Crypto-donations and tax deductibility

This article examines the implications of gifts made by non-business taxpayers in the form of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, pursuant to Div 30 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth). What may seem to be an equivalent series of transactions to those that occur in fiat currency (Australian dollars), crypto-donations raise a unique set of complexities in complying with taxation law in order to obtain a Div 30 deduction. This article explores those tax consequences across a series of hypothetical scenarios to capture the tension in applying well-established tax rules to newly evolving forms of digital assets that act like money, but are treated as CGT assets.