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Topic: World govts fear Bitcoin because they can’t tax it – John McAfee (Read 602 times)

full member
Activity: 334
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There are many ways to solve this problem. It depends on what a crypto currency is considered depending on where it is and who is holding it. Right now it would be considered either income or capital gains, but only if withdrawn.

a good middle ground is to tax bitcoin on transactions from retailers or for you to claim your income based on it. I'm not against paying taxes. Just give me a chance to actually accrue capital haha.
hero member
Activity: 980
Merit: 507
McAfee is very eccentric, but he is normal and logical when it comes to Bitcoin:

https://www.rt.com/business/406175-governments-fear-bitcoin-tax-revenue/
Logic sounds good here, a person is eccentric in real life but he is not the same when it comes to bitcoin, yes that makes complete sense. World governments maybe fear bitcoin maybe they don't, assumption will not take us anywhere. Maybe governments are against bitcoin for safety of their people and if they can't tax and if a whole lot of population uses it, then the revenue for the government will decrease terribly, as taxes and borrowings are one of the only few ways for governments to earn income which in turn is used for the welfare of the people.
hero member
Activity: 2184
Merit: 531
McAfee is very eccentric, but he is normal and logical when it comes to Bitcoin:

https://www.rt.com/business/406175-governments-fear-bitcoin-tax-revenue/
Maybe that's because we, the Bitcoin people, are eccentric too, so guys like McAfee start to look normal to us Cheesy
I agree with what he said about taxes. It's obvious that governments will look for ways to control it and profit from people who are getting rich with Bitcoin.

The government can tax Bitcoin because it is only pseudo-anonymous, but what they cannot tax is Monero, because it is 100% anonymous.

And how are they going to determine who owns which address?
full member
Activity: 302
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The government can tax Bitcoin because it is only pseudo-anonymous, but what they cannot tax is Monero, because it is 100% anonymous.
full member
Activity: 256
Merit: 100
As long as there is no corrupt government, I'd gladly pay tax for bitcoin income to help improve my country. Better healthcare, road infrastructure, etc.  But that's wishful thinking.

Since the government can't keep track of all the people trading with bitcoins, I think they will just target merchants who do, which will require them to register their business that accepts bitcoin payment. Otherwise, by law, it will be tax evasion and they will be put to jail or pay fines.
member
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I think McAfee and a lot of commentors/posters have this wrong.  Government doesn't tax currency trades, assets trades, bonds, derivatives etc.  In the UK at least you'll be taxed on income and capital gains (offsetting loses) you make over a year.  I believe the US is similar and Europe broadly the same.  So if you make money from Bitcoin and bring it into local currecny, it'll be taxed, if not there's no tax just as if you were trading gold for example. they've had years to regulate is they wished and other than recent bans on ICO in some countries, its gone by without serious notice of the regulators.  I dont think they care about it much, if it got to scale where its truely impacting on the economy, then they might and will deal with it then.  Note Russia do fear it with Putin himself coming out against it recently, so perhaps there is truth in McAfee's view in specific countries.
full member
Activity: 1316
Merit: 108
States will gradually introduce a profit tax on financial transactions with the crypto currency. I do not see what is the complexity for the state here. A certain complexity appears with the implementation of such a law. Most of the citizens will voluntarily show their profits to the tax authorities from the crypto currency. However, a certain part will shy away from payment, using various tricks, but there are still a lot of them. But this is the usual situation with the implementation of any law on taxes on a certain type of activity.
sr. member
Activity: 322
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Bitcoin seem like a wild horse and it's hard to control it Smiley. Few days ago one out of universities in my cointry is going to accept Bitcoin for tuition it made everyone think that Bitcoin will be legalized in my country soon but yesterday the government said that they will ban Bitcoin at the early of next year and if anyone keep using Bitcoin will have to pay about 10k$ for fine or go to jail because of this case. I think government in my country going to do this because they afraid of losing a lot of money from tax due to Bitcoin Smiley)
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
It's interesting because after making this statement he is now bringing out a alt coin called Mcafeecoin. I generally think it's going to be a publicity stunt as like you said he's very eccentric.
hero member
Activity: 1834
Merit: 759
I disagree. Governments are afraid because they can't control it. No form of regulation can possibly interfere with how transactions are done. They can't do anything to gain total, or even partial control. They will be at the mercy of the users, and there's nothing they can do about it. It can also threaten the economy by threatening the local currency.

