By Richard Hines
Over 300 million Kenyans who own and trade in cryptocurrencies will be the target of Kenya’s Revenue Authority’s (KRA) regulatory bill. However, this wouldn’t happen until the MPs approve changes meant to regulate digital and cryptocurrency assets—like taxation— in the nation.
Regulatory Bill To Be Passed In Kenya
The Capital Markets Bill pushes to include taxes on cryptocurrency exchanges as well as transaction taxes akin to bank fees.
Once this bill is passed, Kenyans will be required to pay taxes for the market prices of cryptocurrencies when they sell and buy tokens and also be taxed with transaction fees.
Investors or users who made cryptocurrency trading their full-time job would now be required to pay income taxes on their profits.
According to this regulation, the owner of a cryptocurrency token or other digital asset who holds it for less than a year must pay income tax, but if they hold it for more than a year, they must pay capital gains tax.
According to this report, this would mark the first occurrence of cryptocurrency being accepted by Kenya and subject to its regulations. The crypto industry is currently unregulated both domestically and globally, which has been an issue of discord between regulators and exchanges, citing that this lawlessness is what causes the instability in the crypto ecosystem.
Because of this, it has been difficult to account for Kenya’s total holdings in cryptocurrency, which is speculated to round up to billions.
Details Of The Regulatory Bill
The procedures for this regulation would require those in possession of crypto assets to provide regulatory bodies with all information about their asset, including the value in shillings. They will also be prompted to provide additional information on the date of acquisition and the date it was sold back to the market.
This bill comes six months after Kenya was named the African country with the highest proportion of cryptocurrency holders.
Volatility is a well-known feature of the cryptocurrency market, and it has become increasingly common since the recent FTX crash. Kenyans were not left out of this crash; traders who flocked into this space in the hope of making quick money were terribly affected by this crash, as all tokens plummeted alongside their hopes.