taxes, regulations, bans - where in the world is the best place for bitcoin users?
Such a place should also have easy access to the Internet, Bitcoin Exchanges, maybe Bitcoin ATMs (that would be nice
).
Many suggestions here are including Germany [...]Such a place should also have easy access to the Internet, Bitcoin Exchanges, maybe Bitcoin ATMs (that would be nice
).But I bet most of people do not know that there is no even one BTC ATM in Germany [...]
Germany is good for holders, 1+ year after you buy BTC you can sell it with no tax - and if you look for European country with most BTC ATMs Austria is neighbour country with 149 ATMs.
For an entrepreneur / start-up, Germany is somewhere between a rock and a hard place, for several reasons, most having nothing to do with Bitcoin regulation per se.
For a regular merchant, willing to accept Bitcoin, Germany has safe and sound regulations e.g. no extra VAT on BTC payments (which was considered unclear for a few years up until 2015). BTW, that holds true for the whole European Union.
BTC traders might have mixed feelings, their gains are mainly taxed as income, not capital gains, which makes it more expensive for high income traders, but can be beneficial for low income traders.
For a BTC hodler, Germany is a tax haven.
As you've mentioned correctly, you don't pay any tax at all on your gains by holding for more than 1 year. Period.
If you need ATMs, well the situation might just have changed dramatically.
Up until now, ATMs were a no-go in Germany, because you had to effectively have a bank license to run them.
This has changed on Sept. 25. 2018.
No license whatsoever is required anymore* to run an ATM in Germany.
I guess we're going to see a lot of ATMs in Germany in the near future.
* in fact, a court ruling made it clear that there never has been a legal requirement for such a license.