Friday 23 October 2015

Europe: valued added tax and Bitcoin exchanges

Last year HMRC in the United Kingdom published a briefing note considering the tax treatment of income received from, and charges made in connection with, activities involving Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: see here. This note took the view that no value added tax would be due on the value of Bitcoins when exchanged for a traditional currency such as sterling: see here. This position was endorsed yesterday by the Court of Justice in Skatteverket v David Hedqvist (Case C-264/14), which considered the operation of the Value Added Tax Directive (2006/112/EC) in respect of a proposed business consisting of the exchange of traditional currency for Bitcoins and vice versa. A summary of the court's opinion is available here (pdf).

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