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Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#21

Post by mildtrepidation »

MBCook wrote: post #20

Are they actually regulating bitcoin or cryptocurrencies ? What's to prevent everyone from just moving to Dogecoin or Likecoin or some other substitute to stay off book?

Well, the existing value in Bitcoin, for one. I'm mining dogecoin largely to learn a little bit about these currencies, but if everyone did move over, by the time it reached the same value Bitcoin has it'd be regulated too.

From what I've read, I doubt the Japanese government (mostly Aso, whose game I'm guessing this is) actually understands that there are other cryptocurrencies.

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#22

Post by gpcz »

MBCook wrote: post #20

Are they actually regulating bitcoin or cryptocurrencies ? What's to prevent everyone from just moving to Dogecoin or Likecoin or some other substitute to stay off book?

Similar to "bath salts," that legal trickery may work for a while, but the law will eventually catch up if a government is motivated to stop something.

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#23

Post by minimax »

MattyRad wrote: post #5

Is anyone else skeptical of the government's ability to effectively tax bitcoin? The scale of doing so both technologically and physically seems far too complicated for such a minute market.

In the US we tax anything that you could remotely consider income. For example if you agree to do some IT work for your dentist in exchange for a couple of fillings, you are supposed to report the fair market value of the transaction and pay tax on it. That is probably hard for the IRS to track down and enforce, but it doesn't stop the tax law from existing.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#25

Post by patio11 »

MattyRad wrote: post #5

Is anyone else skeptical of the government's ability to effectively tax bitcoin? The scale of doing so both technologically and physically seems far too complicated for such a minute market.

What challenges does taxing Bitcoin have that are harder than e.g. taxing the exchange of dollars for license keys? Ogaki manages that every year, and I can guarantee you that most people at the office don't even understand what a license key is.

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#26

Post by partoutok »

Cless wrote: post #2

> Japan's consumption tax, which is set to rise to 8% on April 1 So they're actually going through with this, when the economy has been depressed for over a decade...?

Japan economy has not been depressed. Stagnant maybe, but over the last decade unemployment rate was only 5%.

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#27

Post by fennecfoxen »

thirsteh wrote: post #6
Cless wrote: post #2

> Japan's consumption tax, which is set to rise to 8% on April 1 So they're actually going through with this, when the economy has been depressed for over a decade...?

Only in America is a tax increase equated (without any further investigation) to depressing the economy, and a tax break (once again without investigation) equated with letting the peacock that is the economy fly free.

> Only in America is a tax increase equated (without any further investigation) to depressing the economy

That's not strictly true. There are other countries who harbor economists possessed of half a brain and theory describing the basic principles of how quasi-rational actors behave in various situations. They just usually don't get listened to. :)

Promising free lunches for everyone is much more popular and gets you elected! :D

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#28

Post by dluftdfreheit »

> Banks will be also be prohibited from handling bitcoins while securities firms will be barred from brokering bitcoin trades, the Nikkei reported.

Really? Maybe a silly question, but if banks aren't allowed to handle bitcoins... who is? Only individuals? Does this really outlaw ALL bitcoin banks?

Yesterday a kind reader posted a translation of a Mt Gox audio statement from Japanese. I'd be really eager to learn more about what's going on here but I keep running into language barriers.

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#29

Post by Cless »

partoutok wrote: post #26
Cless wrote: post #2

> Japan's consumption tax, which is set to rise to 8% on April 1 So they're actually going through with this, when the economy has been depressed for over a decade...?

Japan economy has not been depressed. Stagnant maybe, but over the last decade unemployment rate was only 5%.

That's right. The main problem is deflation. Monetary policy has been effective in the last year, but increasing sales taxes could wipe all of that progress out.

So I'm depressed, not Japan. :)

Re: Japan to regulate Bitcoin trades, impose taxes

#30

Post by fivethree »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #27
thirsteh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in America is a tax increase equated (without any further investigation) to depressing the economy, and a tax break (once again without investigation) equated with letting the peacock that is the economy fly free.

> Only in America is a tax increase equated (without any further investigation) to depressing the economy That's not strictly true. There are other countries who harbor economists possessed of half a brain and theory describing the basic principles of how quasi-rational actors behave in various situations. They just usually don't get listened to. :) Promising free lunches for everyone is much more popular and gets yo…

Theory is dumb when all empirical data disagrees with it. Good thing the Austrian's figured this problem out by ignoring data. It's the true hacker's way.
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