to remit the entire sum owed. The disclosure must include “exchange tokens,” such as Bitcoin (BTC), as well as any nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and “utility tokens.”

Less harsh in its demands, the Spanish Tax Administration Agency has also reminded its citizens about their obligations to declare crypto, even if they store it abroad. The Agency published Form 721, the submission period for which will commence on Jan.1 and end on the last day of March. However, only individuals with balance sheets exceeding the equivalent of 50,000 euros (around $55,000) in crypto assets are obliged to declare their foreign holdings. Those who store their assets in self-custodied wallets must report their holdings through the standard wealth tax Form 714.

Brazil will also proceed to tax its citizens’ foreign crypto holdings via a bill already passed in the Chamber of Deputies and expected to be approved by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Under the bill, any Brazilian who earns more than 6,000 Brazilian reals ($1,200) on exchanges based outside the country would be subject to the tax, effective Jan. 1, 2024. The change makes those funds taxable at the same rate as domestic funds. Funds earned before that date would be taxed when accessed by the owner, and earnings on funds accessed before Dec. 31 will be taxed at 8%.

The SEC is still digging into Binance.US

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is still looking for evidence that Binance.US had a backdoor to potentially control customer assets similarly to FTX. While Binance and former CEO Changpeng Zhao agreed to plead guilty to breaking U.S. Anti-Money Laundering laws as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the case didn’t include any of the SEC’s fraud-related claims stemming from its lawsuit with the cryptocurrency exchange in June. However, Judge Zia Faruqui, presiding over the Binance and SEC case, reportedly said the guilty pleas make it less likely that Binance.US and Zhao misappropriated customer assets.

Voyager Digital will settle on $1.65 billion with the FTC

A federal judge has approved an order requiring crypto lending firm Voyager Digital and its affiliates to pay $1.65 billion in monetary relief to the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Gregory Woods ordered Voyager to pay $1.65 billion following a settlement between the lending firm and the FTC announced in October. Voyager will be “permanently restrained and enjoined” from marketing or providing products or services related to digital assets as part of the agreement.

According to Judge Woods, the order will largely not impact Voyager’s bankruptcy proceedings. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in July 2022 and disclosed liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion. In May, the bankruptcy court approved a plan allowing Voyager users to initially receive 35.72% of their claims from the lending firm.

36 companies might get a license to operate in South Africa till the end of 2023

South Africa’s principal financial regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), reviewed 128 applications from crypto asset service providers but intends to discuss only 36 during its next Licensing Executive Committee meeting on Dec. 12. A further 22 applications will be presented on Feb.13, while a final 14 applications will have to wait until March 12. The fate of the remaining applications wasn’t specified by the FSCA, which explained its evaluation method as an assessment that combines Know Your Customer onboarding, data protection, cyber risk management, conflict of interest management, complaints handling, and credit counterparty risk management.

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

10 hours ago

December 1, 2025

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Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.

The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.

Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:

“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.

His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.

Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.

According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”

On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.

In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.

Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).

If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.