http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Japan-to-regulate-Bitcoin-trades-impose-taxesTOKYO -- The Japanese government will set rules for trading bitcoins, defining the virtual tender not as a currency but as a commodity akin to gold.
Gains from trading bitcoins on online exchanges, and purchases made with them will be subject to Japanese tax. Banks will be prohibited from handling them, and securities firms will be barred from brokering Bitcoin trades.
Since its origin in 2009, Bitcoin has occupied a legal gray zone. But the cryptocurrency has arguably become too big for regulators to ignore. The value of bitcoins in circulation worldwide at one point reached 1 trillion yen ($9.75 billion).
Japan will become the first major economy to attempt to regulate the virtual currency and may prompt others to move in the same direction. Last week, Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy, drawing attention to the issue of protecting users.
An opposition lawmaker has asked the government's position on Bitcoin's legal status. In the days ahead, the cabinet will issue a response that will become the basis for guidelines that would also apply to any similar virtual currencies that may come later.
Significantly, the guidelines will call for taxing Bitcoin transactions.
Purchases made in bitcoins will be subject to Japan's consumption tax, which is set to rise to 8% on April 1. Trading gains will be taxed, and companies will need to pay tax on revenue earned from Bitcoin transactions. But enforcement could prove difficult, as tax authorities will have to track down users.
Given Bitcoin's potential use in money laundering and other crimes, regulating it poses an international challenge. Thus far, major economies' approach has been inconsistent. China has banned financial institutions from processing Bitcoin payments. Russia says using bitcoins as a currency is illegal. Meanwhile, a federal court in the U.S. state of Texas has ruled that Bitcoin is a currency. Any attempt to introduce common rules would likely take time, experts say.
(Nikkei)
So if BTC is taxed, some people may need to find an alternative... As the crackdown escalates against BTC and an increased number of countries places restrictions and taxes, naturally people will try other solutions. This type of news actually translates to indirect "pump material" for DRK and other private coins that will follow.
The UK has said this week that it will not charge consumption tax (VAT) on transactions. That is because it is treating BTC as a private currency / means of financial exchange. These transactions are exempt from VAT.
The EU sets guidelines on financial transactions that all member states have to follow. The UK had to adopt the EU Payment Services Directives in 2009. These allowed transactions up to 1,000 Euros to be sent with a risked based regulations policy - meaning that transactions below this figure were largely ok without KYC checks - but if there was a problem, you got into trouble for not doing KYC checks - that's the risk based part.
These trends highlight that the UK and the wider EU are generally accepting of financial services and innovation. The Bitcoin foundation is moving its domicile status to the UK as a consequence of various factors, but negative treatment by US regulators is probably one of them.
I think darkcoin adoption is generated elsewhere:
Someone in an earlier thread hit the nail on the head - IMO - they said, my interpretation, that many people will dip in and out of DarkSend when they need the feature. Say, buying a birthday present for a girlfriend (if they happen to be married), making large payments which can stand out in blockchains, using porn sites, using escorts, making political donations, gambling, etc.
This leads me to believe that some people will just migrate to Darkcoin, others will interact with it to make specific transactions e.g BTC>DRK>purchase>DRK>BTC.
The point that struck me was that if only 1% of all coin holds move their holdings into darkcoin to access DarkSend, then darkcoin has a very bright future. Quite a few of these will just wonder why they bother holding any other coin.
They're not charging because they
can't! They can, however, charge once it's converted over to fiat currency. This is how it should be and it's all they can do. There is no way to enforce otherwise and a government who tries is a fool.
I'll edit to say fiat or commercial goods. But then someone has to figure out what the fiat value was at the time to calculate taxes due. This probably wouldn't be a problem for a place like Overstock.com who converts their bitcoin to fiat immediately upon completion of a transaction, but if a store keeps their payments in crypto currency, there is no way to tax it.