Besides, I disagree about it being un taxable. Tax the exchanges and the merchants and you tax nearly everyone who uses it. They can't tax every single transactions though, which might be what he's saying.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 535
Sure I agree with McAfee on this. The following questions will give you an idea how impossible it is to tax Bitcoins.

1) How can you tax something you do not even recognize? - This clearly presents a conflicting interest.

2) How can you tax a person without knowing how the person is earning? - We all know Bitcoins maintain anonymity, so how can you tax people when they are anonymous?

3) Why will you tax Bitcoins if you have not even classified it as of yet? - Its classification will affect on how the tax treatment will be.

All things said, I think you cannot just tax something out of whim otherwise you do more harm to your people than what you expect things to be.
copper member
Activity: 1050
Merit: 294
McAfee is very eccentric, but he is normal and logical when it comes to Bitcoin:

https://www.rt.com/business/406175-governments-fear-bitcoin-tax-revenue/
Their fear is real, they can't tax bitcoin until it is converted to fiat because it is difficult or somehow impossible to tax bitcoins over the network. I agree with McAfee the power is going to shift toward the public/citizen side if they don't find any way out to tax the bitcoin over the network.
full member
Activity: 559
Merit: 100
yes.. I think the one of the reason why the goverment can't legalizing bitcoin because they can't tax it especially in my country.. they are thinking bitcoin can't give a lot of advantage for them and so difficult to control bitcoin because bitcoin is decentralized..
If a store take bitcoin the government can easily check how many money they are getting. Getting everyone to pay tax will not be a problem. They are afraid of drug crimes and money laundering.
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It's not just about the Tax. Like any technologies, bitcoin can also be used to do bad things like Silk Road and Terrorism. It's the argument they used for "BitLicense" in New York back in 2015. They'll always try to regulate and will be using "terrorism" or "evil" as an excuse to do so.  
hero member
Activity: 882
Merit: 506
McAfee is very eccentric, but he is normal and logical when it comes to Bitcoin:

https://www.rt.com/business/406175-governments-fear-bitcoin-tax-revenue/

True. At some point I agree that when time comes that cryptocurrencies will dominate the world, there will be chaos in that all sovereign States will have no money (from tax) to protect and defend its sovereignty. Otherwise stated, the governments will be unable to discharge their main functions to serve the sovereign. This situation is detrimental to all of us because chances are terrorists will rule the world considering the fact that money circulation is not regulated.
hero member
Activity: 2744
Merit: 541
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that's the real thing here they want this system being taxable in order for them to gain earnings without taxes people will gain without having any obligations and that's why the government are fearing this, so in order to solve that they needed to make some ruling and John are giving us an heads up here.
full member
Activity: 490
Merit: 100
yes.. I think the one of the reason why the goverment can't legalizing bitcoin because they can't tax it especially in my country.. they are thinking bitcoin can't give a lot of advantage for them and so difficult to control bitcoin because bitcoin is decentralized..
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1565
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I usually agree with his opinions, but I don’t agree with this one. Most of us could avoid being taxed but tax laws on cryptos, at least on cryptos profits when they are converted to fiat, have already been passed in many countries. Not everybody is as smart as he is and if bitcoin has to be massively accepted, most people will pay taxes as they will be trading with centralized exchanges. So I think it would be better to say that bitcoin cannot be taxed at 100%.
full member
Activity: 126
Merit: 100
It is always been the case.  Government in any country have not set in place any laws to regulate Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. As more and more people globally are turning into bitcoins,  this will be a problem to banks and government as banking business and taxes will be affected.  Mccaffe is right that govt should focus on their legislating rules for ICO to prevent scams.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 503
Sad but it would be hard for the government to imposed tax to each transaction we will made, and to think that it would be a delicate process, monitoring everyone and each assets would be verified and be stated, i don't think it will woro that easily, as i prefer that so many people would complain and most importantly the bitcoins important asset will be no value if this kind of process happens, they were scared because they cannot emerge and control something that is my opinion why.

Partially understand this, but the thing is, some countries are starting to include tax in Bitcoin - in fact, many already have, like US, UK, Japan, and you can be charged for tax evasion if your profits in Bitcoin are not reported. Online registered companies dealing with Bitcoin can be easily tracked, no problem, but for those that are freelancing or trading for Bitcoin, it's more tricky.

It is not impossible though, when you convert your Bitcoins to fiat, you will leave footprints, hence it is still traceable and Bitcoin is not completely non taxable. It is because the Governments cannot control your Bitcoins, which makes them fear it as now they would have less power, and their currency may even decrease in value in the future, which is the case in China. Tongue
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