Australia is poised to overturn their original ruling on bitcoin taxing it as a commodity. I assume they decided to tax bitcoin in this way by following the US's ruling. Upon watching the hearings in Australia it is clear they have a good understanding of the potential that bitcoin represents, and they understand that by taxing bitcoin as a commodity they are only hurting themselves, pushing bitcoin businesses offshore to other countries that have a better understanding of bitcoin.
By taxing bitcoin as a commodity like the US does, it encourages hoarding of bitcoin. It makes less sense to use bitcoin to buy your daily coffee and gasoline than it does to just hold your bitcoin. When bitcoin is taxed as a commodity, it is necessary to keep track of the purchase price of every bitcoin you have and calculate the capitol gains or losses at the time of any purchase you make with bitcoin.
Until bitcoin is taxed either as a currency, or a new digital currency tax code is introduced, or purchases under $200 are not subject to capitol gains tax, then all of the countries that tax bitcoin as if it is only a commodity are encouraging hoarding in their jurisdiction and moving bitcoin business and innovation and jobs and economic opportunity to other countries.
Topic: Why The US Should Take Notes From Australia (Read 408 times)
Jump to: