The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) – a global anti-tax fraud group – recently hosted “The Cyber Challenge” event to track down individuals and organizations committing tax fraud. The group consists of criminal intelligence communities from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States who work together to fight against international and transnational tax crime and money laundering.
Experts from J5 countries participated in the event, which was designed to optimize the usage of data acquired from open and investigative sources available to each country. Since its inception in 2018, the J5 has hosted five such events, with the fourth focusing on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) in 2022. The fifth event in 2023 saw the participation of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) from each J5 country, as well as private sector representatives from blockchain analysis companies Chainalysis, BlockTrace, and AnChain.
The event generated significant leads for further investigation, which, in the past, helped uncover multimillion-dollar crypto Ponzi schemes, such as the BitClub Network. John Ford, deputy commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office, noted that the collaboration between public and private specialists not only generates operational outcomes, but also shares expert training, techniques, and procedures. Ryan Ryder from Chainalysis further pointed out that crypto’s inherent transparency, coupled with international public and private sector experts, “can collaborate to identify and shut down illicit activity” – something that remains impossible in traditional finance.
Web3 companies need to constantly monitor the tax implications of their activities and diligently work to ensure they’re meeting their obligations. To do this, Cointelegraph Innovation Circle recommends seven best practices: choose a tax-friendly country, pay taxes on time, avoid shortcuts, find an experienced crypto tax accountant, keep accurate documentation of all activities, seek expert legal counsel, automate transaction tracking, and use specialized software.
