Ukraine’s SEC proposes 23% total tax on crypto income

Ukraine’s securities regulator has proposed applying the country’s full personal income and military taxes to crypto gains, totaling 23%.

Ukraine‘s Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a 23% tax on individual income from crypto operations, consisting of an 18% personal income tax and a 5% military levy.

In a 32-page consultation paper, the agency noted that taxation of personal income from crypto transactions is “one of the most complex aspects” in building a tax system in the field of digital assets.

The main challenge, it said, comes from the anonymous and decentralized nature of crypto as many operations with cryptocurrencies “are carried out through decentralized platforms or using self-hosted wallets, which makes automatic tracking by tax authorities impossible.” Another issue is that individuals, not intermediaries, are responsible for reporting income.

“Unlike traditional income (salary, dividends), where the tax obligation is fulfilled by a tax agent (for example, an employer or a bank), in the case of virtual assets this function is most often performed by the individual.”

Ukraine’s Securities and Exchange Commission

It also pointed out that taxpayers often cannot prove how much they spent acquiring tokens as the expenses for buying tokens “are often absent, especially if they were obtained through a peer-to-peer exchange, airdrop, or mining.”

Crypto price swings further complicate tax obligations, the regulator says, adding that rapid changes in crypto prices “can lead to situations where a person is obliged to pay tax on ‘paper profit’ that disappeared due to a market drop.”

On top of that, many users may not even know they owe taxes at all, the regulator says. In the document, the commission called for simplified reporting models, fiat-exit taxation, and digital tools to help individuals meet their tax obligations.