The Australian Tax Office rules bitcoin to be an asset, not a currency

[cryptofan5]

In the first ruling of its kind the ATO in Australia has ruled that bitcoin and other coins are not currencies and are assets for taxation purposes:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/australian-tax-office-decides-bitcoins-are-assets-not-currency-20140820-1063gq.html

It seems to me that this ruling may have a far reaching consequences - most likely no special licenses would be required to exchange bitcoin since it is not viewed by the government as a financial instrument.

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[itsAj]

This is really no different then how the US IRS treats BTC. The AUS tax office likely used the IRS rules as somewhat of a template to make their own rules. I would doubt that just because AUS considers BTC to be an asset that they would not attempt to regulate it in some way, although it also doens't necessarily mean they will try to regulate it either.