CBDT Notifies Exclusion Of Gift Cards, Loyalty Points, Others From Crypto Tax, Bitcoin Down 6%

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has clarified that gift cards, reward points, mileage points, any loyalty or incentive program, subscription to websites or applications, are not to be included under the definition of virtual digital asset (VDA).

As per the Income-tax Act, 1961, VDA is defined as any information, code, number, token or others formed using cryptography or other techniques but excluding Indian or any other foreign currency. So when this definition is read along with CBDT’s clarifications, only cryptocurrencies, crypto tokens, non-fungible tokens and other crypto-related objects come under the definition of VDA.

“The Central Government hereby notifies following virtual digital assets which shall be excluded from the definition of a virtual digital asset. (i) gift card or vouchers, being a record that may be used to obtain goods or services or a discount on goods or services; (ii) Mileage points, reward points or loyalty card, being a record given without direct monetary consideration under an award, reward, benefit, loyalty, incentive, rebate or promotional program that may be used or redeemed only to obtain goods or services or a discount on goods or services; (iii) Subscription to websites or platforms or application,” read the notification by CBDT.

Cryptocurrency Prices

The global crypto market capitalisation went down by 4.16 per cent to $863.55 billion as of 8.50 am. The global crypto volume was down by 11.68 per cent to $63.61 billion, as per Coinmarketcap data.

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, was trading at $19,177.27, lower by 5.48 per cent in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) was down by 4.59 per cent to $1,043.95. 

Among other significant coins, Cardano (ADA) was down by 4.35 per cent at $0.4469, Algorand (ALGO) was trading with a loss of 3.25 per cent at $0.3044, Solana (SOL) was trading with a loss of 7.23 per cent at $32.30, Polkadot (DOT) was down by 5.62 per cent at $6.66, and Binance Coin (BNB) was down by 4.92 per cent at $214.52.

Today’s top gainer was MetaversePay (MVP), which was up by 1070.82 per cent at $0.00000959. The top loser was Tweet To Earn (TTE), which was down by 98.26 per cent at $0.0000003449. 

Meme Coin And DeFi Prices

Dogecoin (DOGE) was down by 1.71 per cent at $0.06635. Its volume to market cap ratio stands at 0.05279. Rival Shiba Inu (SHIB) was down by 3.64 per cent at $0.000009927.

Dogelon Mars (ELON) lost 14.25 per cent to trade at $0.0000003069, Floki Inu (FLOKI) lost 1.13 per cent at $0.000005946, and Samoyed Coin (SAMO) rose 0.16 per cent at $0.007179. 

In the DeFi segment, YFI (yearn.finance) was down by 3.16 per cent at $5,326.44, and Terra Classic (LUNC) was trading with a loss of 0.23 per cent at $0.0001257. Avalanche (AVAX) was down by 8.4 per cent at $16.27, Uniswap (UNI) was trading with a loss of 4.89 per cent at $4.77, and Aave (AAVE) fell by 3.7 per cent at $56.19.