Germany Recognizes Bitcoin As “Private Money”; Sales Tax Coming Soon

TechCrunch ^ | August 19, 2013 | Romain Dillet

[Olog-hai]

After a parliamentary inquiry, Germany has clarified its position on Bitcoin. The federal ministry of finance recognized Bitcoins as “units of account”—the cryptocurrency is therefore be considered as “private money”. That’s why, according to Die Welt, the government stated that there wouldn’t be a tax exemption on commercial activities that use Bitcoins. In addition to paying capital gains tax, Bitcoin users should now pay sales tax (VAT) as well.

Member of Parliament Frank Schaeffler considers Bitcoin mining as private money creation, and says that the same fiscal and legal rules should apply to Euros and Bitcoins. Yet, it is still unclear how the sales tax will be implemented. For example, an individual who sells something on eBay every now and then doesn’t have to bother with sales tax. It should be the same with Bitcoin transactions. …

[kingu]

And now the message to all businesses in Germany: If you accept Bitcoin, you’re going to have to charge VAT. Which will have to be collected at the same time in cash, and pretty much eliminate the currency as a medium of exchange. I suppose some businesses could attempt to pay those taxes themselves, but that won’t last very long.

And good luck filing your taxes for mined bitcoins; what value you apply to the mined currency will certainly be well out of date by the time your taxes are processed.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It was just a matter of time. Germany won’t be the last.

[The Working Man]

The Power to tax is the power to destroy.

[MeganC]

Next up will be the taxes on the treasures you find in WoW.

[Myrddin]

The capital gains angle will kill it. How do you establish a basis price? If you remit payment as a bitcoin and the value skyrockets during the interval between submission and acceptance, who gets hit for the appreciation? You may have to lock down the value to the nearest point in time...perhaps milliseconds on a day with much churn in value. Against which currency will the appreciation be evaluated? Euros, USD and yuan move differently.

[mikrofon]

Ich bin ein Bitcoiner

[naturalborn]

If any Germans want to unload their bitcoins tax free, they may send them to my bitcoin address:

1tAZu6axgqkaP4VNE2p5AKar4LQfDNoVA

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[Errant]

Was wondering why the jump in their price. Good news, IMO. Next, maybe LiteCoins...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Ich bin ein Bitcoiner”

ROFLMAO! Post Of The Day! :)