HMRC: Bitcoin Exchanges Under Digital Tax Attack in the UK

Bitcoin exchanges are facing tax attacks in the UK. This occurred a few days after the HMRC’s recent statement that the Bitcoin exchanges are not eligible for financial services exemptions.

Today, the UK authority has forcefully dragged all the existing Bitcoin exchanges into their Treasury’s tech tax. With this tax tragedy to Bitcoin exchanges in the country, the UK tax authority has aired that all the online crypto exchanges operating also are subjected to pay tax.

With no exception, Amazon, Google, and Facebook are all included to pay tax to the UK’s Exchequer. However, the tax decision appears to be having a huge downside to Bitcoin exchanges in the country. On one hand, this looks somewhat unfriendly for crypto companies that have the goal to offer Bitcoin services, particularly in the UK.

Additionally, the Bitcoin exchange tax implementation poses a direct threat to Coinbase exchange since it has its subsidiary in the UK. Meanwhile, at writing time, CryptoUK is fighting a humble battle with the HMRC and the Treasury based on claims that they are being unfair in the way they treat crypto differently from other financial assets, according to the report.

Responding to this, the HMRC said,

There are many crypto assets, each of which has different characteristics. Since cryptocurrencies don’t represent money, commodities, or financial contracts, it is unlikely that cryptocurrency asset exchanges will be able to benefit from the exemption for online financial markets.

Additionally, CryptoUK’s director Ian Taylor the authority’s decision is a heavy blow to crypto exchanges that follows the “arduous” licensing system by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Also, this new tax implementation is liable to bring high fees to crypto traders.