TLDR: Some time ago, I participated in the EOS crowdsale / crowdfund. I got some tokens. Earlier in this Australian Financial year (which runs from July 1 to June 30 every calendar year) - I liqidated that EOS to AUD, and deposited it into my bank account for an overall tiny profit.
Because every reasonable, trust worthy Cryptocurrency exchange in Australia is set up with many different compliance and monitoring obligations - the Australian Tax Office gets information from the local cryptocurrency exchanges and holds onto that information.
Because of this - it means I have a capital gain to declare on my upcoming tax return when the rest of my affairs get in order. This was expected behaviour. I like the message at the bottom, in particular:
Remember to keep your records.
People who are involved in Cryptocurrency know that a ledger does all of this for them, and they can go back to obtain this information using their brains. It can just take a while to reconcile. In any case, I've kept my records.
I have to declare this capital gains, as I was intending to do so. You don't want to fall afoul of the Australian Tax Office, an organisation that attempted to lodge legal proceedings (and imprison) one of its former employees for whistle blowing about some poor ethical practices.
Full text of the email for those who can't see the screenshot:
Disposing of your cryptocurrency can result in capital gains tax obligations
Our records indicate you have previously
disposed of cryptocurrency.
Exchanging cryptocurrency for goods, cash or other cryptocurrencies is normally considered a disposal for
capital gains tax purposes.
Make sure to include any resulting capital gain or loss
in your tax return.
By reporting your capital losses, you can carry them forward to offset your future capital gains.
Remember to keep your records.
Last year I had a mixture of capital losses from crypto trading - so I'll be sure to capitalise on the ability to offset my gains with last year's prior losses.
Did you get this email from the Australian Tax Office too? :)
Let me know in the comments.