Bitcoin Forum

U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, bought bitcoins for the first time from Cointrader.net’s
Full Story:- http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/uk-chancellor-george-osborne-buys-bitcoin/2014/08/06
https://i.imgur.com/QnBDVFv.jpg

Very interesting! Also I love your Real Eyes slogan :)


What does the Chancellor of the Exchequer doo? Chancellor of Exchange is what that stands for? Either way, it is very helpful when people who are in the spotlight or government do these types of things. Bitcoin could stand to gain more of this type of thing and hopefully we get more government and their staffers to use Bitcoin and give us good publicity.

he's the guy in control of the countries budgets. he is the one that says that social security gets X amount this year, military gets Y amounts this year and healthcare gets Z.... oh and the guy that ensures he receives A, B and C amounts.

in short he is the accountant/book keeper of the government funding (tax)

"Run this by me again - I can still use this stuff to extract PAYE and VAT  - but me and my Bullingdon Club chums won't have to pay a fuckin penny ? I'm sold on it already"

So keeping that in mind sooner or later he's gonna be the man that will try to regulate bitcoins and face criticism from the community...!

Thought would be Ozzy Osbourne  ;D

Anyway, good news see government people using bitcoin, just hope they don't end up betraying it

This is an encouraging statement from the UK government. Bitcoin may be regulated in the uk soon, but is not illegal. I am surprised to see the C of E showing high profile support for bitcoin.

I thought it was Ozzy too but I'm more impressed by this.

Fuck it, I'm moving out of the country for good now, I know you guys outside of the UK won't know much about George Osborne but this guy knows even less about the economy than Paul Krugman, the fact that he's wanting to put VAT on Bitcoins means he's going to tax UK Bitcoin users hard, in fact, I think the UK a probably going to see Bitcoin as a way of getting more tax income in general.

Banks are extremely well established here and have a strangehold on everything financial, so they're going to do everything they can to control Bitcoin and make it unappealing for people to use.

Although I'm not from UK but just two posts above I posted exactly why the bitcoin community gonna hate him eventually, its no rocket science to understand that why a politician will do no good with/to btc .

in the UK the HMRC is still in the official stance that although an asset officially. it should unofficially be treated as an asset currency. much like how someone exchanging pounds for euro's wouldnt have 20% less euro value.

we will soon see

I wonder if he had better luck than the guys on Tested (the youtube channel that just uploaded that video where they get their money stuck on the machine and can't withdraw)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=727176.0

Good to see people in positions that high getting some hands-on experience with Bitcoin. They are supposed to decide so many things and often don't even know what those things are. I believe politicians could use that kind of experience in order to get to know Bitcoin better!

I think a congressman did the same thing when a Bitcoin ATM was installed in capital hill. It made the news and everything. I do wonder just how much use it get though.

I defiantly think this is very good for bitcoin as it will likely cause it to be seen less of a threat to governments.

I agree, this is likely a good thing for bitcoin in this country!

Im glad I'm not the only one who clicked the thread thinking it would be Ozzy. Haha.

This is good news a good publicity for bitcoin. I hope they realize the importance of bitcoin.

Didn't noticed it at all ,although I tried search feature but it comes up with totally irrelevant results.

Good news. Still waiting when the Queen would buy BTC :D

Osborne - gangster  :o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NobmesYbjKM

It's good to see that members from the government are getting in on this hopefully they will see the good of bitcoin and not want to be so controlling over it in the long run. With George Osbourne though he is someone I wouldn't trust with a barge pole at the minute and you never know what he may be thinking. Hopefully this is good publicity for bitcoin.

I'm curious, given that I know nothing about British politics, how exactly does he plan to tax Bitcoin via VAT? Is he going to try and get legislation that forces businesses to pay tax on any transaction whereby they accept Bitcoin - because that's the only way I'd think it would work.

Ditto although now I want Ozzy Osborne to go to a Bitcoin ATM and have someone take a picture of it as well
Ozzy uses Bitcoin would be another neat headline since Osborne is taken lol.

That said this is interesting as well, from the country of porn bans and internet censorship and Bitcoin VAT taxes proposed to the dailymail with its tabloid articles its an interesting enough place to munch popcorn in lol.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2718720/American-Apparel-resorting-porn-sell-Back-School-range.html
http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/07/american-apparel-causes-outrage-again-with-new-advertising-campaign-that-uses-underage-porn-4824475/
http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/07/never-mail-order-sex-toys-this-excruciating-tale-involving-the-new-fleshlight-explains-why-4824856/

As an aside lol.

As I understand it transactions are still liable for VAT. So if goods or services are liable for VAT, VAT needs to be payed. I think its the most level approach there is. So not on exchange.

On purchase. If I buy something the price = X+Vat same as normal.

