Just a little personal news regarding the NobleCoin marketplace & being based in Australia. Frankly I'm glad Australia is publicly recognizing cryptocurrencies. While I dislike tax as much as the rest, the monetary/banking system and what tax is used for the alternative is control/making crypto. illegal which is worse. I still believe crypto. will be more widely adopted for international trade and used to bypass merchant & conversion fees and amount to extreme cost savings & international trade benefits but will be somewhat regulated. Tor and anonymous coins will still allow those so inclined to go deeper similar to BTC/Silk Road (still that never pans out too well).
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has provided businesses with some more guidelines on how it intends to deal with bitcoin, stating that income and profits derived from bitcoin transactions are taxable.
http://www.coindesk.com/australian-tax-office-explains-bitcoin-tax/
'I live in Australia and run the NobleCoin Marketplace – this tax time I will be getting advice from as many interested parties as I can and reporting all income through the marketplace (received in both BTC & NOBL) as well as transfers of BTC>Bank account through Btradeaustralia. This will mostly be done at a loss but I intend to show gains where I can for the report. I’ll be volunteering myself as a case study and provide details on the ATO’s approach of taxing cryptocurrencies in Australia and how it may work in the future. LinkedIn me (Jason Curby) if you’re interested as either an accountant or Australian.'While I would like as much as the next person to use crypto. freely and avoid tax, the banking system and money control the reality seems to be heading towards mainstream acceptance and regulation. It is also, for better or worse, being called out for stronger regulation by users getting burnt. Whether these events are controlled, created or manipulated to push us all in a certain direction by government/industry I don't generally comment. While not ideal to why cryptocurrency began it is still a better alternative to being made illegal and something to be fought over in the dark web (there will still be plenty of crypto/systems/coins for that), crypto. will still allow for huge cost savings, international trade benefits and put a fair amount of control in the hands of people, users and miners (and out of the hands of you know who), especially when they remain free to choose which cryptocurrency they choose to develop, use and support.
We will be working closely with any news site, accountant and business interested (primarily in Australia but welcome anyone globally) to test the new outlines being put in place in Australia and hopefully allow users, miners and adopters to gain some insight into where regulations and taxation of cryptocurrency might go in the future. I said when we started NobleCoin we were here to build something rather than make bank - this lets us put our financial transactions (NOBL, BTC & fiat) and words to the test, and provides information many feel is required as they begin using and accepting cryptocurrency. We have as many questions as the rest, so we're going to be using the Marketplace to put a spotlight on NobleCoin as a legitimate and forward-thinking cryptocurrency as well as answer as many of those questions come tax time as we can.
Whether it's as simple as merely capital gains being taxed or all transactions and movement of cryptocurrency being applied GST/taxed to be honest I really don't know at this point (and it seems noone else does either). I'm not an accountant and there aren't many case studies to go by so far - but we're more than ready to step up, get financial advice from different groups in Australia, gather and share information and hopefully ensure that any regulations/taxation don't completely cripple/control cryptocurrency. Personally I'd love to be free to use BTC/NOBL for trade free from regulations/banks/taxation but because of my more unique public position and running of the marketplace I will be putting these new rules to the test in the hope it provides insight and information to everyone.
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Australia Recognising & Taxing Cryptocurrencies - NobleCoin Marketplace Case Study