British authorities abolished VAT on bitcoin transactions

UK tax authorities have taken a step towards Bitcoin . If earlier under British law, Bitcoins were equated to gift certificates, and operations with them were subject to 20% value added tax, now the British Government’s tax department (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) decided that Bitcoin is closer to private money, which are not subject to transactions VAT. The tax department has issued an explanatory note , which details the new tax regime for bitcoins.

Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based firm that provides secure bitcoin storage services, says that thanks to this step, the UK has the most progressive cryptocurrency attitude in the world. This is a positive signal for Bitcoin against the background of the recent bankruptcy of MtGox and attempts to restrict or ban Bitcoin in China and Russia.

In the meantime, discussions around Bitcoin’s status continue in US political circles. Last week, Senator Joe Manchin wrote a letter to the treasury and other financial bodies asking him to ban or severely restrict Bitcoin because of the potential for its criminal use and too much volatility. In response, Bitcoin-sympathetic Congressman Jared Polis published a parody of this letter against the cash flow of US dollars. In particular, it says that only in 2012 in the United States about one billion dollars in cash was stolen, only 3% of this amount was returned. Large amounts of cash dollars were found in the shelters of Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega . He mentioned the impossibility of canceling transactions using paper money and the susceptibility of their hyperinflation, as happened in Zimbabwe.