Korean Tax Tribunal: Gift Tax Collection on Bitcoin Transferred through Spouse's Account Requires Re Investigation BlockBeats News: On June 24th, the South Korean Tax Tribunal recently made a re investigation ruling on a Bitcoin gift tax dispute, which involves the determination of whether transferring Bitcoin through a spouse's overseas exchange account constitutes a gift, causing widespread attention in the cryptocurrency tax industry. The case shows that taxpayer A transferred 67 bitcoins stored in his personal hardware cold wallet (Ledger) directly to a domestic exchange due to regulatory restrictions imposed by the Korean Travel Rule. He then used his spouse B's overseas exchange account for the transfer, which took only 2 to 8 minutes, before selling the bitcoins to purchase property. The tax authority determines that this constitutes a gift between spouses and imposes gift tax on A. A filed an appeal, claiming that the Bitcoin was a personal asset held by him before 2014, and submitted a memorandum of agreement signed with his spouse, which stipulated that if the Bitcoin appreciated, he would purchase property and give his spouse 13 bitcoins as compensation. A believes that it is a qualitative error to consider a gift solely based on the brief passage of funds through the spouse's account. After review by the tax court, it was found that A failed to fully submit key evidence such as the memorandum of understanding, gift contract, and photos of the hardware wallet during the tax investigation, resulting in flaws in the investigation process; At the same time, the distribution method of 67 out of 80 bitcoins transferred to account A and 13 retained under the name of the spouse is inherently consistent with A's statement. The court ruled accordingly that a new investigation must be conducted into the actual ownership of the hardware wallet and the substantive ownership of the digital assets. This case is regarded as a landmark case in South Korea's cryptocurrency tax practice, directly addressing the tax qualitative challenges of determining the ownership of cold wallet assets and cross account transfers. [Original link]