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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.
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.
--- Eat my sig.
ust a note to clarify that this ruling does not make Bitcoin legal tender in the EU
Legal tender is a very strange thing. The largest legal tender amount in Scotland is the two pound coin. Neither Scottish bank notes or Bank of England bank notes are legal tender in Scotland.
Legal tender has a rather peculiar and specific meaning and covers not only the currency but the specific form of currency as well as the amount. For example, there's some limit (not sure. A pound?) above which copper coins cease to become legal tender in England (maybe the whole UK).
Legal tender is a rather specific thing in that a creditor cannot refuse repayment of a debt if paid in legal tender. They can accept repayment in things other than legal tender but they're not obliged to.
This means that creditors can't take the piss by refusing to accept 20 pound notes (in England, tough luck Scots!), and debtors can't take the piss by insisting on repaying a grand in coppers.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
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.