CoinCorner comments on the UK’s new Cryptocurrency taxation guide

CoinCorner’s CEO, Danny Scott, commented: “The recent announcement of tax guidance by the UK’s HMRC for “crypto assets” or “exchange tokens” – more commonly known as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – is another great step forward for the industry and continues to legitimise Bitcoin.

The guidance helps to clarify the position of individuals when buying, selling, paying for goods and even mining Bitcoin, and now gives comfort to anyone who wants to get involved with Bitcoin but may have been discouraged by the lack of guidance before.

Within the guidance is a section covering the tax liabilities of a business looking to accept Bitcoin as a payment method. CoinCorner has recently launched a new service – CoinCorner Checkout – which allows businesses to accept Bitcoin as a payment method, with all Bitcoin funds automatically being turned into GBP and removing any price risk. Combined with the recent tax guidance for businesses, this means accepting Bitcoin via CoinCorner is no different from a tax perspective than using a service such as PayPal. With this green light, hopefully more businesses will be encouraged to explore the opportunities of accepting Bitcoin as a payment method.

Another key piece for businesses that has been covered in the guidance is paying staff in Bitcoin. Earlier this year, we introduced this option ourselves with great success. All of our employees now take a portion of their salary in Bitcoin and nothing from a tax perspective differs – it’s a much easier process than people first think”