Australia has released draft legislation to widen the information its tax office receives about crypto transactions, combining a domestic reporting regime with powers to implement international data-sharing rules. The Treasury consultation is open for responses until 28 October 2026.

The proposed timetables differ. Treasury’s explanatory material envisages collecting international-framework data for the 2027 calendar year, with the first reports and overseas exchanges in 2028. Domestic reporting would cover periods beginning from 1 July 2027, with quarterly reporting intended rather than an identical annual cycle.

The exposure draft ties the domestic obligation to providers of registrable virtual asset services. It would cover exchanges or transfers carried out for users who are Australian residents at any point in the reporting period. These are proposed amendments to the Taxation Administration Act, with further implementing rules still needed.

Which services and transactions would count

That wording reaches beyond a conventional crypto exchange. AUSTRAC’s existing guidance describes services including exchanging assets for money or other virtual assets, safekeeping, customer transfers and certain financial services connected with an asset’s offer or sale. It also covers arranging an exchange, so a business need not perform every part of a transaction itself.

The underlying definition matters too. AUSTRAC says virtual assets can include investment tokens, stablecoins and some non-fungible tokens, but excludes government-issued digital money. Loyalty points and digital value used exclusively inside a game are also outside that definition. These existing distinctions help explain the categories referenced by the new tax proposal.

Under the explanatory material, the domestic regime would use financial-year reporting unless the tax commissioner specifies another period. Treasury intends quarterly periods from July 2027. The default submission deadline would be the thirty-first day after a reporting period ends, unless a legislative instrument sets another deadline.

Expected transaction information includes the asset’s name, any previous name and change date, transaction date and time, Australian-dollar value and transaction identifiers. Transfers to external wallets are included in the description. Treasury also anticipates identifying information about providers and users, including user bank-account details. It says existing privacy protections and tax-secrecy requirements would apply to collected information.

The international component uses a different legal mechanism. Regulations would prescribe an agreed reporting framework, after which ministerial rules could identify reporting businesses, covered users, information fields and reporting periods. They could also impose due-diligence requirements and administrative penalties. The draft excludes an administrative penalty under these rules where the same failure creates liability for an administrative penalty under another tax law.

Treasury says an incorporated international standard would be fixed at a particular point in time. Later overseas revisions would require another Australian regulation before they changed the domestic reporting requirements.

How cross-border reporting fits together

The OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, published in 2023, is designed for annual exchanges with the jurisdictions where taxpayers reside. Its model covers the assets and transactions to be reported, the businesses collecting data and checks needed to identify users and their tax residence. Australian implementing rules would supply the local legal requirements for that international system.

A related OECD revision expands the Common Reporting Standard, which concerns financial accounts. It brings certain electronic-money products and central-bank digital currencies into scope, alongside indirect crypto investments through derivatives and investment vehicles. That explains why a digital product excluded from the virtual-asset definition can still be relevant to a different reporting framework in the same reform package.

The Australian draft sets 1 January 2027 as the revised Common Reporting Standard’s effective date and applies its other CRS amendments to the 2027 calendar year onwards. These amendments would commence on the first 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October after Royal Assent. The consultation does not establish that parliamentary approval has occurred.

Treasury says the package follows the measure announced in the 2025-26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook and an earlier consultation. Responses must be lodged through its consultation website. It supplies both the proposed legal text and explanatory material, with Word and PDF versions available, and directs respondents to its submission and privacy requirements.

The proposal concerns tax-information reporting. Separate recent regulatory developments include ASIC’s consultation on digital-asset settlement and Thailand’s crypto ETF custody safeguards, which address different activities and obligations.