EU To Make Crypto Companies Report Tax Details To Authorities (coindesk.com) 26
The European Commission plans to make crypto companies report user holdings to tax authorities, it said Thursday -- but the European Union (EU) body says it's still working on how to enforce the measures on wallet providers or exchanges based outside the bloc. From a report: As previously reported by CoinDesk, the proposed new tax rules, known as the eighth Directive on Administrative Cooperation or DAC8, seeks to halt billions of euros in evasion by taxpayers stashing crypto abroad. "Anonymity means that many crypto-asset users making significant profits fall under the radar of national tax authorities. This is not acceptable," Paolo Gentiloni, EU Commissioner for tax, said in a statement.
When asked how the EU will enforce the measures on companies outside the bloc, Gentiloni told reporters, "we will work on that. What counts for us is that EU residents are targeted by these measures," even if they use crypto providers from elsewhere, he said. Gentiloni's measures would further the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), which allows foreign companies to gain EU clients using a procedure called reverse solicitation.
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Crypto screwed this up.
It started as anonymous decentralized money but quickly succumbed to greedy financial people who set up "banks" and "exchanges" which negated the entire original premise. So now it's easy for the government to step in and tax, regulate, etc.
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It was never going to be hard for the government to regulate and tax cryptocurrency which depends on a blockchain which is too large to be distributed to every user of the cryptocurrency, because it is centralized and the traffic to and from the responsible parties is easy to track. In fact tying cryptocurrency to real currency is actually a benefit in this regard because it establishes a value, which governments would otherwise have been more free to simply invent.
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It is actually worse: Crapcoin infrastructure does not scale and has ridiculous slow transfer rates. Hence without exchanges basically everything so slow it is completely unusable for anything, including crime and money laundering. So exchanges are needed. That exchanges kill basically all supposed advantages of crapcoins and add a lot of disadvantages is not a surprise at all though.
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It is actually worse: Crapcoin infrastructure does not scale and has ridiculous slow transfer rates.
I remember looking at what would be required for Bitcoin to handle the same amount of transactions as credit cards globally. I think you'd need enough GPU's that their combined heat output would melt the planet.
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Yes, probably. Bitcoin has less speed than the domestic bank transfer system of a small (non-failed) country.
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Well, I have had it as "must list" for property tax for 3 years here and before that you were obligated to as well, they just did not tell you explicitly. Also, all EU banks, insurances, financial institutions already are reporting what you own to the tax authorities. There is no reason for crapcoins to be exempt.
Tax fraud vs. privacy (Score:2, Flamebait)
Why is it that every government thinks it has the right to know all of your personal financial details? I'm not in the US, but there we have the most obvious example:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause
Surely your financial details are part of your "papers and effects". Where's the warrant that requires banks, employers, etc.. to provide all that information to the government?
I am in Switzerland, where banking secrecy is a thing. It's not evil, it is exactly what a sane person would expect: your financial details are *not* reported to the go
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I am in Switzerland, where banking secrecy is a thing. It's not evil, it is exactly what a sane person would expect: your financial details are *not* reported to the government.
If it's not evil, how have so many evil people successfully used it to hide their ill-gotten gains?
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There were thousands of people killed worldwide by hammers last year.
By your definition - which is anything that can be used for evil is also evil - I guess hammers are evil and should be illegal?
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"If it's not evil, how have so many evil people successfully used it to hide their ill-gotten gains?"
You are sure there are ill-gotten gains? How do you know? At what point does the EU's mandate become a fishing expedition? Suddenly everyone with a crypto account will have to answer all sorts of questions about where the money came from. Time to move all that crypto currency back to gold and silver it sounds like.
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You are sure there are ill-gotten gains?
sssshhh [swissinfo.ch]
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Domestic violence is sometimes hard to prove. Wouldn't it be better if we sacrificed our privacy and let the government install cameras in our homes?
What about encryption? Lots of governments have tried to ban it, or force backdoors into the algorithms. Think of how much easier that would make the job of law enforcement! No? Why not?
Seriously, that's the kind of argument you are making. The question is: where do you draw the line between privacy and governmental convenience. Also: people forget that gover
Re:Tax fraud vs. privacy (Score:5, Insightful)
Even Switzerland made its banking less anonymous due to massive amount of illegal activity by account holders.
It's kind of a bizarre question TBH. Governments have had taxation powers for millennia. Fraud has been illegal for millennia, and law enforcement has been given powers to investigate it.
Just because you made your own new currency doesn't mean it is somehow outside of any government regulation or interest.
Re: Tax fraud vs. privacy (Score:2)
You're partially right. Switzerland has eliminated banking privacy for anyone not in Switzerland. That wasn't due to illegal activity, however. It was solely due to political pressure, because other governments want full financial info on their citizens.
In the case of the US with FATCA, it is also hypocritical and one-sided. Switzerland asked (facetioysly) at the time "So, we make our banks send all this info on US citizens. So you will have your banks send us the same info on Swiss citizens?" The answer w
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Switzerland should have said to the world that they will share the data with those who share data back under the same terms if that's what they wanted. The reciprocity argument is an easy sell to the masses.
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Even Switzerland made its banking less anonymous due to massive amount of illegal activity by account holders.
This is a massive misrepresentation. They didn't look at the account holders' activities, found lots of illegal activity, then went "whoops, let's make banking less anonymous". As you imply.
No shit, the data was leaked and journalists found all the crime going on..
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Sure. But right now, what they don't know includes things like... crypto activity! So to satisfy your request, that information should be made available to them so they can pre-fill your form.
I happen to be in another country. However, if I choose to do business with a company that pays me in American Dollars, that is still income, and it is subject to taxes. So are capital gains on stocks denominated in USD. So why not on (choose your coin)?
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It would make sense if the US would stop making us self-report taxes and just send out a form prefilled with what they already know (which is usually everything but your deductions).
Do poker players tell other players what cards they have?
They want you to be scared of them. If they tell you everything they know then you likely won't report all that other stuff they don't know about.
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It would make sense if the US would stop making us self-report taxes
It reinforces an atmosphere of voluntary compliance.
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Simple solution: Stop taxing individuals. Tax businesses and corporations. They need to apply for licenses to operate, so an agreement to report financial details can simply be a part of that application.
Something like 60% of the population pay no federal income tax. So it shouldn't be difficult for the gov't to adjust rates to collect the needed revenues from this remaining tax base.
Cryto Case is Subversive (Score:2)
What a joke (Score:2)
"What counts for us is that EU residents are targeted by these measures".
That in a nutshell sums up the EU's attitude to it's residents.