Taiwan Public Servants May Soon Need to Declare Crypto Holdings

In Taiwan, certain types of property owned by public servants worth more than NT$1 million ($32,900) are subject to disclosure — but not crypto.

Valuable items including cash, deposits, securities and paintings belonging to government officials and employees all need to be disclosed.

The country’s Ministry of Justice has said it’s considering adding crypto to that list. If that happens, government staff would need to declare crypto holdings on an annual basis, according to a statement last week spotted by Forkast.

The Ministry of Justice is a government agency overseeing and managing the legal system in Taiwan.  

Its responsibilities include the administration of justice, the development of legal policies, the management of prisons and correctional facilities as well as the protection of human rights and freedoms.

The ministry does not have the authority to establish laws. It may only propose legislative changes to the Legislative Yuan, which has the power to enact these changes into law.

Any proposed changes will need to head to debate via the unicameral legislature of Taiwan — also known as The Legislative Yuan — before a final decision can be made.

The ministry is in turn responsible for implementing and enforcing those laws, as well as providing legal advice to other branches of government and to the public.

If enacted, the move would thicken Taiwan’s crypto regulations. The government introduced anti-money laundering rules for crypto service providers in July 2021. One year later, roughly 24 crypto firms became the first to be registered under Taiwan’s Money Laundering Control Act.

The securities watchdog of Taiwan then implicitly banned crypto transactions with credit cards in 2022, after issuing a letter to the banking industry association.

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