CRYPTO LAWS AND REGULATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Crypto-investment remains the wild west of South Africa’s financial landscape. Currently there are no cohesive crypto laws and regulations in South Africa which restrict transactions or facilitates trade. This exposes investors to many risks as the gift (and curse) of blockchain technology is its inability to reverse transactions. A good illustration is the 2014 hack of the Mt Gox Bitcoin Exchange and the 2017 hack of South Korea’s Youbit. In both cases investors lost hundreds of millions of dollars without legal recourse.
Despite these risks, the lack of legal regulation offers investors unique opportunities – and many have been cashing in. To date, several crypto-currency schemes have taken advantage of legal “gray areas”, but these opportunities will not be available for much longer. Here are a few things you should know about present-day crypto-currency regulation and its trajectory for the near future.
TAX Regulations
Currently normal income tax rules apply to crypto-currencies. Taxpayers are required to declare cryptocurrency gains or losses as part of their taxable income. SARS has furthermore indicated that in certain circumstances a taxpayer is permitted to deduct expenses incurred in respect of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin trading tax for example.
On 16 July 2018 the National Treasury’s draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (draft TLAB) was published for public comment. The draft TLAB introduces legislative provisions for cryptocurrency in the proposed amendments wherein it is proposed that the term cryptocurrency forms part of the definition of “financial instrument”. As a result, amongst others, there may be capital gains tax implications on crypto-currencies should the bill be passed.
EXCON Regulations
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has placed on record that within current Exchange Control (EXCON) Laws, crypto-currency does not fall under its regulatory mandate. However, moving cryptocurrencies overseas and buying or selling on a foreign exchange could get you into trouble if the transactions triggers applicable EXCON restrictions. This wil include instances where residents intend to hold locally purchased crypto-currencies in a wallet on an offshore exchange or intend to transfer foreign acquired crypto-currencies to a local wallet.
Conclusion
At the moment, crypto-currency is not regarded as legal tender and remains a relative anomaly within the finance world. In official statements released by the SARB, crypto-currency has been referenced as a Direct Convertible Virtual Currency (“DCVC”) and reclassified shortly after as a “Cyber Token” to distinguish any association between the words “virtual currency” and “Currency” – the latter being legally regulated and defined. Although lawmakers are still considering how to effectively regulate crypto-currency, it is clearly a high priority of the legislature to have crypto laws and regulations in South Africa. It won’t be much longer until the wild west of the investment world has a new sheriff in town.
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