UK Introduces Bill to Clarify Bitcoin + Crypto's Legal Status

[Amphenomenon]

The Labour government said the bill will give owners of bitcoin and other digital assets greater legal protection.

The bill introduces a new personal property category of "thing" that will apply to certain digital assets.

Once enacted, it will help the legal profession determine ownership in disputes such as divorce and provide protection to crypto owners subject to scams and fraud.

The UK government are planning to be one of the first countries to make such law and also from the fact that it will also attract foreign investors to them, what's your take on these?
Though I'm curious what will be or has been the taxes implemented for digital currency in Uk?

Source: www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/11/uk-introduces-bill-to-clarify-cryptos-legal-status/amp/

[Z-tight]

Good news i believe, for crypto users in the U.K. It is always good if governments establish clear laws guiding the use of crypto in their country, rather than one of uncertainty, inconsistency and no precedent.

If the bill becomes law, crypto users in the U.K will know that their coins are now regarded as 'personal property' under the laws of the country. It is a good development for them and would aid them in litigations.

[Ambatman]

Good news i believe, for crypto users in the U.K. It is always good if governments establish clear laws guiding the use of crypto in their country, rather than one of uncertainty, inconsistency and no precedent.

If the bill becomes law, crypto users in the U.K will know that their coins are now regarded as 'personal property' under the laws of the country. It is a good development for them and would aid them in litigations.

Not just them
It might serve as a precedence to other countries to start adopting same.

Though I'm curious what will be or has been the taxes implemented for digital currency in Uk?

Source: www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/11/uk-introduces-bill-to-clarify-cryptos-legal-status/amp/

  https://www.blockpit.io/tax-guides/crypto-tax-united-kingdom-hmrc#:~:text=Capital Gains Tax for Crypto in the UK,-Capital Gains Tax&text=Only the gain is taxed,this amount without paying CGT.

Way friendlier than what Miss Kamala is aiming for.

[serjent05]

Good news i believe, for crypto users in the U.K. It is always good if governments establish clear laws guiding the use of crypto in their country, rather than one of uncertainty, inconsistency and no precedent.

If the bill becomes law, crypto users in the U.K will know that their coins are now regarded as 'personal property' under the laws of the country. It is a good development for them and would aid them in litigations.

Not just them
It might serve as a precedence to other countries to start adopting same.

This is also what I thought when I read @OP.  UK being the first starter to introduce bill to clarify stuff would give a huge influence to other country.  Although this is a great news, there is also a possibility that the government will implement regulation where the freedom of anonymous transfer such as P2P would be monitored or need to report.  We know when the authority gets into something, often times the regulation implemented are somehow ridiculous.

Though I'm curious what will be or has been the taxes implemented for digital currency in Uk?

Source: www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/11/uk-introduces-bill-to-clarify-cryptos-legal-status/amp/

  https://www.blockpit.io/tax-guides/crypto-tax-united-kingdom-hmrc#:~:text=Capital Gains Tax for Crypto in the UK,-Capital Gains Tax&text=Only the gain is taxed,this amount without paying CGT.

Way friendlier than what Miss Kamala is aiming for.

Isn't this the normal flaw of taxes?  Government only tax gains and not the capital itself, and if the person is in negative he don't have to pay for taxes because he did not gain anything, he just to make a report of it though...

[nelson4lov]

Isn't this the normal flaw of taxes?  Government only tax gains and not the capital itself, and if the person is in negative he don't have to pay for taxes because he did not gain anything, he just to make a report of it though...

It is. But Kamala proposed that unrealized gains be taxed too. If this is in effect, it means an unrealized position will be taxed and even if the position ends up in the negative, people will still be charged on their losses. That's why the one UK is proposing will be a lot better than that of US that Kamala wants to enact.

~Snipped

Once enacted, it will help the legal profession determine ownership in disputes such as divorce and provide protection to crypto owners subject to scams and fraud

It's good to have some clarity on where crypto stands in a crypto so that people can make more informed decisions. For instance, in my country, it's unclear whether any involvement in crypto is punishable by low or not so it's like a grey area. That's why this seems like a good move imo but Government setting the pace for crypto is how they get back on the driving seat.

[icalical]

The UK's new bill is a great move to give a clearer indication of the legal status of crypto. By classifying it as personal property, this protects the owners of crypto, such as Bitcoin, Altcoins and even NFT, from fraud and scams. It also settles other legal disputes, like divorce cases, by indicating the manner of treatment concerning digital assets. This may attract more investment in this industry, therefore setting the UK apart in terms of crypto regulation.

This, however, is not an investor's free pass. Currently, the UK already has a system in place for taxing digital assets whereby capital gains tax is levied at the point when one sells or trades crypto and makes a profit. Moreover, since crypto is yet to mature, we are sure there will be future updates as far as taxing it is concerned.

[Helena Yu]

Oh man this is a bad news.

The authority will track all of your coins and addresses because when you didn't leave your coins in CEX, the government have no way to know the address that not associated with CEX. Not to mention they will not accept certain UTXO or coins if they feel you receive a coins from blacklisted address.

Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous if we tell all of our coins and addresses to the authority.

[davis196]

The UK government are planning to be one of the first countries to make such law and also from the fact that it will also attract foreign investors to them, what's your take on these?

