Australian Government: Welfare Applicants Must Declare Bitcoin Assets
A small addition to a pension application form provoked interest in Australia yesterday, with its request that applicants declare their "cyber currency" assets such as bitcoin. A printed reference to bitcoin value in a government-issed document such as this, according to a digital currency legal expert, "legitimizes the concept of digital wealth beyond a niche area". On page 14 of the application form published by the Department of Human Services (DHS), bitcoin is listed alongside other potentially valuable assets: "taxi plates, time shares, racehorses, greyhounds, travellers cheques" and....
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The UK government’s Department of Work and Pensions is spearheading an experiment in which a blockchain system is used to distribute welfare payments. The department has partnered with UK-based banking institution Barclays, the UK arm of German energy firm RWE, fintech startup GovCoin and University College London. The project was unveiled during a payments conference earlier this month during a talk given by David Freur, state minister for welfare reform. As quoted by regulatory data provider PaymentsCompliance, Freud suggested that the project's success or failure would be determined by....
Public officials in Russia will now be required to declare all the crypto assets they hold as income. The measures are with effect from Jan. 1, 2021, local media reported. Russia’s prosecutor general Igor Krasnov declared: “Starting next year, civil servants will be required to declare [virtual] currencies on an equal basis with other assets.” Krasnov said this on Oct. 20 while speaking at a corruption meeting involving 15 other prosecutor generals from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states and elsewhere. The SCO is an eight-member political, economic....
At The Payments Innovation Conference on 4 July, conservative minister Lord Freud has announced that the Government has been developing and testing blockchain technology to keep track of welfare benefits. Intention to revolutionize welfare system. The platform developed by the Department of Work and Pensions and GovCoin, a London-based startup, is undergoing a proof-of-concept trial where payments are recorded on a distributed ledger. The trial’s participants include Barclay, Npower and University College London. Robert Kay, CEO of GovCoin said: “GovCoin has united a team of strong....
The Australian government has made two grants of up to $3 million available to blockchain teams targeting minerals certification and excise taxation solutions. The Australian government has opened applications for grants up to $3 million each in funding to blockchain projects targeting supply chain tracking in the minerals industry and tax tracking in the food and beverage sector.Applications are open until April 29, with any sole trader, partnership, publicly-funded research organization, or entity incorporated in Australia that possesses an Australian Business Number eligible to....
The UK Department for Work and Pensions is currently trial testing a blockchain-based prototype that may be used to deliver a more robust system of welfare payments. Can Blockchain Technology Improve Welfare? The news was revealed at the Payments Innovation Conference 2016 on July 4 by Minister for Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions,....