Episode 1: One Phone Call from Home, and the Winter Ten Years Ago
H2. A Melbourne Morning, and a Notification I Wasn't Expecting
It was 7:30 am on Wednesday, 15 July 2026. The winter sun in Melbourne fell in a low slant across my office window. The air outside was properly cold, but the desk lamp threw a warm, yellowish glow over my desk. I took a sip of coffee gone cold — bitter, lingering on my tongue longer than I'd have liked. Then, almost without thinking, I unlocked my phone.
A notification was sitting there on the screen.
"Crypto asset income tax confirmed to take effect from 1 January 2027."
My fingers paused mid-air.
The coffee cup was still warm in my hand, but that sentence on the screen felt strangely cold. It took me straight back to the winter, ten years ago, when I first bought Bit coin. Back then, "tax" wasn't even a word I'd have connected to this market.
I was barely out of my teens, just watching the numbers on the screen go up and down, laughing one day and gutted the next.
A realistic 8K image, pastel rainbow tones. A wide shot of a desk by a window catching the Melbourne morning light, a coffee cup and an old diary beside it, and a phone screen softly glowing with a notification. 'Kim' engraved in the corner.
H2. A Call from Home — Jaehoon's Voice
My phone rang. Jaehoon's name lit up the screen. It would've been late afternoon back in Korea, but he was always the first to ring whenever news like this dropped.
"Mate, did you see it? They're actually taxing us now."
I laughed. I could hear footsteps and background noise on his end, like he was out walking somewhere.
"Starting 2027, apparently. But this isn't the first time, is it? Remember how many times it got pushed back?"
"Oh, that's right... they said 2022 originally, then it kept getting delayed. You reckon this one's actually going ahead?"
"No idea. Saw an article saying some politicians are already pushing for another delay."
We ended up chatting about the old days for a while — how nobody quite believed it when tax first came up, and how now it suddenly felt real.
Jaehoon paused for a second, then asked,
"But you're in Australia, so it doesn't really touch you, does it?"
"Turns out it's not that simple. Apparently if I don't sort out my Korean accounts before this kicks in, it could still catch up with me."
After we hung up, I pulled an old diary out from the back of my desk drawer.
H2. An Old Diary, and Where I'm At Now
H3. The First Page, and Who I Was Back Then
The moment I opened it, that slightly musty paper smell hit me. On the very first page, in handwriting that wasn't quite straight, it read:
"Bought Bit coin for the first time today. Still not really sure what it is."
Next to it was a tiny note of the price that day. No mention of tax anywhere. Of course there wasn't — back then, nobody was even sure this thing would ever count as a proper "asset." I'd just followed a mate, opened an account, and put in some money I'd saved from part-time work.
Ten years on, I flipped to a different section. Pages full of notes from the last few months — how to lodge a tax return in Australia, how different things look depending on whether you sell before or after the 12-month mark. Keeping track of this stuff has become second nature now.
As I ran my fingers over the pages, it felt like ten years were slipping past under my fingertips.
A realistic 8K image, pastel rainbow tones. A close-up of a finger turning a page, the old entries and recent entries of a worn diary overlapping. Real, tactile paper texture. 'Kim' engraved in the corner.
H2. A Call with David — What Sits Behind the Numbers
That afternoon I rang David, my accountant. He's always had that calm, matter-of-fact way of making complicated things sound simple — and he's been sorting my tax for close to ten years now.
"Saw the news out of Korea. Starting 2027 — does that affect me too?"
I heard papers shuffling on his end, a habit of his.
"Depends where you're a tax resident. You're an Australian resident now, so Australian CGT rules will most likely take priority over the Korean system.
That said, if you've still got assets or accounts sitting in Korea, we'd need to look at double taxation too."
"So there's nothing I need to do right now?"
"Not yet. But it might be worth sorting out what to do with anything left in Korea before 2027 rolls around. No rush — just better to know early than get caught off guard later."
After I hung up, it struck me that this whole conversation would've been unimaginable ten years ago. Back then, all I watched was the price moving up and down.
Now, I'm someone who has to understand where my own assets sit, crossing between countries and systems.
H2. Winter Outside, and What's Left Unanswered
By evening, the Melbourne wind had turned properly cold. Streetlights were flicking on one by one outside my window.
I closed the diary and thought — tax, in the end, is probably just a rite of passage for anyone who sticks around this market long enough.
Not something to fear, but something worth simply knowing.
Still, a few things were nagging at me.
Whether Korea's new system would actually go ahead this time, or get pushed back again. And exactly how things work here in Australia, where I actually live now.
I made a mental note to ask David more about the Australian side next time, and jotted this down on the last page of the diary:
"Tax isn't something to run from — knowing it early just makes it less frightening."
A realistic 8K image, pastel rainbow tones. A medium shot from behind, someone closing a diary with streetlights glowing outside the window at dusk. Warm mix of sunset and indoor lighting. 'Kim' engraved in the corner.
Kim's Rule for Today: "Tax isn't something to run from — knowing it early just makes it less frightening."
Next episode: Next time, I'll walk through what it's actually like living here in Australia — the CGT (Capital Gains Tax) system I came to properly understand through David, and why that 12-month mark matters so much.
Disclaimer
This content is a creative narrative based on general tax information confirmed as at 15 July 2026, combined with personal experience.
Conversations between characters are reconstructed for storytelling purposes. Tax laws vary by country and individual circumstances, and are subject to change or delay.
This post does not recommend any specific investment or tax strategy — please consult a registered tax professional for actual filing or investment decisions.