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Topic: [2017-10-16] South Korea will impose Bitcoin tax (Read 836 times)

hero member
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According to South Korean National Tax Service, authorities have discussed the possibilities of Bitcoin tax. Han Seung-Hee, commissioner of the National Tax Service proposed to lawmakers how to tax cryptocurrencies.
Read more at: https://dowbit.com/south-korea-will-impose-bitcoin-tax/

This is the government which has the desire to take some part of the action and technically there is nothing wrong with it. Just like the US, am sure that South Korea also wants to boost their revenue collection and Bitcoin is an opportunity to do it as more and more South Koreans are getting into the Bitcoin club. Now, the implication with this is that when you taxed something you are recognizing its status and this in effect can mean legalization...obviously it would be hard for the government to be taxing something it still categorized as illegal. And we all prefer to pay taxes rather than be banned from buying and selling Bitcoin.
hero member
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Always ask questions. #StandWithHongKong
According to South Korean National Tax Service, authorities have discussed the possibilities of Bitcoin tax.

That discussion must have lasted at least a few seconds:

"Impossible to implement. Never gonna happen."

Crock of shite.
legendary
Activity: 2478
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Don't let others control your BTC -> self custody
Some here should really read the article. There would not be a separate "Bitcoin tax", but:

Quote from: dowbit.com
The current plan includes taxation of capital gains, imposing VAT, and gift tax

That would mean, like @entrepmind23 already supposed, that they would treat Bitcoin like other financial assets. In Germany for example, it's similar, too.

There would be nothing special about BTC: If you hold/trade Bitcoin (like a stock) and make profits, and these are larger than a possible "tax-free profit", then you must pay capital gains tax. Or if you're a merchant and sell a good or service for Bitcoin, then you must charge VAT.

And with respect to "they cannot track it": It would be similar as with cash. If they detect large movements and suspect you to hide them, they could request a raid and analyze your computer(s) for possible wallets.

Think about it for a moment. They are checking your computer and find an encrypted wallet. They ask you what's on it and yuu deny to provide a password. There's a suspicion you might be hiding income but there's no proof, can't do much about that unless you live in a communist country where they can keep beating you up until you give them what they want.

Same with cash. How can they "detect large movements"? When you give a suitcase full of money to someone how does that get detected by the government? Roll Eyes
member
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Any income its either active or passive income are subject for tax. Bitcoin is a form of asset and investment and it is a passive income. South Korea has the right to implement tax for bitcoin as long as their transaction is within its territory. Taxes help improves the economics status of the country.
It is better that there really is a clear law of taxation, than the profits from the digital currency market will be taxed repeatedly.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 535
I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.

I agree. However, the government from various jurisdictions will have the problem on how they will effectively regulate Bitcoins especially so that all transactions happen online. Surely they will have a difficult time trying to access each and everyone's Bitcoin accounts on the pretext that they will tax all those who earn income out of it. In such case, they would need to pour a huge amount of money to come up with a tracking software otherwise, there is nothing much they can do. A good regulation without a corresponding implementation is worthless.
legendary
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Decentralization Maximalist
Some here should really read the article. There would not be a separate "Bitcoin tax", but:

Quote from: dowbit.com
The current plan includes taxation of capital gains, imposing VAT, and gift tax

That would mean, like @entrepmind23 already supposed, that they would treat Bitcoin like other financial assets. In Germany for example, it's similar, too.

There would be nothing special about BTC: If you hold/trade Bitcoin (like a stock) and make profits, and these are larger than a possible "tax-free profit", then you must pay capital gains tax. Or if you're a merchant and sell a good or service for Bitcoin, then you must charge VAT.

And with respect to "they cannot track it": It would be similar as with cash. If they detect large movements and suspect you to hide them, they could request a raid and analyze your computer(s) for possible wallets.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 252
Do they know what bitcoin is? How are they gonna tax bitcoin? VIA WHAT? Via exchanging it into fiat money? or Via Products/Services?. They should at least take time to learn what cryptocurrency is before going to the point of taxing it without even knowing what is it.
Laws and Regulations are needed to be imposed first before going to the taxing issues.

