EU Rules Bitcoin Is a Currency, Exchanges Are VAT-Exempt (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from The Stack: The European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) has today ruled that Bitcoin is a currency, detailing exchanges that transfer traditional currencies into the crypto-coins for a fee are to be exempt from consumption taxes. Under the EU rule against value added taxes (VAT) on transfers of "currency, bank notes and coins used as legal tender," the new call presents an important boost for Bitcoin, erasing related costs for buying and using the virtual funds in Europe – one of the world's leading trading zones. That decision overrides other approaches previously taken by some of the member countries, which treated Bitcoin like an exchangeble commodity itself, rather than a medium of exchange.

Comments

Re:Does VAT applies to Gold?

[flowerp]

According to this Wikipedia article, the EU countries have exempted Gold purchases from VAT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_of_precious_metals

I can confirm this for Germany, at least.

Re:Fiat currency

[Crowd Computing]

Isn't bitcoin the most extreme of fiat currencies? A number with no physical value at all, not even worth the paper it's written on since it's not written at all.

I think you're using the term "fiat currency" as the opposite of gold and other commodities that have been used as money. According to Wikipedia and confirmed by various other online sources, fiat currency is any currency backed and regulated by government. Bitcoin is obviously not gold, but neither is it fiat money since its value isn't regulated nor directly influenced by any central government authority. The value of Bitcoin can of course still be manipulated by market forces or external events, such as a government ban on cryptocurrencies, but this is true of commodities as well.