Its good news for advertising BTC but not if he try to legalize and take a part of a cookie

businesses in the UK selling products and services that are IN the scope of VAT. will have to charge VAT, no matter what currency they accept.
merchants dont see this as a problem as they already price their products to include VAT anyway and as such when cashing out alternative currency back to fiat, they just pay the VAT bill of the products the same way as they always have.

but some people have the hyped up theory that UK government want to charge VAT on swapping bitcoin for FIAT (burueau de change / exchanges) as oppose to the selling of goods or services. i do not think this will happen as bitcoin is not 'in the scope' of passing the means test of being a 'value added' product.

simplified:
the 'value added' is where the raw product has then been modified or prepared in such a manner that the end result given to the customer is different enough to add more value to the customer.

such as a uncooked food item, being cooked.
such as a lump of plastic being made into a plastic cup.
such as sand being made into glass
such as a tomato being made into a sauce.

where as a bitcoin is just a bitcoin and will always be a bitcoin. and so HMRC, are so far leaving bitcoin OUT of SCOPE in regards to VAT. but this does not mean if you sell a TV for bitcoin, that you can sell the TV at the ex-vat fiate value of bitcoins. the TV still has VAT added and you will need to pay the VAT of the TV to HMRC

Before he can tax them, Osborne first needs to know who owns bitcoins.  ;D

For the majority of people, solutions such as Dark Wallet should keep 'authorities' at bay.

As I understand it second hand goods by virtue of having had VAT payed on them when first sold are not liable for VAT.

If you are a retailer - you would probably be charging VAT anyway so no big deal.

If you're talking about the same guys I was thinking of, they were morons who didn't bother paying the transaction fee on their Bitcoin wallet so they could transfer everything fast so like other people who do this they're probably going to get their money in several decades. Just from the way they were talking it was obvious they had done fuck all research before actually checking things out before hand and they also picked what I'd call one of the worse Bitcoin ATMs out there, there are way simpler ones than the stupid RoboCoin machines.

Well that is a surprising sight. Never thought I'd see a UK politician using a bitcoin machine. I hope he can understand the greatness of the technology and not do his best to restrict it.

I'd prefer politicians stay far away from bit coin. Once they figure out that they can use it to pull even more money out of our pockets they will bite down like a pit bull.

Yeah many are doing this. And I can't help but wonder whether they initially just do this in order to receive free PR or some exposure to the public. But if they actually 'get' the technology and usefulness, their motives don't matter. They've learned something new and will be able to make better decisions because of that.

i guess you need to google "hullcoin" too. local member of parliament (Hull MP) is interested in what the altcoin guys have in mind for a local currency just for the hull area.

american translation
a 'city official' is looking at some guys in the altcoin scene to start a city coin (maybe the start of a UK version of the U.S new hampshire project)

I do understand why people 'like' or 'care for' local currencies, but apart from that I really don't think why you should use them? The best thing about a currency effectively is the degree of acceptance in various places. That's one of the beautiful things of the EURO, for example. It doesn't make any sense to make a small, fragile, coin that's only used in a tiny region!

I wonder if he bought it himself? Probably used taxpayers money and claimed it back on his expenses if he did.

I'll be keeping a close eye on what Mr Osbourne has to say on bitcoin. Hope it's positive but I'm not myself.

Now when will governments start to buy bitcoins, they all hold some gold so the more legit crypto's become the more likely this can happen.

the 'ideology' of a local currency is so that someone that works in the town hands his funds to a business that is based in that town (basically national/international corporate retailers are exempt from being allowd to handle the local currency) thus people can choose to only do business with 'locals' by knowing this currency means the funds wont hit a bank account in another area/country, but stay in circulation within the town.

its like bitcoin ideology not wanting government to grab our wealth but only have wealth being passed between normal people. which are both not 100% fulfilled ideologies especially when people cash out bitcoins to pay electric bills, taxes or regulation licences. or merchants cash out to buy stock from foreign countries.


and keep your brain switch on too. as osbourne is 2 faced, he says publicly one thing, but then months later we find out he has voted on a new 'act' that means another.

so far the chiefs of HMRC (UK's IRS basically) seem to treat bitcoin as it deserves to be treated. but who knows what whip osbourne slaps across their asses to change later

It is wonderful that people in those positions get their hands on our little golden coins! How would they know about it if they haven't tried it. All their counselors don't know jack. They only know the old monetary systems and just keep on pointing out the 'risks' of Bitcoin and not the advantages!!!

wow more bigger and bigger . bitcoin will be amazing. just curious when atm has been in market and hacker set on atm to steal all .

Call me a sceptic but I just can't see these clowns being big supporters of such a technology.

I think this will also help increase adaption of bitcoin as many people watch and believe in whatever the royal family does.

I dont know why many of you are worrying, I mean we can launder bitcoins and mix them trade them, how can govs keep track of a fast moving technology that is not there yet, this is to beyond for them to control now.  only the scared will pay the taxes on alt currency.

It definitely will be a good PR for anyone seeing that video or a report about that incident! It gives legitimacy to something if people in those positions use it. Many people will have to rethink their stance that "Bitcoin is money used to buy drugs", if they see those people using it! A great PR!

Could this be somewhat related to Russia's attitude towards Bitcoin? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=720724.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=720724.0).

Whoa, who's that guy?? Is he like part of the Royal Family?? The one with the Queen and those princes? If they really are embracing Bitcoin, I mean wow, there could be a lot of money coming in. They're all traditional, I know, but they also gotta pay their bills... (Do they actually have to pay bills on their own???)

He's the one who takes the Financial decision for British government .
Google is your friends (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=George+Osborne)

Very interesting! Also I love your Real Eyes slogan Smiley

A quick google will give you the definition of what you're looking for:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters, equivalent to the role of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations.

He's a politician and has zero relation to the royal family. I'm sure he's just interested in bitcoin and what it can do as it's his job to know the risks or how they can make money off it.

In other words he is a very influential person in regards to the finances of the country. He holds a similar role that Alan Greenspan held in the mid 2000's.