Australian taxation office has updated its taxlaws regarding bitcoin and i guess it will apply to other cryptocurrencies as well
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/Tax-treatment-of-crypto-currencies-in-Australia---specifically-bitcoin/
This part is rather interesting - Using bitcoin for personal transactions Generally, there will be no income tax or GST implications if you are not in business or carrying on an enterprise and you simply pay for goods or services in bitcoin (for example, acquiring personal goods or services on the internet using bitcoin). Where you use bitcoin to purchase goods or services for personal use or consumption, any capital gain or loss from disposal of the bitcoin will be disregarded (as a personal use asset) provided the cost of the bitcoin is $10,000 or less.
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Gen/Tax-treatment-of-crypto-currencies-in-Australia---specifically-bitcoin/
This part is rather interesting - Using bitcoin for personal transactions Generally, there will be no income tax or GST implications if you are not in business or carrying on an enterprise and you simply pay for goods or services in bitcoin (for example, acquiring personal goods or services on the internet using bitcoin). Where you use bitcoin to purchase goods or services for personal use or consumption, any capital gain or loss from disposal of the bitcoin will be disregarded (as a personal use asset) provided the cost of the bitcoin is $10,000 or less.
I heard about this on the many Bitcoin news site and in my opinion this is one of the best and fairest taxation regulation so far. And we are all hoping that many countries would be following the same path taken by the Land Down Under. We should give big credits to those authorities in Australia who thought of such law and those who never wavered of their support. Would this be a catalyst that can make Bitcoin and the whole cryptocurrency industry to really flourish in Australia? At the same time, may the fair playing field establish by the government itself be an incentive for more fintech companies to do business in the country. All in the Bitcoin community are hoping so.
Taxation is one of the thorniest issues as far as cryptocurrency is concerned because practically this whole thing is relatively new and many those in power are finding it hard to grasp the whole new industry and much more lost in the implications of this to their economy and even politically. This is the reason why some countries decided to just ban Bitcoin because they failed to see the beauty of cryptocurrency and they are afraid of what can be if they let the cat out of the bag. May this tax law from Australia be a model for other countries to based on.
