August 19, 2013

Bitcoin becomes official and legal ‘private money’ in Germany

by Shayne Rana

We’ve reached the age with technology when online currency is now being regarded as actual wealth. According to a German newspaper, Bitcoin is now legally and officially considered ‘private money’. This is a first for the global markets that a country has taken an official stance towards online currency and awarded it the status of an official currency unit. It will be considered for legal and tax purposes in Germany by the Finance Ministry. While personal use of this currency will be tax-free, other endeavours for business purposes etc. might be made taxable.


“For the first time, the federal government recognizes Bitcoins as private money,” said Schaeffler. Since its introduction back in 2009, this mode of online payment has been quite popular in Europe. One of the main reasons reported for its popularity is due to the lack of satisfaction with regular banking systems from the populous. Of course, since Bitcoin isn’t exactly backed by a government nor a central bank the legitimacy and viability of this form of currency needs to be dealt with. At the beginning of August, a Texas court dismissed claims that Bitcoin was not real money after a business/con man ran a Ponzi scheme in Texas garnering about US$4.5 million worth of this currency from people. His argument was that since it wasn’t legitimate currency he could not be subject to regulation by the US government. That clearly didn’t work out for him.

There are few necessary and legal aspects to consider before this form of currency and payments are accepted by the global markets. Although Bitcoin is slowly becoming a popular choice for online form of private wealth the lack of being a thoroughly recognised medium still opens it up for a lot of legal issues. A group called the Bitcoin Foundation limits the total number of currency units to 21 million. As of now, the price of one unit is about $ 110 (82 euros), according to online currency conversion sites. But we’re not too far from this becoming a global standard as the future or money could also be moved online.

[Via – RT]