A conservative member (MP) of the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Parliament has said that making payments to local authorities and utility providers with Bitcoin (BTC) should be possible. The MP’s statements were reported by local news outlet Express.co.uk on Dec. 10. The article notes that Eddie Hughes, a member of the U.K. Parliament for the Walsall North constituency, described himself as a “crypto enthusiast with amateur knowledge.” He notes that blockchain gets a lot of attention and members of the parliament “have a duty to understand it.” Hughes further explained that he recently met with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which …

Members of the Group of 20 (G-20), an international forum for the governments and central banks of countries with developed and developing economies, addressed cryptocurrencies in their recent declaration on sustainable development of the global economy. Declaration summary: Crypto is important, but it needs to be put under scrutiny and tax regulations On Dec. 1, the G-20 declaration titled “Building Consensus for Fair and Sustainable Development” was published on the official website of the Council of the European Union and the European Council. The document summarized the 13th gathering of G-20 nations that took place on Nov. 30 and Dec. …

Japan’s government is seeking ways to prevent tax evasion on significant profits from cryptocurrency transactions, daily Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reports Tuesday, Dec. 4. According to sources familiar with the matter, the new system prepared by the government will allow the National Tax Agency (NTA) to get data from transaction intermediaries, such as crypto exchanges. The NTA will be able to solicit information on customers who are suspected of tax evasion, including names, addresses, and 12-digit individual identification numbers. The sources told the Mainichi Shimbun that the ruling coalition will start elaborating the new taxation system later in 2019, aiming …

Thailand’s Revenue Department is testing blockchain to track value-added tax (VAT) payments, English-language media outlet Bangkok Post (BP) reports Dec. 3. Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director general of the Thai Revenue Department, said that the department “wants to use blockchain technology to prevent VAT refund fraud.” According to the BP, the nation is “on the path to becoming the first country to use the distributed ledger for tax probes if the technology is adopted.” The article cited Nitithanprapas explaining that “blockchain is expected to help verify VAT invoices” and “root out fake invoices for VAT claims,” defining “adoption of new technologies” as …

South Korea's Finance Ministry is considering taxation on cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), daily English-language newspaper The Korea Times reports Monday, Dec. 3. Hong Nam-ki, South Korea’s new Minister of Economy and Finance as well as new Deputy Prime Minister, revealed that а crypto taxation plan will be finalized according to global taxation trends in the industry. Pointing to the current ICO ban in South Korea, the deputy prime minister stated that the authorities will also form a new stance to the crypto industry, based on careful consideration of “market conditions, international trends and investor protection issues.” In his …

Monday, Nov. 26: crypto markets have seen a strong flush of green amidst the recent news that the U.S. state of Ohio is poised to become the first state to accept Bitcoin (BTC) for tax payments. Virtually all of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market share are seeing a sufficient rebound over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) growing the most by almost 20 percent on the day. Market visualization from Coin360 Yesterday, Nov. 25, Bitcoin dipped below the $4,000 threshold for the first time since September 2017, while total market capitalization dropped to as low as $119 …

The U.S. state of Ohio is poised to become the first state to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as tax payment, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports today, Nov. 25. As the WSJ writes, the move initially applies only to businesses, with plans to extend the offering to individual taxpayers in future. Starting this week, Ohio-based businesses will be able register to pay all of their taxes in the leading cryptocurrency. The payments are reportedly set to be processed via crypto payments service BitPay. As the WSJ reports, the crypto-friendly move was initiated by state Treasurer Josh Mandel, who told reporters he …

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is planning to fight tax evasion schemes by using blockchain, German business news outlet WirtschaftsWoche reported Nov. 22. Following the major European tax fraud scheme CumEx-Files, the BMWi has suggested that distributed ledger technology (DLT) is capable of making the tax system more efficient in terms of fraud prevention. Discovered in 2017, the CumEx-Files was a tax fraud scheme that reportedly was used by a network of banks, stock traders and top lawyers to obtain billions from European treasuries through speculation with dividend tax. As a result of the CumEx …

Fraud, inefficient and expensive systems, a lack of transparency and slow transactions at busy times are a reality for many business networks around the world – inconveniencing merchants, their customers, and even the middlemen tasked with processing their transactions. Volume limitations have also frustrated retailers who may have considered turning to crypto, while a lack of security has deterred the public. Optherium, a global fintech company, believes that its ecosystem could be the silver bullet to eliminate the main issues facing the crypto world – as well as the old-fashioned economy. According to its white paper, the platform wants to …

The Spanish Ministry of Finance (Hacienda) will oversee 15,000 taxpayers who have made transactions with cryptocurrencies in the last year, El País, the largest Spanish-language newspaper, reports Nov. 19. Under the auspices of Hacienda, Spain’s tax agency, the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT), underlined that it will monitor "the fiscal incidence of these new technologies, such as blockchain and, especially, cryptocurrencies," to prevent tax fraud actions as a part of its annual tax control plan. The National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF) of the tax agency has investigated dozens of companies, banks, and intermediaries operating in Spain, finally selecting a …

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has published a warning Nov. 14 about scammers demanding tax payments through Bitcoin ATMs. The post notes that the number of scammers who request payment through BTC has now exceeded those who ask for iTunes giftcards. Kath Anderson, the Assistant Commissioner at the ATO, said this year that the number of scammers pretending to be associated with the ATO in order to request fraudulent taxation payments had increased, asking “Australians to be on high alert for tax scams.” Back in the spring, the tax regulator had previously warned citizens that scammers claiming fake tax debt …

The Chinese city of Loudi has launched a blockchain platform to store real estate data, the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, reports Nov. 13. The platform is backed by land, tax and real estate departments in the city, which is located in central Hunan province. Starting Nov. 15, the new system will let citizens avoid lines and other bureaucratic processes when submitting documents to the above-listed departments, the newspaper states. Also today, the first real estate electronic voucher was issued in the city via the new blockchain-based system. China is among the countries actively adopting blockchain technology on …