Crypto tax will help I-T measure 'depth' of market; does not bestow legality to trade: CBDT Chief

moneycontrol.com:

The Budget announcement of taxing 'virtual digital assets' or crypto currencies will help the Income-Tax department measure the "depth" of this trade in the country, know the investors and the nature of their investments and it does not "attach any legality" to these transactions, CBDT Chairman J B Mohapatra said.

The head of the I-T department establishment in the country said that this is "the right time" for the taxman to enter this arena, about which, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government was undertaking a stakeholders’ consultation to frame a national policy and regulator in the coming days.

Also Read: Budget 2022: Crypto gets a backdoor entry in India

Stating that there has been a "phenomenal increase” in transactions in virtual digital assets, Sitharaman announced in her February 1 Budget speech that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent along with some other direct tax measures like application of tax deduction at source (TDS) provisions.

Also Read: Budget 2022 levies crypto tax. How it will impact investors

"The department does not sit in judgement over the legality of any transaction. The income-tax department and the income-tax Act only looks at whether the transactions that you have entered into are resulting in income. We are not into legality of any income but we are into the taxing of that income.”

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"That is the reason, I would say, that taxing crypto currency under the new legislation does not attach any legality…it does not…,” Mohapatra told PTI in a post-Budget interview.

The crypto trade or the digital assets transactions "do not ipso facto become legal or regular just because you