Israeli Court: Bitcoin not a currency but an asset
|- The court stated that any profit made off Bitcoin transactions is taxable.
- Judge Bornstein said that accepting bitcoin as a currency for tax purposes a bit difficult.
Lod’s Central District Court rejected the plea of Noam Copel, the CEO and founder of the DAV foundation, regarding the profits he made from his Bitcoins. Copel argued that the profits he made from selling Bitcoins aren’t subject to Israeli capital gains, which range to a high of 25 percent. Copel made a profit of NIS 8.27 million in 2013 from liquidating crypto holdings he obtained back in 2011. He claimed that the assets he had earned were not a business transaction that is legally taxable under Israeli law.
By rejecting Copel’s appeal, the court sided with Israel Tax Authority’s position on cryptocurrencies. Their stance is that any profit made off Bitcoin transactions is taxable and that it is an asset and not a currency. Judge Shmuel Bornstein ruled that the legal standing of bitcoin is always changing, therefore, it will eventually be replaced by another virtual currency, which makes accepting it as a currency for tax purposes a bit difficult.
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