Germany is acting very logically in response to Bitcoin. Their thinking: "if a growing number of people are using it as a store of value or medium of exchange, or as a vehicle for financial speculation, let's regulate and tax its use."<p>This bodes well for Bitcoin, because other countries are likely to follow Germany's example.
Bitcoin fulfils easily the definition of "electronic money" found in the European directive 2009/110/EC, art. 2 def. 1:<p>> 2. "electronic money" means electronically, including magnetically, stored monetary value as represented by a claim on the issuer which is issued on receipt of funds for the purpose of making payment transactions as defined in point 5 of Article 4 of Directive 2007/64/EC, and which is accepted by a natural or legal person other than the electronic money issuer;<p>Germany is doing nothing strange, all the EU state will have to do similar things in the future. Bitcoin may be a distributed currency without a politically backed central bank, but it is still a currency, so it is treated as such by any competent tax office.
that seems weird that germany has to recognize bitcoin as a unit of account to collect taxes on it. surely, if you buy something and then later sell it in the future for a profit you are liable for capital gains on it. surely there is not some massive whitelist of all the goods that attract capital gains tax.
I wonder how Germany expects to be able to tax this? It's very hard to audit someone's collection of BTC wallets. Will this only be to require companies to collect VAT for BTC transactions, or will it also include, say, income tax when you're being paid in BTC?
It sounds more like a psychological achievement than legal. German government has no means to control BTC, that means BTC is still in the wild.<p>This is good for the moment, but also begs a question: when the real regulation comes into play how it will be played?
But for now - relax and enjoy!
So Bitcoins aren't a get-out-of-taxes-free card. Isn't that it's primary practical draw? What volume of Bitcoin transactions involve black-market activity?