Post
Topic
Board Legal
Re: Does a Business selling Bitcoin charge VAT? (I'm not talking about Tax, CGT,etc)
by
astrid.uchiha24
on 17/06/2018, 22:23:11 UTC
So hypothetically, say I have accumulated over the year 1000 BTC as a business owner. The BTC was bought with business money so its purely owned by the business (No need to get into personal tax issues). I then as the business owner decided to sell some BTC to customers through the business. Do i have to charge a rate of Vat on top of the amount I'm selling to the customer?

VAT applies only on businesses like if you regularly sells an item or render services, in short your normal operation. I don't think selling BTC would be covered by this law but court can decide if it is vat-able or those in legislative office.

So hypothetically, say I have accumulated over the year 1000 BTC as a business owner. The BTC was bought with business money so its purely owned by the business (No need to get into personal tax issues). I then as the business owner decided to sell some BTC to customers through the business. Do i have to charge a rate of Vat on top of the amount I'm selling to the customer?


VAT is mainly charged on the physical items which are classified as goods as per applicable law. Since bitcoin is not a physical item, you can consider your bitcoin sell as service. So you ideally charge service tax on bitcoin transactions as per applicable law, instead of charging VAT. Please see the link below to know the key differences between VAT and service tax. I hope this will help you determine the next step more effectively.

https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-vat-and-service-tax.html
depends on the ruling of a country regarding VAT, there are countries that imposes VAt on sale of securities and alike and that is an intangible asset. the primary principle behind VAT is the nature of the business or its primary operation.