Topic: Which countries have the friendliest bitcoin regulatory environment? (Read 3008 times)
In Holland the tax department has acknowledged bitcoins and included it as an asset to be counted when to calculate wealth tax. I think that's a good thing. Those Dutch, if they'll legalize everything as long as a tax can be levied on it
June 11, 2013, 12:19:41 AM
I think the best countries are those in the Northern and Eastern Europe. They seems to be able to accept Bitcoins far more readily than those of USA.
~ya thats where the quality drugs are coming from? 8)LOL
June 11, 2013, 12:17:50 AM
Canada at least respects the rule of law.
are you serious now i needed a good laugh!~type: pinksheet pipe financing haha
are you serious now i needed a good laugh!~type: pinksheet pipe financing haha
June 11, 2013, 12:03:12 AM
I think the best countries are those in the Northern and Eastern Europe. They seems to be able to accept Bitcoins far more readily than those of USA.
June 10, 2013, 11:58:47 PM
Like the topic title asks which countries do people think have the most lax or inviting bitcoin related legal frame work, that could be used as a stepping stone for bitcoin businesses.?
SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES >>SWEDEN >> SANFRANCISCO>>DUBAI>>TORONTO>>COSTA RICA>>DENVER CO....hmmmm>>CAYMAN ISLANDS LOL!
June 10, 2013, 10:40:06 PM
I am a proponent of legal compliance and mitigation of risk. With that in mind I am curious to hear thoughts on...
1. Establishing corporate entity in Marshall Islands
2. Establishing banking in Singapore
3. Vetting any partner to ensure they are in compliance with regard to their operations in various jurisdictions
Seems to me that most targeted operations were in fact not complying with regional law. I believe there are plenty of ways to operate within the law and mitigate risk.
1. Establishing corporate entity in Marshall Islands
2. Establishing banking in Singapore
3. Vetting any partner to ensure they are in compliance with regard to their operations in various jurisdictions
Seems to me that most targeted operations were in fact not complying with regional law. I believe there are plenty of ways to operate within the law and mitigate risk.
June 10, 2013, 10:35:17 PM
Canada, Iceland, Finland..
Canada, no need for an MSB licence
Iceland, it's to the internet was switzeland was to money
Finland, Central bank spokeperson told they have no problem at all.. it seems a very smart and permissive country
Canada, no need for an MSB licence
Iceland, it's to the internet was switzeland was to money
Finland, Central bank spokeperson told they have no problem at all.. it seems a very smart and permissive country
June 10, 2013, 12:48:24 PM
Sweden is, I wouldn't call it friendly, but neutral.
No actual laws prohibiting anything. Only law concerning bitcoin is that last fall the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority stated that any company that deals with currency trade, has to register and follow their regulations* to prohibit money laundering and funding of terrorism. Wich isn't strange since this was controlled by the banks before digital currencies was introduced.
Sweden is both in the very frontline of technology as well as a quite free country to live in. So dont see any problem in owning, managing, selling, starting business with bitcoin here.
I am myself starting a btc oriented company here
No loopholes what so ever, just connections with thee supervisory authority and I am good.
*The regulations state that any transfer of money by a person, greater than X Swedish crowns/week has to be checked for identity.
No actual laws prohibiting anything. Only law concerning bitcoin is that last fall the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority stated that any company that deals with currency trade, has to register and follow their regulations* to prohibit money laundering and funding of terrorism. Wich isn't strange since this was controlled by the banks before digital currencies was introduced.
Sweden is both in the very frontline of technology as well as a quite free country to live in. So dont see any problem in owning, managing, selling, starting business with bitcoin here.
I am myself starting a btc oriented company here
No loopholes what so ever, just connections with thee supervisory authority and I am good.*The regulations state that any transfer of money by a person, greater than X Swedish crowns/week has to be checked for identity.
June 10, 2013, 12:33:19 PM
June 10, 2013, 12:21:50 PM
Germany.
But the whole thread is pointless. a currency can never be banned. As long as people accept it as currency and a cashflow is present a currency can and will be steady/in existence. And with currency I mean everything you can think of as payment. in germany after ww2 cigarettes were pretty common as black market currency. or take the worst example, blood diamonds; they are banned pretty much everywhere but you still find them everywhere.
But the whole thread is pointless. a currency can never be banned. As long as people accept it as currency and a cashflow is present a currency can and will be steady/in existence. And with currency I mean everything you can think of as payment. in germany after ww2 cigarettes were pretty common as black market currency. or take the worst example, blood diamonds; they are banned pretty much everywhere but you still find them everywhere.
