By Ali Ikhwan 
Australia has taken a major step toward tightening financial oversight of the digital asset sector by releasing draft legislation designed to enable the automatic and cross-border exchange of cryptocurrency tax information. The move aligns the nation with a growing international consensus aimed at curbing offshore tax evasion and closing regulatory loopholes associated with borderless digital currencies.
The newly published draft bill, officially titled the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2026: Tax information reporting, has been opened to public and industry commentary, with the submission window set to close on Oct. 28. According to details provided by the Australian Treasury, the legislation serves a dual purpose. First, it establishes the comprehensive legal framework required to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, commonly known as CARF, into domestic Australian law. Second, it introduces a dedicated domestic crypto reporting regime tailored to capture local digital asset transactions.
This domestic and international reporting push follows a carefully paced trajectory of government consultation and policy signaling. Australia first signaled its intention to implement CARF back in November 2023, joining an international coalition of jurisdictions recognizing the pressing need for standardized reporting standards in the fast-evolving decentralized finance space. Following that initial signal, the Australian government engaged in targeted stakeholder consultations regarding its proposed approach in late 2024, gathering feedback from crypto exchanges, tax professionals, and legal experts.
Momentum behind the initiative picked up further when the government formally announced its concrete plans to implement both CARF and the domestic crypto reporting regime within its 2025–26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. Under the current schedule laid out by fiscal authorities, the actual international exchanges of crypto tax information between participating global tax authorities are expected to officially commence in 2028. This timeline gives digital asset platforms and service providers a multi-year runway to upgrade their compliance infrastructure, update their internal data-gathering mechanisms, and prepare for seamless integration with the new reporting standards.
The international push for CARF originated from the OECD, which officially approved the framework in August 2022. The international body designed CARF specifically to address the mounting tax evasion risks and compliance challenges arising from the rapid growth and widespread adoption of crypto assets. Because traditional international tax transparency frameworks, such as the Common Reporting Standard, were primarily built around traditional banking products and conventional financial institutions, they left significant blind spots regarding digital assets. Crypto-assets can be transferred rapidly across borders, stored in decentralized wallets, and traded on exchanges operating in multiple jurisdictions without touching traditional correspondent banking networks. CARF was formulated precisely to bridge this gap, ensuring that tax administrations receive standardized, reliable information on crypto transactions from the service providers facilitating them.
As the consultation period for the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2026 progresses toward its late October deadline, Australian authorities are continuing to gather critical industry perspectives. The rollout of these platform rules represents a monumental shift for the local digital economy, transitioning cryptocurrency from a largely opaque asset class into a fully integrated component of the global financial reporting architecture. With international data sharing anticipated to begin in 2028, Australian crypto holders and service providers alike are facing a new era of transparency, where global tax authorities will possess unprecedented visibility into offshore and domestic digital asset holdings.
Sagoh 
Basiran 
Nana Wu