Dennis J.
Kenya would like to implement a 3% tax on NFT transfers and cryptocurrency transactions. In addition, a new measure proposes taxing for internet influencers.
The Kenyan government wants to take advantage of the increasing recognition of digital assets by imposing taxes on digital transactions.
Surprisingly, Kenya is one of the top nations that own digital assets ranking higher than other industrialized nations, like the USA, which came in sixth.
Approximately 12.4% of Kenyans, between the ages of 16 and 64, possess some type of cryptocurrency, making up 8.5% of the country’s total population.
Since a significant portion of Kenya’s population is connected to cryptocurrencies in some other way, any news about cryptocurrencies could interfere with the market.
What Does the Bill Entail?
The Finance Bill 2023, presented to the Kenyan parliament on May 4, would implement a tax on “income earned through the transfer of or exchange of digital assets”, and it further includes a specific language for NFTs.
According to Kenyan law, any earnings from the sale, exchange, or disposal of digital assets are deemed to be property, and as a result, capital gains tax will apply to those profits.
Kenya is targeting monetized online content in addition to cryptocurrencies, and the industry will be subject to a 15% tax.
The National Assembly will read the proposed legislation five times and have committee hearings before voting on it. The president will sign the bill into law if it passes.
The tax is supposed to be collected by cryptocurrency exchanges or those who start the transfer of cryptocurrencies or NFTs, with 3% of the transfer’s value going to the government in the process. Exchanges not registered in Kenya will be required to do so in order to comply with the tax laws.
Other Countries’ Attitudes Towards Crypto and NFTs
Vietnam tops the list of nations that enjoy metaverse platforms, holding 56.8% of the tweets supporting the virtual world. Philippines and Ukraine are second and third on the list with 56.2% and 54.9% respectively. Nigeria and Indonesia are next with 51.4% and 49.9% respectively.
In addition to the love toward Metaverse, we can mention the countries which consider the benefits of blockchain, NFTs, and crypto in different fields. For example, Indonesia tries to protect its cultural heritage with blockchain technology while France does not show the same positive attitude; France wants to ban crypto promotions by social media influencers.
As you can understand from the different examples, some countries adopt the virtual world while some of them do not want to deal with it. Hence, we can say that there is a long way for blockchain technology, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies to become valuable things in lots of countries.
