Trump 35Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are looking into Crypto ATMs as they might be used for tax evasion and money laundering.
IRS looking into crypto ATMs
Public cases regarding crypto ATMs have been non-existent, regardless the IRS is curious about them. Speaking with Bloomberg, IRS Criminal Investigation Chief, John Fort revealed that his team is working with law enforcing agencies to confront criminal activity supported by the system.
He said that they are “looking at those,” including ones that may be linked to bank accounts. He said that the agency was obviously interested in a system that allowed clients to “walk in, put cash in, and get bitcoin out.” Notably, the IRS was more curious about the source of funds as well as their owners.
These crypto ATMs are present across various cities in the US and allow users to trade fiat for crypto assets. John noted that although they needed to comply with the same regulations and know-your-customer process, they had varying degrees of “adherence to those regulations.” He added that the IRS was curious about the compliance issues related to the people that operate the service.
John revealed that he considered crypto tax issues as an emerging tax with the potential to facilitate criminal activity. The illicit activity could be conducted through various methods. These ATMs had high risks as they had little transparency.
He also revealed that although there were no public cases reported, there were some “open cases in inventory.” Now IRS has shifted its focus towards crypto ATMs and exchanges. John remarked that strict conditions in the US were pushing people to use foreign exchanges, and hence, that needed to be changed.
Featured image by Flickr.
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