Swedish Bitcoin Firm Enters Court Battle to Protect Customer Data
A Swedish bitcoin brokerage has gone to court with the country's tax authority to prevent an audit of its customer information. Goobit AB, the company that operates the Stockholm-based BTCX, is fighting a third-party audit request from the Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency, that would require it to disclose information about its customer base. As reported last week by Swedish language newspaper Dagens Nyheter, BTCX has gone to court in order to prevent this information from being handed over. Goobit chief marketing officer Joakim Herlin-Ljunglöf voiced concern that Swedish authorities....
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The Swedish Bitcoin exchange BTC-X is being forced by the Tax Authorities to disclose all of their customer's financial information. Tax Authorities have demanded the full customer transaction history, which will allow them to track every financial move, from the small Swedish bitcoin exchange BTC-X customers. This latest move made by the Swedish Tax Authority is an evident case of Privacy violation as we have never seen before. It looks like the government is seeking to take away the undeniable people's right to privacy. To make matters even more uncomfortable, this demand was made....
Swedish bitcoin exchange BTCX, has been requested by the local Tax Authority to disclose transaction history of the company's 20,000 customers. The exchange is taking the Swedish Tax Authority to court, arguing that by doing so, all its clients' identities would be disclosed. The tax agency has requested BTCX to disclose information about customers' buying and selling of bitcoins, partly to get information about how many bitcoins are bought and sold, reported local media outlet DN.se. But according to BTCX, the request also means that the exchange will have to disclose the "unique code,"....
Professing that the Bitcoin is a form of money, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Juliane Kokott, said that the digital currency should be exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT). The proposal came in response to the Swedish tax office's request to defog the tax status of Bitcoin in Europe, and end all the legal uncertainties that surrounds it in the current regulatory climate. At that time, the Swedish authority had challenged a court decision that had excused Bitcoin transactions from Bitcoin operations from falling under the VAT's purview. The EU's highest court,....
Today, the 22nd of October, The European Union’s top court ruled that Bitcoin and digital currencies should be exempt from sales taxes within the 28-country block. The European Court of Justice stated it saw no reason to treat Bitcoin differently transactions involving Fiat currency used as legal tender. The Court ruling was made clear following a complaint by a Swedish entrepreneur wanting to provide a service on a Bitcoin exchange which involved other traditional currencies. The Swedish entrepreneur wrote to the court arguing that the service should be tax-free.
The most popular Swedish news site, Dn.se, has reported the European Court of Justice as stating, “Bitcoin is a means of payment and that the exchange should therefore be exempted VAT obligations.” Three years ago, Swedish software developer David Hedqvist and moderator of Bitcoin.se asked the European Union if Bitcoin transactions are exempt from VAT. According to the findings of the court: However, the Swedish Tax Agency argued against the Board of EU directives, and said that they have mistakenly interpreted the matter. The Agency appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court and urged....