June 10, 2013, 12:12:09 PM
Finland, Iceland and, as of today, the Netherlands.
June 10, 2013, 11:55:09 AM
That country sounds nice to live.
Enjoy a smooth bowl of kava at the beach while your online business hums away
"Several file-sharing groups, such as the providers of the KaZaA network of Sharman Networks and the developers of WinMX, have chosen to incorporate in Vanuatu to avoid regulation and legal challenges."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu#Economy
June 09, 2013, 07:25:54 PM
I'd have to agree that any of the countries with the more lax regulations regarding business or personal income taxation (commonly referred to as tax havens) would be likely candidates for setting up bitcoin-related businesses like exchanges.
If you're a more regular type of business who happens to accept bitcoins, common wisdom at the moment seems to be declare them on your taxes and leave it at that. (That's been Canada's position, anyway. They've said outright that they are taxable as either income or capital gains, depending on how one uses or acquires them.)
If you're a more regular type of business who happens to accept bitcoins, common wisdom at the moment seems to be declare them on your taxes and leave it at that. (That's been Canada's position, anyway. They've said outright that they are taxable as either income or capital gains, depending on how one uses or acquires them.)
June 09, 2013, 06:58:57 PM
Vanuatu is the Pacific's premier offshore financial center, featuring :
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
That country sounds nice to live.
Very nice indeed.
June 09, 2013, 06:58:18 PM
June 09, 2013, 06:36:00 PM
Vanuatu is the Pacific's premier offshore financial center, featuring :
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
That country sounds nice to live.
June 09, 2013, 05:40:01 PM
Vanuatu is the Pacific's premier offshore financial center, featuring :
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
No personal or corporate income taxes
No capital gains taxes
No withholding taxes
No estate or death duties
No tax treaties
No exchange controls
Vanuatu is a long-established offshore banking centre, with over 60 banks either incorporated or registered there.
http://www.offshore-library.com/banking/vanuatu/
June 09, 2013, 08:26:22 AM
Bitcoin is simply too new for any locality to be "friendly". Banks consider Bitcoin to be high "risk" even if the entity/company has absolutely no cases of fraud, customer complaints, etc.
Among least Bitcoin friendly I would put USA, UK, and to a lesser extent Australia.
Among Bitcoin "friendly" I would put Canada. Probably more accurately is that Canada is Bitcoin neutral.*
The bigger issue is that most Bitcoin related enterprises (this doesn't mean companies buying or selling goods for Bitcoins) need to interface with the existing financial networks in some fashion. Banks however are private property and in most countries an account can be denied or closed for any reason or even a lack of reason as long as the Bank doesn't violate some protected class (race, religion, etc). Banks are highly risk prone (unless it has high rewards) and most startups aren't going to generate meaningful amounts of revenue for any major bank. Hence the default option is close the account. The account has unusual activity, no reason to investigate, close it. The account scores as high risk, don't negotiate contingencies just close it. The account is involved in business the bank has little knowledge or understanding of, don't ask the owner for information just close it. To overcome this on a large scale may require chartering a national bank or credit union that is at least Bitcoin neutral.
* Canada at least respects the rule of law. Canada has stated their EXISTING laws/regulations on MSB and Money Transmitters doesn't cover virtual currencies. This isn't to say Canada doesn't want to regulate Bitcoin related enterprises or that they won't pass new laws in the future however unlike the US they are honest enough to say "hey look Bitcoin likely should be regulated but current statutes don't give us that authority, to do so we need new ones". FinCEN on the other hand did a bunch of mental gymnastics (hint: if you need to define 18 new terms which don't exist in current law in your "guidance" in order for current law to "fit" you have just defacto written new law), to force Bitcoin a square peg into the MT round hole because it was the only one which was even sorta close. This has a whole range of unintended consequences and creates additional vagueness in compliance because some of the MT requirements simply don't even make sense when not dealing with a third party (i.e. MT regs are built around the concept of PERSON-A ----> Money Transmitter (regulated) ----> PERSON B).
Among least Bitcoin friendly I would put USA, UK, and to a lesser extent Australia.
