Nigeria Planning to Present Law to Tax Crypto by September: Report

[MrSpasybo]

If you can't ban them, then tax them Funny how FIRS say injurious since even without tax on crypto, the profits/gains earned by crypto investors/traders will still flow into their economy. The more their citizens earn from trading, staking, airdrops, and bounty, the more money they could spend locally. Eventually, it will still help in the development of the country's economy (but they want more).

The Nigerian government has repeatedly changed its stance on crypto: they wanted to ban it, they attacked CEXs, they kidnapped employees of CEXs to demand user transaction information, and now they want to tax crypto. Well, I don't understand what they're thinking, they're acting illogically, unlike how professional politicians think and make decisions.

Although crypto investors profits could go straight into the economy and make society more developed, crypto taxes would still be an attractive addition to the Nigerian government budget. I hope the tax will be used wisely so that they can manage this market more effectively with a reasonable and feasible legal framework. I'm quite skeptical about the possibility that Binance and many other large CEXs will risk returning to Nigeria to serve customers in this troublesome country ^^

[Gposas]

The Nigerian government trying to make laws to find a way to start taxing crypto, I don't think it's a good idea in respect of the turnout on citizens... We see exchanges like OKX leaving the country because of some laws, and this has led to loss of assets for some people that make use of the exchange, Kucoin restricting their p2p deposit option which is the easiest way to make deposit, all because of some government laws.
They believe, crypto is the cause of the devaluation of Naira when they all know the economic sector is unstable.
Cost of living has grown so high that most people join crypto in order to make something valuable.
This simple means if crypto is taxed, users will also be taxed by crypto. And all suffering will be on the citizens.

[NotATether]

So, this means that essentially crypto is becoming legal again in Nigeria.

Because if it were not legal, they would not be able to tax it legally as nobody is supposed to have it?

Also, what happened to that Binance compliance officer that was being detained in Nigeria? Did they ever let him out? Because it's not a good sign for them if they did not.

[Z-tight]

We know that India already has also put a taxed, although if you look at it, if we pay tax, should we at least get some protection from the government?

Crypto taxation does not have anything to do with protection from the government, the way i see it, as crypto users we cannot even wait for protection from any third party, we have to protect ourselves. The government only tax us because they want to raise revenue, there is little they can do if people are scammed through crypto.

[SamReomo]

I guess taxing crypto is going to be injustice to the crypto community of Nigeria especially in such times when economic conditions of the country aren't good.

I believe now they want to earn taxes from crypto users so they can make the economy or their fiat but if corruption doesn't reduces then such taxes won't help the country at all.

I hope our Nigerian brothers and sisters will not lose hope after such taxes and still try to be as active members of the crypto world as they are right now.

[_act_]

I guess taxing crypto is going to be injustice to the crypto community of Nigeria especially in such times when economic conditions of the country aren't good.

I believe now they want to earn taxes from crypto users so they can make the economy or their fiat but if corruption doesn't reduces then such taxes won't help the country at all.

A country has good or bad economy, people must pay tax. I was reading countries with high number of homeless people, do you know that the developed countries are there. You will not see countries like Nigeria there and many countries in Africa. If you check countries that has high rate of the most depressed people in the world, you will see developed countries while not seeing Nigeria and many countries in Africa there.

[Z-tight]

I guess taxing crypto is going to be injustice to the crypto community of Nigeria especially in such times when economic conditions of the country aren't good.

Taxation isn't injustice, except when it is outrageous, like what we have in India, were the authorities tax crypto at ~ 30%. If the tax level is reasonable, then it is normal. However, as governments try to tax crypto, they should also try to at least be friendly to crypto and make laws that are kind of beneficial to crypto users in their country.

[Faisal2202]

A months ago, i created thread about KuCoin charging 7.5% trading fee in Nigeria. So i guess this news could be related with KuCoin past action. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

I was not aware of the Kucoin imposing that high tax news but I don't think authorities are imposing tax because KuCoin did. Its seems like FIRS and other legal authorities were waiting for some indication that Nigerians can pay the high transaction fee or tax.

Now as they have got the green light they are imposing tax on all over the crypto industry. This is not good in one way because Nigerians have to pay more to government but I think they have to manage now.

But on the other side crypto will be legal in all regions of Nigeria and they can freely use it. And their are chances that they don't have to face any legal scrutiny. But with mass adoption comes mass scams and crimes so authorities have to make a special cybercrime team as well if they haven't not already.

[Bobcrypto]

A months ago, i created thread about KuCoin charging 7.5% trading fee in Nigeria. So i guess this news could be related with KuCoin past action. Your opinion is greatly appreciated.

If I have the the opportunity to ask for a power, it is going to be power to useless politicians that sit on their chambers to make useless decisions that doesn't favour the masses. Until Nigerian government take away crypto from the mouth of ordinary people before they finally rest with all their impounding policy that are not favorable to people.