I don't believe that foreign crypto investors will move to the UK, just because the UK parliament imposed new crypto regulations.
The foreign investors are mostly interested in lower prices of labor, electricity and real estate(and lower taxes). The UK is known for high prices of almost everything.
I don't mind the UK government trying to provide better legal protection for the owners of crypto. This doesn't necessarily mean that crypto will become widely adopted in the United Kingdom. By the way, are there any cryptocurrency miners located in the UK?

[Maslate]

The law is indeed good because it focuses more on protecting bitcoin owners, but if you look at the negative side, not just of this particular law but of all that offer protection, we will lose our privacy in holding bitcoin because the word "accounting" will be included, which requires determining who the holders are, or perhaps they will also require declaring the value of your holdings. Isn't that risky for us if ever the information leaks to the criminals?

[TheUltraElite]

So from what I read, the bill declares "these coins belong to someone" - how is that going to work when the coins keep getting exchanged by wallets, mixers and casinos? Their main objective is for property declarations and inheritance when things go bad for the family. I did not see much of "Regulation" or anything of that sort here.

Although this will help catch bad people, almost everyone will have to pay taxes now depending on the UK taxation system, which I am not much aware of.

Things might get clear once it is passed.

[slaman29]

I always feel like regulations are usually seen as a bad thing, but I think in developed countries, yes it usually means more tax, but clarity is better than confusion IMO.

To me, most people are ok with paying tax especially you should see us in countries you pay tax but get shit back lol. I don't know but UK at least seems to put tax to good use, I think crypto people shouldn't complain toooo much

But OTOH I'm always suspicious when governments say its for your protection.

[Fiatless]

Oh man this is a bad news.

We have to wait to see the entire content of the bill before concluding that it is a bad move. Information regarding the bill is still sketchy, but it includes legal backing for divorce and scam issues as it relates to cryptocurrencies. The crypto industry is still growing, so it needs more laws to cover many issues, and some of them might not necessarily be bad. At least lawyers or judges should be able to have a law they anchor their judgement on when it comes to divorce cases that include crypto assets.

[shield132]

The UK government are planning to be one of the first countries to make such law and also from the fact that it will also attract foreign investors to them, what's your take on these?
Though I'm curious what will be or has been the taxes implemented for digital currency in Uk?

It won't attract foreign investors. Foreign investors are attracted by low taxes and cheap human labour. In my country, many crypto projects and many foreign investors are trying to start a crypto business, especially big companies like BitFury and Binance because they get tax-free zones and don't pay import duties.

Good news i believe, for crypto users in the U.K. It is always good if governments establish clear laws guiding the use of crypto in their country, rather than one of uncertainty, inconsistency and no precedent.

If the bill becomes law, crypto users in the U.K will know that their coins are now regarded as 'personal property' under the laws of the country. It is a good development for them and would aid them in litigations.

That should have been done way earlier because many people are confused when there are uncertain laws and people don't know what to do with their coins. Should they pay taxes, should they declare their Bitcoin holdings, should Bitcoin get split once a couple of divorces, etc... These things are unclear even in my country which is crypto business-friendly.
According to laws, salary received from foreign countries should be declared but I know many people that work remotely in crypto companies and declare nothing because laws don't mention crypto. At the moment that's okay but governments are sometimes so shady that they'll make a law and will ask you to pay for past actions.

[NotATether]

Oh man this is a bad news.

The authority will track all of your coins and addresses because when you didn't leave your coins in CEX, the government have no way to know the address that not associated with CEX. Not to mention they will not accept certain UTXO or coins if they feel you receive a coins from blacklisted address.

Bitcoin is no longer pseudonymous if we tell all of our coins and addresses to the authority.

Bad news? They already track your coins, and exchanges already hand that data over to the governments when they ask, that's why they require KYC.

For me, this whole thing is one giant nothingburger, except maybe the fact that Bitcoin went up by a few hundred dollars suddenly might have something to do with this but that's it. It's not really something to stress over about as long as there isn't language about banning anonymous transactions, unknown addresses, mxiers etcmixers

[ImThour]

Overall, a bullish news for Crypto however I don't think UK will be the first country to do that as you mentioned in the OP? Many countries and nations are doing it already.
The fact that they are not keeping Crypto in gray is the best. Much better than making your citizens aware of the legalization rather than making a fool of them.

It's just a beginning. To get BTC over $100k, many nations will have to adopt. And this will happen in 2025.

[pooya87]

This may look cool and all at first glance but in my experience these things always end in one thing and that's more surveillance. So far in the past 15 years since Bitcoin's inception, no government has shown any interest in "protecting people". They have all been interested in controlling and monitoring people though!

It may start by them telling you they want to "protect your assets" but soon they will ask you to register all your addresses, suddenly using DEX becomes illegal, any coins you receive that had a history of being mixed would become "tainted" and you will have to answer for it, and so on...

[ethereumhunter]

Yes, that is a good news for Bitcoin. That will be interesting if the UK government can implements that law in the near because that can attracts more new investor. They will realize that Bitcoin become more popular and the government gives a legal protection to the owners of Bitcoin and other digital assets.

But I wonder if that news can helps to lift Bitcoin in price or not because it seems that will be more than that news to make Bitcoin price increase. If that news can help Bitcoin price increase and more good news come, that will changes the market moves and hopefully, the correction will not go down too deep. But no matters what will happen, we must be prepares for the worst and not just thinks about the good because everything can happen to the market.