An investigator from the United States Internal Revenue Services (IRS) is reportedly eyeing to count the number of bitcoin ATMs Kiosks and the potential tax issues it carries.
It was first reported by Bloomberg law which cites the statement of IRS’s top official. Accordingly, the agency is very focused on the kiosks and ATMs that involved in criminal activities such as “tax evasion and money laundering”. IRS criminal investigation chief John Fort told Bloomberg Law;
“We’re looking at those, and the ones that may or may not be connected to bank accounts.
Interestingly around 6000 Bitcoin ATMs are operating worldwide, according to the CoinATMRader, application that offers location summary of Bitcoin ATM. In fact, it was seen that there are more than 4000 Bitcoin ATMs available in the United States and one can quickly find at least one of these devices in every major city. John Fort went on to say;
In other words, if you can walk in, put cash in and get Bitcoin out, obviously we’re interested potentially in the person using the kiosk and what the source of the funds is, but also in the operators of the kiosks.”
Criminals often consider Crypto ATMs as the potential method to launder funds. Echoing a similar concern, Fort further mentioned that these kiosks and ATMs need to abide by the country’s KYC and anti-money laundering regulation. However, he agreed to the point that “some have varying levels of adherence to those regulations”. IRS’s effort to curb the fraudulent market practices in the crypto industry isn’t new either – the agency’s official Suzanne Sinno earlier stressed that the tax evasion scheme was never applicable to digital assets transactions.
According to Fort, the crypto tax issue is likely a threat as illicit tax activity may appear in various forms. But the document further asserts that the agency is shifting its focus towards crypto exchange – based in and outside the United States.
“We have a concern that as things tighten up here in the U.S., that we are pushing people to foreign exchanges,” Fort elaborated. “We have to focus on that as well.”
Image Source – Flickr
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