Norway has become the latest country to declare that Bitcoin is not a proper currency but an asset subject to capital gains tax.
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The Norwegian government said that Bitcoin is a kind of "private money" subject to capital gains tax.
Norway’s director general of taxation, Hans Christian Holte, said: "Bitcoins don’t fall under the usual definition of money or currency.
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By GlobalData"We have done some assessments on what is the right and sound way to handle this in the tax system," he added.
According to Holte, the definition of Bitcoins as an asset means Bitcoin profits will fall under the wealth tax, while losses can be deducted. Businesses using Bitcoin will also face a 25% sales tax.
Paul Ehling, associate professor in the department of financial economics at the BI Norwegian Business School, said: "Currency is any agreed upon means of exchange of goods and services, so you could have some small stones, as used in history, and if it’s accepted by a sufficiently large population, then that’s enough."
Despite the fact that Bitcoin has been defined as an asset by a number of countries, vendor Lamassu claims to have installed the first Bitcoin ATM in Finland, while Robocoin introduced the world’s first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver in October 2013.
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