Given that the german tax authority falls under the Ministry of Finance, and the MoF calls it private money, what would lead you to believe that a subordinate agency would attempt to redefine that?
“The German Ministry of Finance does not classify bitcoins as e-money or as a functional currency; they cannot be regarded as a foreign currency. Nevertheless they have to be subsumed under the German term of ‘Rechnungseinheit’ as a financial instrument,” Martin Chaudhuri from the Ministry of Finance
http://translate.google.com/#auto/en/RechnungseinheitMy message did not refer to Germany, see the "<insert country here>" part.
Also, just because a minister says something does not make it a law, merely an interpretation. Maybe the next minister will say the opposite, who knows.
It is a guideline, not a law. In order to become law it has to go through the regular circuit.
I would remain cautious about the whole thing, because right now it's still quite blurry, nothing has been said about the licensing requirements for example, do people who exchange BTC for EUR professionnally or semi-professionnally need a financial license ? Because if you extrapolate the opinion you easily reach the conclusion that yes, to exchange financial instruments as a business you need a license. This sword has two edges.
There has been a ton of hype around this, but the taxman doesn't do hype he does law.
I concur that this is a great thing though, but I'm mildly impressed by this whole thing because once you remove the hype varnish there isn't that much left in terms of cold hard law.
It's a great start, but it's just a start.
in the USA anyone exchanging BTC to any currency professionally or $1000+/day needs a licenses or licenses... if you have read enough posts in these forums you would know that also applies in EU countries.
