ABSTRACT
Ever since imposition of the first income tax, individuals have attempted to evade their tax liabilities. Tax evasion involves the non-payment of a tax liability that taxpayer was legally obligated to pay, usually because relevant information, income, and/or assets have been hidden, concealed or misrepresented to tax authorities. Technological innovation has played a pivotal role in the global response to this problem, with systems providing for the automatic exchange of information, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Common Reporting Standard, revolutionising attempts to combat offshore tax evasion. The legal world which could formerly merely be described as a dilettante in the subject of technology is now having to adapt itself to concepts such as Bitcoin in order to keep up with the financial industry. There will be no information to exchange and regulate by financial institutions for the purposes of tax returns if it is stored as block-chain making it harder to maintain effective tax evasion prevention.
