BRASILIA, June 18 (Reuters) - Brazil's tax authority

will soon call foreign crypto exchanges not based in the country

to explain their operations and how they cooperate with local

service providers, government officials told Reuters on Monday.

The tax revenue service is expected to publish this week an

ordinance summoning these companies for further information.

Unlike exchanges formally established in Brazil, they are not

obligated to report transactions conducted on their platforms.

"It's an area of concern for us to understand first how they

operate here, whether there's any illegality or not. We are also

concerned about having information on Brazilian wealth subject

to taxation here," said Andrea Chaves, deputy secretary of

inspection at the federal revenue service.

Wagner Lima, risk management coordinator at the revenue

service, said the government also aims to understand how these

exchanges cooperate with service providers in the country to

ensure they provide information as required by the tax revenue

service under a 2019 regulation.

Among the exchanges not based in Brazil but operating in the

country and even having Portuguese-language websites are

Binance, Coinbase, OKX, and KuCoin.

The call comes amid a surge in crypto assets in Latin

America's largest economy.

From January to July 2023, Brazilians declared 133.6 billion

reais ($24.6 billion) in crypto assets, a 36.6% increase from

the same period the previous year, according to the latest data

from the revenue service, which is working on a technological

update to release new figures.

Of this total, 14.5 billion reais were declared using

exchanges abroad, a 51.2% growth on the same basis. In this

case, providing information to the government depends on

taxpayers, whether individuals or legal entities.

($1 = 5.4245 reais)