Just saw this and thought it was interesting.

“The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property and, when it’s sold at a profit, it will assess a capital-gains tax. If, that is, the IRS knows the transaction occurred.”

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-irs-wants-to-know-all-about-your-bitcoin-holdings-and-this-court-summons-is-a-reminder-11617629318

IANA tax expert but I’m guessing the same applies here to the extent that the IRD has an ‘intention’ test. If you buy something with the intention of holding it long-term, if there’s a profit when you sell it, the profit is regarded as a capital gain and no tax is payable on the profit.

However if you buy something with the intention of selling it for a profit, the profit is assessable for income tax (but not CGT as in the US).

I guess there’s nothing new here for NZ’ers except to the extent that cryptocurrencies are still fairly new and IRD may not have looked into them yet. There’s not much difference between cryptos and shares - and shares have been subject to this test for a long time. IRD’s difficulty will be in determining or proving what your intention was when you bought something that you later sold at a profit. I wonder if they will go looking like IRS is.