It has been known recently in the news that the Swedish government wants to add VAT on Bitcoin trading after receiving a request by a Swedish man trying to establish a Swedish Bitcoin exchange (you can read the story here in Norwegian). The man that contacted the Swedish government is very dissatisfied with their answer and tries to combat their views on Bitcoin trading. He believes that if Sweden enables VAT on Bitcoin trading, it will become useless as a currency.
The Swedish government explains that legal currencies are excepted VAT on trading, however they do not see Bitcoin as a legal and public currency hence it needs VAT. The disagreement has been brought up into the tax tribunal. The tax tribunal forwarded the dispute to the Swedish financial supervisory authority that says: “Since Bitcoin is being used as payment among many international and Swedish companies it must be qualified as a currency”. The tax tribunal has therefore supported the man with his claim that Bitcoin should be excepted VAT.
Read the full story here:
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/11/23/sweden-norway-add-bitcoin-vat-norway-implement-bitcoin-tax/
