Japan Updates Its NFT Taxation Guidelines

Japan’s National Tax Agency (NTA) updated its official NFT taxation guidelines. For example, NTA will calculate the total income of a citizen’s currency at the end of each year so they will only have to pay taxes once. Officials hope that the change will encourage traders to pay NFT taxes on time, as their numbers are skyrocketing monthly.

worried woman trying to pay her taxes in front of a laptop — Japan’s National Tax Agency issued an update on how it’s planning to tax Japanese NFT traders starting 2023. Credit: FreePik

Japan’s National Tax Agency Updates: What You Should Know

It’s a big week for Japanese NFT traders as the country’s National Tax Agency has updated its taxation guidelines. The main update is that NTA will now tax citizens once, at the end of each year. The Agency will tax all of the income generated from NFT trading throughout the year.

Accordingly, Japan’s tax update might facilitate NFT taxation for both sides: the NTA will be able to track and evaluate income transactions easier while NFT traders will know when and how to pay their taxes.

“In-game currency (tokens) are frequently acquired and used, and it is complicated to evaluate each transaction,” stated Japan’s National Tax Agency.

Every time a trader sells an NFT, their will be taxed for their income. Meanwhile, NFT creators will face consumption taxes for each NFT they create and sell to another Japanese citizen.

abstract image of NFT trading — More and more countries around the world are working on their taxation laws for digital asset trading.

Are other countries updating their NFT taxation laws too?

In 2022, many countries around the globe have started taxing NFT transactions and for good reason. After all, 4% of the U.S. population currently owns an NFT, and some pieces sold for over $60 million! Of course, state officials had to intervene one way or another.

For instance, the American tax collection agency IRS has included NFTs to its list of tax codes in October 2022. However, there’s still a lot of debate going on, as nobody can say whether NFTs should be labeled as “commodities” or “collectibles.”

Meanwhile, the European Union is still working through the details on how NFTs should get taxed. Either way, one thing’s for sure: we should all keep an eye out for updates such as Japan’s tax regulation!