Tag: bitcoin

If a company owns CryptoCurrency how are gains taxed?

In a company Capital Gains and Trading activity are both taxed at Corporation Tax Rates.

The downside to holding CryptoCurrency as an investment is that if you have a trading company it could put your trading status at risk for entrepreneurs relief if more that 20% of the business becomes investment related.

The best known Virtual Currency is Bitcoin and since 2014 there have been calls for tighter control of these currencies.

The European Banking Authority, the EBA, called on national supervisory authorities to discourage banks and credit institutions from buying, holding or selling virtual currencies.  It called for regulation of market participants at the interface between conventional and virtual currencies. Over the longer-term, the EBA is calling for a ‘substantial body’ of regulation to be applied to virtual currency market participants, including the creation of ‘scheme governing authorities’ accountable for the integrity of a virtual currency scheme and the imposition of capital requirements.  In the short term, the EBA is calling for national authorities to ‘shield regulated financial services from virtual currencies’.

 

Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part.

steve@bicknells.net

 

Will the EBA be able to stop the growing use of Bitcoins?

Three Bitcoin digital currency coins

Back in December the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a warning to consumers on virtual currency.

Then in July the EBA issued an opinion on virtual currencies.

The best known Virtual Currency (although not named by the EBA) is Bitcoin.

The European Banking Authority, the EBA, has called on national supervisory authorities to discourage banks and credit institutions from buying, holding or selling virtual currencies.  It calls for regulation of market participants at the interface between conventional and virtual currencies. Over the longer-term, the EBA is calling for a ‘substantial body’ of regulation to be applied to virtual currency market participants, including the creation of ‘scheme governing authorities’ accountable for the integrity of a virtual currency scheme and the imposition of capital requirements.  In the short term, the EBA is calling for national authorities to ‘shield regulated financial services from virtual currencies’.

So do you think Virtual Currencies are useful and worthwhile?

 

steve@bicknells.net

Do you accept Bitcoins? you could be missing out

Three Bitcoin digital currency coins

Bitcoins (BTC) are a digital currency that can be bought and sold for cash.

Watch this Video which explains how Bitcoins work

Here is a link to a UK Bitcoin Exchange

https://bitbargain.co.uk/

According to Bitcoin the current market price is $109.74 and currently 50,000 transactions are done per day using bitcoins.

These rules are enforced collectively by the Bitcoin network.

  • Hard limit of about 21 million bitcoins.
  • Bitcoins are divisible to 8 decimal places, yielding a total of approximately 21×1014 currency units.
  • Transactions are cheap and mostly free.

Before you dismiss it as another crazy idea, both the BBC and Institute of Directors have commented on Bitcoins, in this months  (June 2013) Director Magazine, page 17, 60 Second Expert, the IoD gave an excellent summary of key points including this comment on system safety:

US security expert Dan Kaminsky referred to the system as an ‘alien technology’ written to a standard of quality you don’t see in most software.

Bitcoin transactions are secured by military grade cryptography. Nobody can make a payment on your behalf or charge you money without having a copy of your wallet.

Mobile payments can be made too…

Bitcoin on mobiles allows you to pay with a simple two step scan-and-pay. No need to swipe your card, type a PIN, or sign anything. And all you need to do to receive Bitcoin payments is to display the QR code in your Bitcoin wallet app and let your friend scan your mobile, or touch the two phones together (using NFC radio technology).

International payments are quick…

Bitcoins can be transferred from Africa to Canada in 10 minutes. There is no bank to slow down the process, level outrageous fees, or freeze the transfer. You can pay your neighbors the same way as you can pay a member of your family in another country.

So should you accept payment by bitcoins?

steve@bicknells.net