En studie över bitcoin och andra virtuella valutors förhållande till inkomstskattelagen
(2014) JURM02 20142Department of Law
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Virtuella valutor i allmänhet och bitcoin i synnerhet är en del i den digitala utveckling som sker i allt snabbare takt. Virtuella valutor har under de senaste åren gått ifrån att vara en företeelse som enbart attraherade en ytterst begränsad skara individer till att bli ett globalt virtuellt valutasystem med miljontals användare. Även den finansiella expansionen som virtuella de valutorna varit med om har gått ifrån att ha varit minimal till att uppgå i ansenliga summor.
Emellertid har den här utvecklingen lett till finansiella och juridiska spörsmål. En av de frågor som aktualiserats är hur en stat ska behandla bitcoin rent juridiskt. Beroende på vilken typ av tillgång bitcoin ska anses utgöra finns det ett flertal olika konsekvenser... (More) - Virtuella valutor i allmänhet och bitcoin i synnerhet är en del i den digitala utveckling som sker i allt snabbare takt. Virtuella valutor har under de senaste åren gått ifrån att vara en företeelse som enbart attraherade en ytterst begränsad skara individer till att bli ett globalt virtuellt valutasystem med miljontals användare. Även den finansiella expansionen som virtuella de valutorna varit med om har gått ifrån att ha varit minimal till att uppgå i ansenliga summor.
Emellertid har den här utvecklingen lett till finansiella och juridiska spörsmål. En av de frågor som aktualiserats är hur en stat ska behandla bitcoin rent juridiskt. Beroende på vilken typ av tillgång bitcoin ska anses utgöra finns det ett flertal olika konsekvenser som kan aktualiseras. Denna bedömning har varit det som lett fram till att en individ begärt ett förhandsbesked ifrån Skatterättsnämnden om hans växlingstjänst (bitcoin-traditionell valuta) skulle medföra momsplikt. Enligt ett EU-direktiv undantas valutaväxlingstjänst ifrån momsplikt. Detta höll inte Skatteverket med om utan överklagade förhandsbeskedet till Högsta förvaltningsdomstolen som valde att hänskjuta frågan till EU-domstolen och således invänta ett förhandsavgörande.
En av lagstiftarens tankar med skattereformen år 1990 var att reformen skulle leda till en likformig beskattning av olika former av kapitalvinst. Tidigare skilde det sig åt beroende på vilken kapitaltillgång det var fråga om. Även hur länge tillgången ägts påverkade den skattemässiga behandlingen - i vissa fall och för vissa tillgångar var det möjligt att uppnå skattefrihet. En annan av grundtankarna med skattereformen var att all kapitalvinst som bör beskattas ska beskattas.
Skatteverket har förmodligen insett att det kan uppstå problem med att klassificera samt ge bitcoin och andra virtuella valutor status som valuta. Emellertid är det intressant att analysera hur Skatteverket möjligen kan ha gått tillväga när de utrett bitcoin och virtuella valutor. (Less) - Abstract
- Virtual currencies in general and bitcoin in particular are parts of a digital development that is currently entering the financial markets in an increasing phase. Moreover, virtual currencies were just a few years ago an occurrence that attracted only a very few particular types of people. However, presently virtual currencies have developed into becoming a major global phenomenon with millions of users. Also, this development has turned virtual currencies from financial insignificance into becoming a multibillion dollar industry.
Nonetheless, this development has created different legal and financial questions and has also been the subject of a hectic debate. Furthermore, amongst these questions the one of major importance to this... (More) - Virtual currencies in general and bitcoin in particular are parts of a digital development that is currently entering the financial markets in an increasing phase. Moreover, virtual currencies were just a few years ago an occurrence that attracted only a very few particular types of people. However, presently virtual currencies have developed into becoming a major global phenomenon with millions of users. Also, this development has turned virtual currencies from financial insignificance into becoming a multibillion dollar industry.
Nonetheless, this development has created different legal and financial questions and has also been the subject of a hectic debate. Furthermore, amongst these questions the one of major importance to this thesis is how virtual currencies, from a legal point of view, should be classified. Is the trade of them to be classified and taxed as foreign exchange or as other types of capital gains. The answer will undoubtedly have significant consequences on the individual tax payer since the tax treatment in most states, including Sweden, of currencies differ considerably from the tax treatment of other types of capital gains. Most importantly, according to an EU directive foreign exchange, in contrast to most other types of capital gains, is exempted from VAT.
