Editors note on another site; "No, no, and no. Specifically, the term "legal tender" implies that someone would be obligated to accept it in payment of debts. To be perfectly clear: Nobody will ever be obligated to accept Bitcoins. Not in Germany, or anywhere else on planet earth. Ever. Period. Germany is merely recognizing Bitcoins, and declaring that their use is not illegal. he words "legal tender" have a real definition, and this isn't it."
A prominenet person within the German Finance Ministry is quoting Hayek? Wow. They can talk the talk, but the 20,000 BTC question is, can they walk the walk?
German Politicians now want to tax Bitcoin transfers with Capital Gains Tax. Short video [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwlglXcDYGg[/youtube]
Nobody saw that coming lol. I'm starting to actually consider using bitcoin, not to speculate, just because I'm not confident in the banking system. The high fees and amount of time to get it out are a major deterrent atm though.
Fees aren't high here; http://coinjar.io/buy_bitcoins Finally an Australian service not based off Mt Gox's inflated prices.
I'd be doing a bit of reading on any AUSTRAC compliance requirements before dealing with an Australian bitcoin exchange, just to be sure that you're not dealing with an organisation that might be a bit "light" on compliance. AUSTRAC threshold transactions etc apply to non-legal tender "e-currency" as well as fiat. There's a bit of history on why for those interested in investigating.
Methinks this might be about more than just Bitcoin or taxation... Germany wants competing currencies so it isn't stuck with propping up the Euro forever perhaps? What say ye? Edit: Germans are smart.
Tiny bit interesting chatty opinion on bitcoins and canada here: http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/bitcoin-is-the-new-napster-and-thats-a-good-thing Mostly just froth and bubble, but I did agree with this: Though not with this: Unfortunate that it is based upon technology, which I do not trust entirely.
It would be great if we could use private money again, crypto-currencies being one such form for those tech savvy types. Legal tender is just one aspect of having a government that pisses me off, not to mention taxation, and the widespread community view that only governments can install traffic lights, and provide boat ramps and can manage the economy. What a joke, you can't manage an economy, all you can manage is your income and expenses. Anything beyond that is manipulation, anything short of that is negligence.
