Upon its inception, Bitcoin was envisioned as a borderless currency that could be used by its owners without being affected by the regulatory impositions of any centralized agency or government body. And while this idea in itself is quite grand, the fact of the matter is that today's crypto owners (across the globe) are subject to varying tax restrictions on their digital holdings by local regulatory bodies. Also, over the course of the past few months, a number of tax agencies around the globe, (such as the United States Internal Revenue Service) have been in the process of creating new …

Georgia has exempted cryptocurrencies from value-added tax (VAT), as Bitcoin.com reported on July 13. Per the report, Georgia’s finance minister Nodar Khaduri recently signed a bill aimed at regulating the taxation of entities that trade or mine cryptocurrencies. The bill entered into force at the end of June. The definition of decentralized currency that the bill puts forward is reportedly the following: “Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that are exchanged electronically and based on a decentralized network. Their exchange does not require a reliable intermediary and they are managed using distributed ledger technology.” With the introduction of the bill, residents of …

Chilean taxpayers must report their cryptocurrency profits to the Chilean Internal Revenue Service (SII), Spanish crypto media Diario Bitcoin reports on Jan. 17. The SII reportedly decreed in 2018 that digital currencies weren’t subject to Value Added Tax (VAT), but should still be considered when calculating annual income tax, as they fall into the definition of intangible assets. Because of this consideration, the dedicated income tax form 22 will reportedly include — for the first time — a special section dedicated to “other own and/or third-party income from companies that declare their effective income and do not declare it to …

A 17-year-old jihadist teenager from Virginia faces up to 15 years in prison for blog and Twitter posts about encryption and Bitcoin, Bitreserve has announced that it is dropping fees for currency conversions, and more top stories for June 12. Jihadist US Teen Faces Prison for Blog and Tweets About Encryption and Bitcoin A 17-year-old Virginia teenager faces up to 15 years in prison for blog and Twitter posts about encryption and Bitcoin that were geared at assisting ISIL. The teenager, who contributed to the Coin Brief news site, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of providing material support to …

The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) has announced that virtual currencies such as bitcoin will be exempt from value-added tax (VAT) in Spain, following the leads of the United Kingdom and Germany, who recently stated that they are considering taking bitcoin as a complementary currency. In response to the Binding Consultation V1029-15 submitted on the March 27, 2015, the DGT has announced that virtual currencies, which are considered to be a medium of payment, will be classified as financial services rather than simple goods or commodities. Under the “DIRECTIVE 2006/112/EC of November 28, 2006 on the common system of Value …

The Spanish tax authorities have published a statement classifying bitcoin as a means of payment exempting it from VAT charges. Some of the UK's top bankers are to discuss bitcoin among a fintech discussion panel this week. BitSIM hardware proposes piggybacking a sim-card to provide secure mobile payments without carrier support and more top stories for April 20. Bitcoin exempt from VAT in Spain A department of the Spanish tax authority has published an opinion stating that bitcoin should be treated as a means of payment, and will therefore stand exempt from VAT calculations. The move puts Spain inline with …

A reclassification of how Value Added Tax (VAT) is to be applied in the EU will force merchants to log users' location, and make the user pay VAT twice. In particular, this could mean that from January 1 merchants could be forced to log identifying details about bitcoin users' identity in order to apply the tax correctly. This is a new chapter for the Europe-based tax, and comes after both Sweden and Finland have fought with the EU over bitcoin’s status as a taxable object. The changes to the Europe-wide VAT system have come as an attempt by the European …