Kucoin agreed to give them that shares because what they get from the Nigerian communities is in large volume. They don't want to exit and lose the opportunity that's why they are still there. Exchange like OKX exited probably they don't like the Nigerian government or because there are other conditions that was not reveal to the public and not favorable for them.

I may not be right in assessment of the Nigeria government regulatory policy on crypto because I doubt if the people in government actually know how crypto works. There has been several news on crypto regulations in Nigeria, unfortunately none has to reality. The Nigeria effort to hit the ground working on crypto regulations has no road map, and rather than getting a serious policy on how to regulate the crypto sector, they have been busy chasing CEX exchange staff like Binance. I read that some of staff of the exchange where even arrested.
In my opinion, crypto regulations in Nigeria has no blue print of how they intend to regulate the sector. We keep hearing the same news with no head way.
Binance has stop the P2P trade on it platform since the Nigeria government clamped on them, the fear has also affected Kucoin exchange to closed it's P2P trading too. some information I got on the News suggested that Kucoin exchange is trying to work with the Nigeria government
regulator to come back fully.

[_act_]

The Nigerian government trying to make laws to find a way to start taxing crypto, I don't think it's a good idea in respect of the turnout on citizens... We see exchanges like OKX leaving the country because of some laws, and this has led to loss of assets for some people that make use of the exchange, Kucoin restricting their p2p deposit option which is the easiest way to make deposit, all because of some government laws.

Tax is a good idea but when the government are good.

They believe, crypto is the cause of the devaluation of Naira when they all know the economic sector is unstable.

They believed P2P transactions have been the cause of naira devaluation but not only in crypto. Just that almost all crypto transactions in Nigeria are P2P. But they are wrong. The bad government is the cause of naira devaluation and also because they float naira price unlike how they were using fixed rate before.

[KingsDen]

So, this means that essentially crypto is becoming legal again in Nigeria.

Because if it were not legal, they would not be able to tax it legally as nobody is supposed to have it?

There's alot of controversies or contradictions by the Nigerian government. They seem not to understand how to handle cryptocurrency issues in Nigeria. They became devastated when they could not forcefully implement their e-naira CBDC to the Citizens.

They keep going forth and back in decision making. Today, they will ban all cryptocurrency transactions. Tomorrow, they will tell you that crypto is legal, they only banned transactions. The next day, it will be that they have banned cryptocurrency and surprisingly, the government will set to tax what is banned in the country.

[philipma1957]

I think this could be the new trend, government taxing us, so this is not a surprised and seeing that Nigeria is one of the largest crypto market in the world, their government will have to look and find a way to get some "money" from their people.

We know that India already has also put a taxed, although if you look at it, if we pay tax, should we at least get some protection from the government?

Or this is the cost of being in crypto now? And we will never be free although crypto is a way for us to be out of the reach of these governments.

Never be free is the goal of every government on earth. We are pretty much under the thumb of every leader of our country which ever the country we happen to be stuck in.

Crypto does allow us a chance to make some money.

[KingsDen]

I guess taxing crypto is going to be injustice to the crypto community of Nigeria especially in such times when economic conditions of the country aren't good.

Taxation isn't injustice, except when it is outrageous, like what we have in India, were the authorities tax crypto at ~ 30%. If the tax level is reasonable, then it is normal. However, as governments try to tax crypto, they should also try to at least be friendly to crypto and make laws that are kind of beneficial to crypto users in their country.

It all depends on the type of taxation that will be applicable and to what extent and what type of crypto related activities will be taxed.
1. If a day trader is taxed, should a Hodler be also taxed?
2. If I offer bitcoin rated services and I am taxed, if I do non crypto related business and accept payment through crypto, will I also be taxed.
3. I sure know that this will raise alot of controversies in Nigeria because the country is not used to paying normal taxes, let alone crypto tax.

But before we talk about crypto taxation in Nigeria, the government of Nigeria should be able to establish cryptocurrency as legal first.

[Nheer]

I hope the Nigerian government can do better than just placing taxes on cryptocurrencies. They should also standardize the regulations by trying to protect the crypto community within Nigeria. A lot of people needs to continue to be safe in the hands of the government using the cryptocurrencies rather than placing taxes and still making people uncomfortable with using bitcoin amongst other cryptocurrencies.

After trying several times to make sure cryptocurrency goes down in the country because they can’t regulate the money crypto users generate and after failing to succeed now they are back trying to enact a law to tax cryptocurrency. They just don’t want to give up after suspending P2P services in major exchanges to shut down crypto in the country, i think this is the best they can actually do and try to tax crypto instead of trying to ban the use of crypto in the country.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Sometimes I just feel that these guys are jokes, don't get me wrong @ABCbits, but the reason why I said this is because, come to think of it, I learned that Nigeria government  still urges the commercial banks, microfinance banks and MMOs to restrict any customer's account that is used to perform cryoto transaction.

If the government doesn't permit a free crypto transaction with bank, then why wanting to effect the tax law on cryoto?