could bitcoin due to its transparency improve tax collection fairness in an all-bitcoin world?
could entity de-anonymisation be used to enfore a progressive wealth tax?
what kind of transactions will be taxable
could there be more automation maybe? something like a government-run API "sendmany" or TX fee to settle VAT instantly?
how many tax collectors could we fire once the government gets more efficient?
These questions appear a bit too speculative for my taste - not that I wouldn't like to discuss such things but they more or less all have the premise that Bitcoin is already legal tender. Since this premise is extremely unlikely in the near to medium term future I think we cannot say much about how a state and its tax-system could possibly look like then (there's simply too many uncertainties involved concerning how exactly we got there).
What the economic discussion around Bitcoin needs IMHO is to address some immediate practical issues:
- status of the regulatory process concerning Bitcoin
- tax issues, possible
loophole concerning VAT- the case for/against Bitcoin as digital service vs. Bitcoin as currency
- best practices of dealing with Bitcoin in the books
- legal status of Bitcoin exchanges
Sure, such a talk would not raise that many controversies, but it would be extremely useful for any company wanting to deal with Bitcoin. But of course some more high-level economic views would also be very interesting.
afaik some bitcoiners oppose taxes heavily.
