Taiwanese Crypto Trader's 6-Cent Fee Leads to $310K Win in Tax-Receipt Lottery

Luck and leverage are key elements of many a crypto trader's success. Sometimes, though, all it takes is luck.

A trader on Taiwan’s MaiCoin Max crypto exchange is 10 Million NTD ($310,000) richer, not because of trading profit but rather a monthly lottery involving tax receipts.

This particular trader didn’t dive deep into some small-cap token that went to the moon, but rather has his fortune because MaiCoin pays its taxes.

Taiwan enforces tax compliance on retailers through something it calls the “Uniform Invoice Lottery.” Retailers that make over a certain amount in revenue are required to give the customer an official receipt, and an electronic copy of the receipt is sent to tax authorities.

This receipt doubles as a lottery ticket number, and every month, the authorities run a draw for a series of cash prizes, starting with the grand prize of 10 million NTD ($310,000).

For MaiCoin, every time a trade is made on its platform, the profit on the spread it makes and the service fees it collects are a taxable event; therefore, its top traders might have dozens, if not hundreds, of these virtual receipts.

The scheme was first introduced in Taiwan in the 1950s as a way to incentivize tax compliance by downloading the enforcement to the consumer. People making trivial daily purchases, such as newspapers or snacks, sometimes find themselves much richer after the monthly draw.

While tax authorities around the world struggle with how to capture tax revenue from crypto, Taiwan might have found a solution in a decades-old scheme.

Who says retail traders – and the tax man – can’t profit in a bear market?