September 17, 2026
October 19, 2026
Treasury has released draft law that would send the ATO a line for every bitcoin trade and withdrawal you make on an Australian exchange.
Every quarter.
From 1 July 2027.
The 30-second version
- Who reports: every digital asset service registered with AUSTRAC, Bitaroo included.
- Who gets reported: every Australian user.
- What: each trade and each transfer, with the date, time, Australian dollar value and transaction ID. Plus your name, address and bank account.
- How often: every 3 months, on Treasury's stated plan.
- Withdrawals to your own wallet: included.
Treasury gave only 13 days for comments. They close on 28 October 2026. That is in:
Why we object
- Your wallet, mapped. A transaction ID points to your wallet on the public blockchain: its address, its balance and every future move.
- This draft law is extreme. The US, the UK and the EU collect crypto tax data once a year, and none of them asks exchanges to report transaction IDs. If this passes, Australia sets a precedent the others chose not to.
- Data leaks. In France, a tax official was charged in 2025, accused of passing crypto holders' details to criminal networks. France has confirmed 77 crypto-linked kidnapping and extortion cases, including attempts, in the first half of 2026. That is roughly one attack every two days.
- From some to all. Today the ATO collects data from selected exchanges, negotiated one at a time. This would be every service, every user, every transaction, every three months, written into law.
- It rewards going offshore. The regime only reaches services registered with AUSTRAC. An exchange with no Australian presence is outside it: its Australian users are reported once a year, in totals, through the international system, and only if its home country has signed up. Use a registered exchange and every line goes in, every quarter.
TLDR - this article in one minute
- The detail never goes to Parliament. The draft law adds one row to a table. What gets reported sits in an ATO form that Parliament does not vote on.
What we are asking
- First: do not proceed with the domestic reporting regime.
- If it goes ahead anyway: yearly totals, as the UK does. No transaction IDs in bulk. Transfers to your own wallet treated as transfers, not sales.
- Our objection is the domestic regime. The OECD framework for overseas tax residents is already an international commitment.
Have YOUR say in five minutes
- Download our one-page template: Download the template
- Add a sentence or two in your own words.
This is vital, as identical submissions may be counted as one campaign. - Upload it on Treasury's form:
Make a submission
Read our full submission here. Share it and this article with every Bitcoiner you know. We can make a difference.
The consultation closes 11:59 pm AEDT, Wednesday 28 October.
General information only, not legal or tax advice.
Please note: If this becomes law, Bitaroo would be compelled to submit these reports to the ATO.
