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Title: [2014-08-28] Bitcoin ruling still doesn’t answer which country has the right to Post by: austins on August 28, 2014, 03:52:04 AM http://theconversation.com/bitcoin-ruling-still-doesnt-answer-which-country-has-the-right-to-tax-30817
It’s been about five years since bitcoin emerged online, claiming to be the world’s first digital cryptocurrency. Bitcoin functions as a form of digital cash; really, it is a technology, using cryptography to ensure the validity of transactions and periodically generate new bitcoins. Bitcoin has grown into an industry now worth more than US$6 billion. Title: Re: [2014-08-28] Bitcoin ruling still doesn’t answer which country has the right to Post by: aigeezer on August 28, 2014, 11:48:41 AM I read this to see how the teaser headline ended.
Spoiler: "The question of which country has a right to tax (and ability to enforce tax rules) is increasingly difficult to answer in the digital world. If mining, or trading, bitcoin is a business or service, where does this occur, given that bitcoin operates on a global peer-to-peer network?" The story is out of Australia. I'm in Canada, but I am still very glad I read the story. It outlines many of the issues facing regulators who want to grab a piece of the BTC action and shows some of the unintended consequences of the various approaches floated so far. For example, a capital gains tax approach (CGT) destroys fungibility. Meddlers gotta meddle though, so messy days ahead imho. |