- ConsenSys, the parent company for MetaMask, shuts down claims of the company charging customers taxes on crypto transactions.
- ConsenSys responded to claims before they had a chance to spread any further.
- ConsenSys posted the disclaimer on their Twitter account.
- The company claims the tax section in their terms of service has nothing to do with MetaMask or crypto services.
- Even before ConsenSys shut down rumors, crypto community members were debunking the claims on Twitter.
MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys, has come out to debunk inaccurate claims of them collecting tax on crypto transactions.
The company shut down all rumors of them collecting tax from cryptocurrency users as quickly as they sprung up, with them informing their 270,000 followers on Twitter in the early hours of May 22 that the claims of collecting tax on crypto transactions were inaccurate and gotten from a misreading of the terms of service for MetaMask.
ConsenSys clarified that the tax section on their terms of service was out there to refer to products and plans offered by ConsenSys exclusively and has no relations with on-chain crypto transactions.
They emphasized that while legal terminology could be complex, it is crucial to note that the tax section has no ties with MetaMask or any products offered without involvement with tax sales.
MetaMask does not collect taxes on any crypto transactions, and the company has not made any recent changes in its terms of service to do so. The misinformation was spread in the crypto community when certain community members noted the terms of service on May 21, stating that MetaMask reserved the right to withhold taxes where necessary, and the persons who had mentioned it believed it was related to a user’s income taxes.
The misinformation rapidly spread into the crypto space. It even made the front page of r/cryptocurrency on Reddit, where it received more than 500 upvotes and 600 at the time of its publication, and it was quickly followed by screenshots of the highlighted sections making it to Twitter.
Users began speculating the possibility of MetaMask now starting to tread the same part as Ledger, which recently surprised its users with a controversial upgrade.
The rumor was, however, not believed by everyone, and some of the crypto community immediately shut down the claims and asked for them to wait for a response from MetaMask itself. One Twitter user —printer_brrr— wrote, “If you buy a product from them, they can withhold taxes like sales tax for the product purchased, just like Amazon does when you purchase a product from them.”
Conclusion
MetaMask has been rolling out crypto-related features for a while now, with the latest part allowing users to purchase ETH via PayPal, and back in April, the company added a new fiat purchase feature for cryptocurrency.
The platform also has a staking marketplace, Ethereum staking. They have several rollouts over the year by the company to support their crypto plans.
