Sars’s draft crypto tax guide is years late and lacks clarity in key areas
Crypto-to-crypto swaps are treated as barter transactions, triggering a tax event. The guide provides some clarity but is vague on staking, yield farming, airdrops and hard forks.
The South African Revenue Services (Sars) has published its Draft Guide to the Taxation of Crypto Assets which aims to provide clarity for the roughly six million South Africans owning cryptocurrencies.
The guide hews closely to the position adopted by most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries by acknowledging crypto assets as intangible assets rather than foreign currency, with a tax event being triggered on disposal.
