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Japan says Bitcoin not a currency, but must be 'subject to taxation'
07.03.2014 18:10 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Bitcoin is not a currency but transactions involving it could be «subject to taxation», Japan’s government said Friday, in a move that might pave the way for formal regulations on the troubled virtual unit, Voice of Russia reports referring to AFP.
Tokyo also said that banks could not broker Bitcoin transactions or open accounts holding the virtual unit, in an apparent bid to clamp down on the digital currency.
But, as regulators around the world grapple with how to handle Bitcoin, the Japanese statement did not clarify if Tokyo would immediately begin cracking down on it, or how it would do so, given the unit’s opaque nature.
Bitcoin «does not fall under the category of a currency» as defined by Japanese law and «generally speaking it is subject to taxation if it meets conditions laid out in income tax law, corporate tax law and sales tax law, among others», the government statement said.
If Bitcoin transactions were used for money laundering «that would constitute a crime», it added.
«As a matter of common sense, if there are transactions and subsequent gains, it is natural… for the finance ministry to consider how it can impose taxes,» Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Friday.
Asked whether Japan would become a global leader on regulating Bitcoin, Suga said: «We are now sorting things out under the current law and mulling what the government can do.»
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