Taxation of Derivatives and Cryptoassets

Derivatives stand at the forefront of financial innovation, continually evolving to accommodate new asset classes and risk categories. In the past decade, the growing popularity of cryptoassets and ESG investments has sparked the development of a variety of innovative investment strategies and risk management tools, including crypto and ESG derivatives and related structured products.

This new edition has similarly evolved. Using illustrative examples, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the key tax issues associated with derivatives and cryptoassets in domestic and cross-border transactions and presents approaches that tax legislators could adopt to solve them. The new edition also comments on recent trends in global tax policy, such as the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) 1.0 and 2.0 projects. Throughout the book, specific references are made to UK, German, and Swiss tax law.

The updated edition addresses the following topics:

• economic and financial properties of derivatives and cryptoassets;

• definition of derivatives for tax purposes and its application to crypto derivatives and ESG derivatives, among others;

• accounting treatment of derivatives and cryptoassets under IFRS, UK, German and US GAAP;

• current tax legislation and policy alternatives to the taxation of derivatives and cryptoassets;

• characterisation of derivatives gains and losses as income or capital, and equity or debt;

• accounting and taxation treatment of hedging transactions involving derivatives or cryptoassets;

• accounting and taxation rules applying to structured products and hybrid instruments, including crypto and ESG-linked structured products;

• withholding taxes on derivatives and the concept of beneficial ownership in domestic and cross-border transactions; and

• anti-avoidance legislation applying to derivatives and cryptoassets, including the domestic law implementation of BEPS Action 2, the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directives (ATAD I and II), the tax transparency rules for cryptoassets (DAC8) and Pillar Two.

This comprehensive book analyses recent developments in three intertwined areas of expertise: financial products, accounting and tax law. It will be a valuable resource to tax professionals in their daily practice of advising companies, banks and investment funds. It will also be of interest to government officials and researchers engaged in the taxation of derivatives, cryptoassets, and ESG investment products.