It’s even now hitting some investors with “gross carelessness” penalties worth up to 100% of the tax owing.

“They’re saying, ‘Hey, you should have known better,’” Doyle says.

IRD estimates 355,000 New Zealanders have traded roughly $36 billion worth of crypto across 57 million transactions – making it obvious why they’re focused on it.

Doyle says Inland Revenue already had data from New Zealand crypto exchanges showing who converted Kiwi dollars into cryptocurrency, but a new international reporting framework means authorities are now gaining access to even more information from overseas exchanges.

“It would be pretty easy to see from those records who’s trading the most, what’s gone in in terms of New Zealand…