They would classify bitcoin as asset like what Japan and USA did so that they can tax it like how they tax fiat money. This is not surprising as government would want to have a share as well to the income generated by the people from cryptocurrency. It is hard to track the transactions but they can tax the exchanges implementing the transactions so the platforms or exchanges can pass the tax to its users and in effect, they can still have a tax even if they don't specifically know who are the people behind those transactions.
That's the point of my question, how would they do that? how would they track these people? The "Feeling of security" on transaction will be breached if they will also impose an 1 ID= 1 Bitcoin Address and will they have a list of bitcoin addresses  ( who are registered to their directory ) are the one who is eligible to transact with bitcoins?. This is going to be ridiculous and i'm really against on this idea.
legendary
Activity: 2478
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Don't let others control your BTC -> self custody
I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.

Any income its either active or passive income are subject for tax. Bitcoin is a form of asset and investment and it is a passive income. South Korea has the right to implement tax for bitcoin as long as their transaction is within its territory. Taxes help improves the economics status of the country.

Following your thought buying USD or Euro and holding it is also an investment, so if you have 1 million USD stashed under the mattress you should check its value each year and pay taxes, right? IMO it's ridiculous. Basically they are hoping for holders to start declaring their ownership. It will prove to be extremely difficult.
I also don't agree with your vision of taxation.
full member
Activity: 420
Merit: 142
Like it or not, but I consider this a very positive development. Bitcoin is still considered the currency of the “dark corners of the internet”. Taxation gives it legitimacy. South Korea will be a pioneer administration in assessing Bitcoin from a government perspective. They can set an example for other countries who hesitate or don’t get a grip on it.

Good news
full member
Activity: 138
Merit: 100
Do they know what bitcoin is? How are they gonna tax bitcoin? VIA WHAT? Via exchanging it into fiat money? or Via Products/Services?. They should at least take time to learn what cryptocurrency is before going to the point of taxing it without even knowing what is it.
Laws and Regulations are needed to be imposed first before going to the taxing issues.

They would classify bitcoin as asset like what Japan and USA did so that they can tax it like how they tax fiat money. This is not surprising as government would want to have a share as well to the income generated by the people from cryptocurrency. It is hard to track the transactions but they can tax the exchanges implementing the transactions so the platforms or exchanges can pass the tax to its users and in effect, they can still have a tax even if they don't specifically know who are the people behind those transactions.

The government is very anxious to tax bitcoins. But people will try to hide their incomes. Therefore, there will remain a very small percentage of those who want to make payments openly and pay taxes for it
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 261
Do they know what bitcoin is? How are they gonna tax bitcoin? VIA WHAT? Via exchanging it into fiat money? or Via Products/Services?. They should at least take time to learn what cryptocurrency is before going to the point of taxing it without even knowing what is it.
Laws and Regulations are needed to be imposed first before going to the taxing issues.

They would classify bitcoin as asset like what Japan and USA did so that they can tax it like how they tax fiat money. This is not surprising as government would want to have a share as well to the income generated by the people from cryptocurrency. It is hard to track the transactions but they can tax the exchanges implementing the transactions so the platforms or exchanges can pass the tax to its users and in effect, they can still have a tax even if they don't specifically know who are the people behind those transactions.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 252
Do they know what bitcoin is? How are they gonna tax bitcoin? VIA WHAT? Via exchanging it into fiat money? or Via Products/Services?. They should at least take time to learn what cryptocurrency is before going to the point of taxing it without even knowing what is it.
Laws and Regulations are needed to be imposed first before going to the taxing issues.
full member
Activity: 149
Merit: 100
How are they going to implement this? To enforce, they would have to monitor. What if no one cashes out? How would they tax it?
legendary
Activity: 3430
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The tax on income for financial transactions involving bitcoins is soon the usual practice of all states. In return, this state recognizes crypto currency as a legal tender and takes legal protection for violation of the rights of citizens in the commission of such transactions.


Uh, hello?

