Study Alleges 99.5% Crypto Investors Did Not Pay Taxes in 2022

About 99.5% of crypto investors did not pay their taxes in 2022, according to a new study issued by Divly, a Nordic cryptocurrency tax platform.

The Divly report estimated this percentage based on its analysis of the relationship between the number of people who announced their cryptocurrency in their tax returns and the search volume for crypto tax-related keywords in different countries, Cointelegraph reported. It also used data from Statista’s Global Cryptocurrency Report to determine the number of crypto holders in each country.

According to the study, Finland topped the world’s countries in terms of the crypto investors who paid the required taxes on crypto in 2022 with a percentage of 4.09%, followed by Australia (3.65%) and Austria (2.75%).

The Philippines, Indonesia, and India have the lowest number of tax-paying crypto investors with percentages of 0.03%, 0.04%, and 0.07%, respectively.

However, Divly’s findings remained doubtful for experts because of several reasons, firstly search volume data may not accurately reflect the actual number of crypto taxpayers, as not everyone who searches for crypto tax-related keywords is supposed to pay taxes.

The second reason is related to the transparency and access to information about crypto holders in each country, which are likely to differ from one country to another.

Danny Talwar, the global head of tax at crypto tax software Koinly, suspected the study’s results, saying: “It is likely that 99.5% is not reflective of countries that have specific crypto tax guidance and strict compliance requirements such as USA, Canada, Australia, and India.”

Talwar added that 15% of surveyed crypto investors are not aware of their crypto tax reporting duties. Other crypto experts agreed that the results of Divly are not 100% accurate.