In Sweden these considerations and the uncertainties resulted in a request from a natural person who was involved in the exchange of bitcoins for an advanced ruling from the Swedish Council on Advance Tax Rulings on if bitcoin is considered a currency according to the Swedish income tax law and further if his trade in bitcoins was subject to Swedish VAT. Moreover, The Swedish Council on Advance Tax Rulings found in its advanced ruling that bitcoin was subject to the same tax treatment as traditional currencies and hence exempted from VAT. However, the Swedish Tax Agency disagreed and appealed the advanced ruling to the Swedish Supreme Administration Court, which requested a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice. Still to this date the European Court Justice has not ruled on the matter yet.
One of the tax legislator’s thoughts behind the Swedish tax reform of 1990 was equal taxing of different forms of capital gains. Moreover, before this reform different types of capital gains were subject to different types of tax and different levels of tax. Furthermore, some categories of capitals gains were even exempted from tax. However, The Swedish Tax Agency seems to be of the opinion that it would be a problem if bitcoin and other virtual currencies, would be subject to the same tax treatment as traditional currencies. Nonetheless, it is of great interest to interpret and analyze how and why the Swedish Tax Agency found that bitcoin, according to the Swedish income tax law, shouldn’t be classified as a currency. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4925632
- author
- Jernberg, Jesper LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- A study regarding bitcoin and other virtual currencies relation to the Swedish income tax act
- course
- JURM02 20142
- year
- 2014
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- skatterätt
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 4925632
- date added to LUP
- 2015-03-05 11:20:34
- date last changed
- 2015-03-05 11:20:34
@misc{4925632,
abstract = {{Virtual currencies in general and bitcoin in particular are parts of a digital development that is currently entering the financial markets in an increasing phase. Moreover, virtual currencies were just a few years ago an occurrence that attracted only a very few particular types of people. However, presently virtual currencies have developed into becoming a major global phenomenon with millions of users. Also, this development has turned virtual currencies from financial insignificance into becoming a multibillion dollar industry.
Nonetheless, this development has created different legal and financial questions and has also been the subject of a hectic debate. Furthermore, amongst these questions the one of major importance to this thesis is how virtual currencies, from a legal point of view, should be classified. Is the trade of them to be classified and taxed as foreign exchange or as other types of capital gains. The answer will undoubtedly have significant consequences on the individual tax payer since the tax treatment in most states, including Sweden, of currencies differ considerably from the tax treatment of other types of capital gains. Most importantly, according to an EU directive foreign exchange, in contrast to most other types of capital gains, is exempted from VAT.
In Sweden these considerations and the uncertainties resulted in a request from a natural person who was involved in the exchange of bitcoins for an advanced ruling from the Swedish Council on Advance Tax Rulings on if bitcoin is considered a currency according to the Swedish income tax law and further if his trade in bitcoins was subject to Swedish VAT. Moreover, The Swedish Council on Advance Tax Rulings found in its advanced ruling that bitcoin was subject to the same tax treatment as traditional currencies and hence exempted from VAT. However, the Swedish Tax Agency disagreed and appealed the advanced ruling to the Swedish Supreme Administration Court, which requested a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice. Still to this date the European Court Justice has not ruled on the matter yet.
One of the tax legislator’s thoughts behind the Swedish tax reform of 1990 was equal taxing of different forms of capital gains. Moreover, before this reform different types of capital gains were subject to different types of tax and different levels of tax. Furthermore, some categories of capitals gains were even exempted from tax. However, The Swedish Tax Agency seems to be of the opinion that it would be a problem if bitcoin and other virtual currencies, would be subject to the same tax treatment as traditional currencies. Nonetheless, it is of great interest to interpret and analyze how and why the Swedish Tax Agency found that bitcoin, according to the Swedish income tax law, shouldn’t be classified as a currency.}},
author = {{Jernberg, Jesper}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{En studie över bitcoin och andra virtuella valutors förhållande till inkomstskattelagen}},
year = {{2014}},
}