Japanese Government want a piece of BTC action

[toknormal]

They are bankrupt and can't pay their debts no matter how much JPY-no-upper-limit, ink-mineable instamine scam coin is generated by the Central Bank of Japan.

They now want to tax cryptocurrency trades (Good luck on that one).

The only way I see this being enforceable is by regulating the exchanges and making them report the gains to the authorities. Exchanges would probably also need to hold the identities of their customer accounts the way they do at the moment for facilitating fiat transfers.

Of course, they're not going to be able to regulate any exchange outside of Japan so it seems kind of hopeless.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Japan-to-regulate-Bitcoin-trades-impose-taxes

[1715301572]

1715301572

[Wilikon]

I thought they said they wanted international cooperation before making a move

[shields]

They now want to tax cryptocurrency trades (Good luck on that one).

Except it doesn't say that. It says transactions, which is similar to any other country, you need to pay sales tax (or VAT) on transactions the same way you would with fiat. Also gains from trading are typically subject to capital gains everywhere already.

There is no explicit mention that trades on an exchange would be subject to a tax.

[toknormal]

Yes it does. It says:

Gains from trading bitcoins on online exchanges...will be subject to Japanese tax

Additionally (which is the item your are referring to):

Purchases made in bitcoins will be subject to Japan's consumption tax

Then the killer..

But enforcement could prove difficult, as tax authorities will have to track down users

You don't say  

Considering that all the world's main cryptocurrencies now have "not-in-Japan" status plus offline exchanges just around the corner with technologies like NXT, I hope they've got a good contact in the NSA