Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Becoming a non-resident to (legally) avoid capital gains tax

If I buy 1 Bitcoin (BTC) for $1,000 and it goes up to $50,000, that’s a capital gain of $49,000 when I sell. Now lets say I move overseas and become a non-resident for tax purposes. Under CGT Event I1, I choose to disregard the gains, so the 1 BTC remains part of the Australian tax system. A few years later, BTC hits $100,000 and I return to Australia to become a resident again.

To my understanding, this means the cost base of my BTC increases from $1,000 to $100,000. The increase in value that occurred whilst overseas does not trigger an Australian taxable event if I never sold. So if I eventually sell at say $120,000, that’s a capital gain of $20,000.

But if I had never left Australia and had sold at the same price, the capital gain would’ve been $119,000. A HUGE difference. Even with the 50% discount (i.e. a capital gain of $59,500), that's still a higher CGT compared to being a non-resident.

Now lets say BTC goes down instead. If my cost base is $100,000 upon returning to Australia and BTC never hits that price again, then any sale I make is tax-free if I’m not mistaken. In fact, I think I can even report a capital loss and use it to offset future taxable gains.

I think this is all valid under the tax laws. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Otherwise, strategically moving overseas could be an option to greatly minimise or legally avoid CGT. I based this scenario from the article Taxing Issues for Departing Taxpayers by a tax accountant. He gives an example of an Australian who moves to France, then returns to Australia. I applied this to crypto but this obviously goes for all assets.


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