Australia: Announced law clarifying taxation of digital currency as digital asset, not foreign currency, in Budget 2022-2023

On 25 October 2022, the Australian Government published its Budget Paper for 2022-2023, noting that it will introduce new legislation to clarify that digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, will continue to be excluded from the Australian income tax treatment of foreign currency. In particular, the Government stated that it is not changing its current tax treatment of digital currencies following El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. The exemption does not apply to digital currencies issued by, or under the authority of, a government agency, which would continue to be taxed as a foreign currency.