Singapore issues tax guidance on Bitcoins

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has laid out tax advice regarding the purchase, sale, and exchange of Bitcoins for local businesses and individuals.


In response to queries from Coin Republic owner David Moskowitz, the IRAS provided guidance on how to treat Bitcoin in regards to income tax and goods and services tax (GST).

Under the advice provided by the IRAS, if a Singaporean business offers the buying and selling of Bitcoins, they will be subject to taxation on the gains made on the sale of Bitcoins. However, if the Bitcoins form part of the business’ investment portfolio, the IRAS considers the gains from any sale to be capital in nature and not subject to taxation.

For GST, however, the situation is a little more complicated. Selling Bitcoins in return for goods or services is considered to be subject to GST. If the seller is GST registered, they will need to account for this in the course of their business activities.

The exception to this is in the form of virtual goods, such as in virtual gaming worlds, to use the IRAS’ example. These are not subject to GST until they are exchanged for real services or goods.

Bitcoin itself is not considered a good, nor does it qualify as money or currency, according to the IRAS and under Singapore’s GST Act. Instead, the supply of Bitcoins is examined under GST and varies according to how the service is provided.

“If the company merely facilitates and is acting as an agent in the Bitcoin trade (eg, Bitcoin exchange transfer Bitcoins directly to the customer’s wallet), GST is chargeable only on the commission fees received. However, if the company is acting as a principal in the Bitcoin trade (eg, buys and onward sells Bitcoins to the customer), GST is chargeable on the full amount received, ie, the sale of Bitcoins and commission fees.”

Singapore’s GST Act already indicates that if the business supplying services belongs to another country, then the entire supply shall be deemed to have been made outside of Singapore. The IRAS states that this would mean that GST would not be imposed.

The full email response from the IRAS to Moskowitz is available on Coin Republic.

source: http://www.zdnet.com/singapore-issues-tax-guidance-on-bitcoins-7000024966/

Singapore issues tax guidance on Bitcoins

LEALANA Physical Litecoins

If you have been into cryptocurrency for any amount of time, then you have surely heard of LEALANA Physical Litecoins.


LEALANA Physical Litecoins offers high quality and great looking physical Litecoins and Bitcoins in a wide variety of sizes. Check the link at the bottom of this article for a glimpse at these works of art.

We recently caught up with Noah Luis, owner of LEALANA, better known as Smoothie in the Bitcoin and Litecoin communities, who shared a little about himself and his great company with us.

Lealana

Noah ‘Smoothie‘ Luis is a 30 year old tech entrepreneur who resides in Kea’au, Hawaii. He was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii. Smoothie found out about Bitcoin through a Youtube channel named Davincij15.

Being that he has a background in software development, computer support, and a deep interest into the monetary system and precious metals, Bitcoin was right up his ally.

He started off mining in May 2011, and went down the “Bitcoin rabbit hole” and never looked back.

Smoothie started LEALANA Physical Litecoins in July 2013, which then morphed into LEALANA Physical Bitcoins and Litecoins.

His business sells a physical set of coins that store Bitcoins and Litecoins as a way for people to hold something that is naturally digital. The coins are a representation of his passion for precious metals and technology as well as the hope that his coins will indeed help people understand what cryptocurrencies are.

LEALANA is a reputable company, who compared to most, have been in this game a long time now. We hope you will take the time to check out their awesome products.

Links:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=315440

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=243341.0

source: http://www.cryptonerd.co/

LEALANA Physical Litecoins

Crapcoin of the day: Bitbar

There are some coins out there that don’t need (or deserve) a full length article to tell you how awful they are.


Perhaps the finest example of this is BitBar. Bitbar has the honor of having the largest premine/instamine in the history of cryptocurrency, putting even coins like megacoin and feathercoin to shame. Take a look:

The graph really speaks for itself. More than 6 months later, the amount generated during those first few hours still represents an astonishing 45% of all bitbars in existence.

In total, BitBar breaks 5 of the 7 rules (Anatomy of a ScamCoin). Only #3 and #4 do not apply to it.

This coin, or bar if you will, was released way back in the altcoin frenzy of April, and at one point reached price parity with bitcoin (1 BTB = 1 BTC). As if that wasn’t foolish enough, the real question is, who the hell is paying 0.09 BTC per bitbar right now?

As a note to end on, bitbar was promoted heavily by a user named TruCoin. If you go through his posts, you’ll find all sorts of outlandish things, the least of which was the claim of having developed a hybrid USB/ASIC for under $5000.

source: http://cryptolife.net/crapcoin-of-the-day-bitbar/

Crapcoin of the day: Bitbar

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Free of government regulations and using peer-to-peer principles – so no middle men – it was once considered the currency only for the tech-savvy. But its price went through the roof this November after the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve said the currency may hold long-term promise. With us now to discuss the future of Bitcoin is Patrick Murck from the General Counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation.

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