As part of an investigation into his NFT transactions, Amitabh Bachchan, a Bollywood superstar, has paid more than 1 crore ($131,000).
Since a huge-money auction last year, tax officials have been closely following the 79-year old — a legend in Indian cinema and television —
In November 2021, Bachchan’s NFT collections generated over 7 crore dollars ($917,000) in revenues.
His bill is tied to the 18% Integrated Goods and Services Tax that is levied on non-fungible tokens.
Bachchan settled the bill following a notice from the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence. However, an investigation is ongoing.
Star’s NFT repertoire included him reciting Madhushala (a famous collection of poems written by his father).
Fans were also able to bid on digital posters and images through the BeyondLife.club auction.
Bachchan was the first Indian actor who embraced digital assets — his sale is said to have broken all records for India’s highest-ever NFT sales.
He stated that the sale was a proud moment and opens up new avenues for stars to connect with their fans.
NFTs are a great way to connect with my fans in this digital age. My supporters were thrilled to invest in my NFTs and some of my most precious and personal moments from my career and life, which I successfully auctioned. “
Many celebrities have followed their lead — including Salman Khan, a Bollywood actor, and Zaheer Khan, a star cricketer.
India Starts Taxing
India is seeing an increase in investigations into investors who are involved in trading or possessing cryptocurrencies and other non-fungible tokens.
This comes just a few days after Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister, presented proposals to tax digital assets in parliament.
All cryptocurrency gains will be subject to a 30% tax later this year. This puts digital assets in the highest bracket of the country. This category would also include airdrops of NFTs and coins.
Each crypto transaction will be subject to a 1% levie — which could significantly reduce the volume trades in the country.
Zerodha founder Nithin kamath predicted that India’s crypto volume would “fall off a cliff” once this plan is implemented. This was not surprising considering how much this would eat into investors capital.
The government also confirmed that these taxes cannot be used to offset other business expenses.
Indian crypto exchanges initially welcomed the new tax system as a sign that India doesn’t intend to ban digital assets such as Bitcoin. However, Sitharaman warned that these rules shouldn’t be taken to mean that cryptocurrencies have legal status.
The new measures are designed to discourage crypto investors from doing transactions — the 1% levy is prohibitive for speculative traders.
CoinDesk reports that some Indian crypto exchange leaders are considering challenging the government’s tax system at the Supreme Court.
The country’s highest court overturned two years ago a controversial ban by Reserve Bank of India which prohibited financial institutions from accepting crypto-related payments.
