Cryptocurrencies, Taxes And Nigeria

The digital world is here to stay. It is the new normal. This realisation was responsible for the conclusion of the OECD that the digital economy cannot be ringfenced for tax purposes as digitalization has imprinted virtually every sector of the world's economies.¹ Digitalization has brought with it digital assets. The crucial role of digital assets in the global economy is easily discernible by the deliberate efforts of governments to regulate them. Cryptocurrencies occupy a remarkable space among digital assets and have in addition to forcing governments to take a stand on them, led to new regulations for their taxation. Notably, there is no uniform way of taxing cryptocurrency gains or income across borders with some jurisdictions taxing it as capital gains and others taxing it as income, but what is uniform is the deliberate effort to ensure revenue leaks are blocked by unreported crypto transactions.