Among Bitcoin "friendly" I would put Canada. Probably more accurately is that Canada is Bitcoin neutral.*
The bigger issue is that most Bitcoin related enterprises (this doesn't mean companies buying or selling goods for Bitcoins) need to interface with the existing financial networks in some fashion. Banks however are private property and in most countries an account can be denied or closed for any reason or even a lack of reason as long as the Bank doesn't violate some protected class (race, religion, etc). Banks are highly risk prone (unless it has high rewards) and most startups aren't going to generate meaningful amounts of revenue for any major bank. Hence the default option is close the account. The account has unusual activity, no reason to investigate, close it. The account scores as high risk, don't negotiate contingencies just close it. The account is involved in business the bank has little knowledge or understanding of, don't ask the owner for information just close it. To overcome this on a large scale may require chartering a national bank or credit union that is at least Bitcoin neutral.
* Canada at least respects the rule of law. Canada has stated their EXISTING laws/regulations on MSB and Money Transmitters doesn't cover virtual currencies. This isn't to say Canada doesn't want to regulate Bitcoin related enterprises or that they won't pass new laws in the future however unlike the US they are honest enough to say "hey look Bitcoin likely should be regulated but current statutes don't give us that authority, to do so we need new ones". FinCEN on the other hand did a bunch of mental gymnastics (hint: if you need to define 18 new terms which don't exist in current law in your "guidance" in order for current law to "fit" you have just defacto written new law), to force Bitcoin a square peg into the MT round hole because it was the only one which was even sorta close. This has a whole range of unintended consequences and creates additional vagueness in compliance because some of the MT requirements simply don't even make sense when not dealing with a third party (i.e. MT regs are built around the concept of PERSON-A ----> Money Transmitter (regulated) ----> PERSON B).
actually bitcoin is not illegal in the places listed above.
the best place to start a bitcoin business is europe, but as long as your offering legit goods or services for bitcoin you can pretty much start anywhere.
so if everyone started acting like the real world where there's only handfuls of gold miners /exchangers in an area but millions of retailers. that is how bitcoin can and should legally expand. everyone seems to be under the misguided concept that the only way to make money is through mining or forex exchanging.
where i am (in the UK) my bank manager knows about bitcoin, knows the risks, and knows me. yet has no problems allowing me to do business with bitcoins. the same with many countries.
the problem lies where bitcoin entrepreneurs suddenly think that because they own bitcoin, they can also act anonymously when it comes to their fiat trades too.
this actual thread should not be, which country is the most bitcoin friendly.. but which country has the cheapest money transmission licences. as its the licence to play with large amounts of FIAT that is the problem.. not bitcoin
so that the naive guys that are not finance experts can afford the licences, to naively become an exchange and make their money. i say naively because there's millions of other ways to make money and there are some people with financial exchange experience that can afford the licences, which should be doing it instead. purely on the bases they have better money management skills to be trusted with other peoples money.
there needs to be a big push away from exchanges and mining, and more of a push on retail start ups. its all about knowing the rules and following them. and to not be an "teentrepreneur" rebelling against the 'man' like a teenager rebels against parents.
but i would love to see a pricelist per country/province for money transmission licences
June 09, 2013, 06:55:26 AM
Very important question. I say there won't be any country who'll show support for BTC.
If we check the 2 following sites:
http://blockchain.info/nodes-globe?series=mostStable
and
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68042000/gif/_68042497_global_bandwidth_624.gif
It's no surprise that "developed" nations have access to the most bandwidth and have the most people connected. bitcoin has the most users in these countries obviously, but the burden caused by our own banking systems makes adoption very slow, or at least slower than possible.
As these are also the financial leaders in the world I would expect a long, hard struggle between bitcoin and the leaders of these territories.
I consider friendliness towards bitcoin as pure wishful thinking. Not many people understand what it means to be able to transfer "wealth" without forced and mandatory "middleman". If you look at the propaganda against btc in popular news sources like BBC it's apparent that the war is on.
If we check the 2 following sites:
http://blockchain.info/nodes-globe?series=mostStable
and
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68042000/gif/_68042497_global_bandwidth_624.gif
It's no surprise that "developed" nations have access to the most bandwidth and have the most people connected. bitcoin has the most users in these countries obviously, but the burden caused by our own banking systems makes adoption very slow, or at least slower than possible.
As these are also the financial leaders in the world I would expect a long, hard struggle between bitcoin and the leaders of these territories.
I consider friendliness towards bitcoin as pure wishful thinking. Not many people understand what it means to be able to transfer "wealth" without forced and mandatory "middleman". If you look at the propaganda against btc in popular news sources like BBC it's apparent that the war is on.
June 09, 2013, 06:05:10 AM
Maybe Iceland?
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