Cleartex, India’s biggest tax filing platform has teamed with Zebpay, one of the top crypto exchanges in India, to help Indian citizens with their cryptocurrency taxes. The partnership is geared towards educating bitcoin traders and investors about the country’s existing tax laws and the procedure for applying crypto incomes and profits reports.
Helping taxpayers to understand the law

Indian financial watchdogs are still trying to find the best way to approach digital currencies like bitcoin. Officials have previously made various statements on adoption of new rules, but not much action has followed. Attempts to impose regulations on the cryptocurrency industry have proved to be a hard task. Recent media reports revealed that authorities were planning to implement new rules later in March.

While they have failed to introduce any comprehensive regulations, Indian financial authorities are very eager to control cryptocurrency operations, just like many other governments across the globe. Media sources report that the Income Tax Department issued various notices last month to thousands of crypto investors. This move raised questions. For instance, if digital currencies are neither regulated nor legalized, how do authorities expect taxpayers to file reports on their cryptocurrency incomes and profits?

In what seems to be an effort to address the situation, Cleartax and Zebpay have come together in a tax campaign through an initiative dubbed Cryptocurrency Advisory Plan, set to support Indians investing and trading crypto. The Business Standard has reported that the collaboration is in a bid to help the Indian taxpayers to not only understand the law regarding the taxation of crypto transactions but also abide by it.

Clearing the air surrounding cryptocurrencies

Cleartax claims that it has the tax and technological expertise “to help Indians understand how BTC works.” Besides the advisory plan, the tax filing platform has also launched cryptocurrency tax filing services particularly for investors earning capital gains from selling digital currency. “Using our expert-assisted plans that were created in conjunction with Zebpay, Cleartax wants to clear this air surrounding digital currencies. We have always worked to simplify taxation for Indian taxpayers. This latest development is just another step towards the same direction,” said Archit Gupta, founder, and CEO.

Zebpay’s Head of Exchange, Nischint Sanghavi, stated that the exchange has previously looked for “like-minded partners” to address questions related to crypto taxation. The official believes that the partnership will simplify tax planning for Zebpay’s customers.

The Indian Income Tax Department, in February, sent notices to over 100, 000 crypto investors after it monitored the activities of the country’s leading crypto trading platforms. Suspecting dubious transactions, financial authorities launched investigations on some top crypto exchanges. Banks have reportedly suspended several accounts following the inquiry. The bank clampdown and institutional pressures have seen a significant reduction in crypto trading on local platforms. Some exchanges have reported up to ten-fold decreases within the last 2 months.

In India, digital currency is not considered legal, and Delhi authorities have severally issued warnings against crypto investments. Again, top Indian commercial banks are reported to have limited the operations of local traders and exchanges.