Back
11 Dec 2014
Estonia reaffirms application of VAT for full amount on Bitcoin trades – CoinDesk
FXStreet (Barcelona) - The Analysis Team at CoinDesk notes that Estonia has reaffirmed its view to apply VAT on entire bitcoin trade instead of only the meagre commission or service fee.
Key Quotes
“The opinion was submitted as part of an ongoing bitcoin tax case currently before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), according to a report, and is in line with a previous statement by the country's tax authority.”
“The ECJ case was launched in June, after Swedish regulators decided they could not address the issue on their own. The regulators asked the ECJ to arbitrate a dispute between the Swedish tax authority (Skatteverket) and private defendant David Hedqvist.”
“The case revolves around a basic question: whether or not VAT is applicable to bitcoin under the union's VAT directive, which outlines which transactions should be subject to VAT.”
“Hedqvist, a moderator of the Scandinavian section of bitcointalk.org and a member of several bitcoin online communities, is of the opinion that bitcoin should be exempt.”
“The Swedish tax authority, however, maintains that bitcoin is not VAT exempt under the provisions of Article 135 of the Council Directive on The Common System of Value Added Tax.”
“However, Hedqvist says the European Commission is against the idea of imposing VAT on digital currency transactions and is hopeful of his chances in the ruling.”
Key Quotes
“The opinion was submitted as part of an ongoing bitcoin tax case currently before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), according to a report, and is in line with a previous statement by the country's tax authority.”
“The ECJ case was launched in June, after Swedish regulators decided they could not address the issue on their own. The regulators asked the ECJ to arbitrate a dispute between the Swedish tax authority (Skatteverket) and private defendant David Hedqvist.”
“The case revolves around a basic question: whether or not VAT is applicable to bitcoin under the union's VAT directive, which outlines which transactions should be subject to VAT.”
“Hedqvist, a moderator of the Scandinavian section of bitcointalk.org and a member of several bitcoin online communities, is of the opinion that bitcoin should be exempt.”
“The Swedish tax authority, however, maintains that bitcoin is not VAT exempt under the provisions of Article 135 of the Council Directive on The Common System of Value Added Tax.”
“However, Hedqvist says the European Commission is against the idea of imposing VAT on digital currency transactions and is hopeful of his chances in the ruling.”