How are the state going to compensate victims of Bitcoin theft, if the thief cannot be traced or coerced? The state aren't going to be collecting any significant amount of taxes from any Bitcoin holder for the exact same reason: it's very difficult to trace or coerce Bitcoin users into giving their BTC up.
full member
Activity: 280
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The tax on income for financial transactions involving bitcoins is soon the usual practice of all states. In return, this state recognizes crypto currency as a legal tender and takes legal protection for violation of the rights of citizens in the commission of such transactions.
sr. member
Activity: 700
Merit: 251
Well, everything was going to that. I was saying that after the mass adoption and legalization bitcoin will never be so free as before and now that's happening. I only wander will they tax bitcoin only (cause of the thread saying about bitcoin's taxation only) or all crypto currencies?
This is good point as its going to happen only for bitcoin or going for all other crypto currencies because if they will implement then its going to hurt this all  as now many other countries also going to bring new term & condition for digital currencies as now KYC is also must for most of exchange users
hero member
Activity: 1078
Merit: 514
Well, everything was going to that. I was saying that after the mass adoption and legalization bitcoin will never be so free as before and now that's happening. I only wander will they tax bitcoin only (cause of the thread saying about bitcoin's taxation only) or all crypto currencies?
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 263
Always different news. The bitcoin ban, they want to legalize. What to believe? Anything. The government does not want to legalize bitcoin but want to have it with taxes. It seems to me that the bitcoin community pays much attention to the legalization of bitcoin. Need to pay more attention to circulation of bitcoins between members of the community.
legendary
Activity: 3164
Merit: 1127
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Once China is gonna be on board again, BTC will probably $10K. 

I hope China is no longer the dominant country of bitcoin, see how bitcoin is growing. The fear of shady government (Chinese government) does not have as much influence on bitcoin as in the past. It is true that we still have to destroy the power they have in the mining field because it is extremely dangerous, but in time this barrier will be overcome, china will be part of the past.



they took a long time to implement this.
hero member
Activity: 2632
Merit: 833
I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.

Any income its either active or passive income are subject for tax. Bitcoin is a form of asset and investment and it is a passive income. South Korea has the right to implement tax for bitcoin as long as their transaction is within its territory. Taxes help improves the economics status of the country.

That is the main reason why they want to impose tax to improved their economy, however, they shouldn't imposed higher tax on crypto's. If they imposed higher tax then how will people used it to buy online? If my memory serves me right, Australia has tax exceptions when you used bitcoin to purchased things online. They are putting tax on bitcoin just like the traditional fiat. Oh well, seems that all government now wants to really get a crack on the booming bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. Marketcap is now at $160-170B, with bitcoin dominating more than 50% of that. No wonder everyone want to take a slice of the pie.
full member
Activity: 812
Merit: 142
I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.

Yes I am also not sure that is this the right way to tax an additional for the people who uses bitcoin and makes profit. Anyways they would be paying their taxes as normal people who earn income. But making people pay additional taxes for bitcoin is something which may not be liked by the people of South Korea.
sr. member
Activity: 616
Merit: 256
I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.

Any income its either active or passive income are subject for tax. Bitcoin is a form of asset and investment and it is a passive income. South Korea has the right to implement tax for bitcoin as long as their transaction is within its territory. Taxes help improves the economics status of the country.
hero member
Activity: 2800
Merit: 595
https://www.betcoin.ag
South Korea legalized bitcoins,right? To impose tax this country should have laws regulating bitcoins first.

That is sort of how it works and I hope they do have the laws and they can start with the exchanges they have. China may follow after this.
They haven't completely banned crypto as far as I know, they do have NEO still. Once China is gonna be on board again, BTC will probably $10K. 
legendary
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I don’t understand why there is a separate demand about bitcoin tax. Bitcoin is money. You don’t tax money. You tax income. People who make profits using bitcoin should pay taxes on their gains.
newbie
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South Korea legalized bitcoins,right? To impose tax this country should have laws regulating bitcoins first.
full member
Activity: 210
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According to South Korean National Tax Service, authorities have discussed the possibilities of Bitcoin tax. Han Seung-Hee, commissioner of the National Tax Service proposed to lawmakers how to tax cryptocurrencies.

Read more at: https://dowbit.com/south-korea-will-impose-bitcoin-tax/
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