Coin News

In a bid to fight the threat of cryptocurrency tax crime, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has joined with tax authorities from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to form the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5), according to a press release.

The J5 is a response to a request by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for countries to do more to tackle tax evaders.

The new task force, which would work collaboratively with the OECD where appropriate, believes "offshore structures and financial instruments" when used to launder money and commit tax crimes could be detrimental to a country's economic well-being.

The coalition, which includes the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the Fiscale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst (FIOD) of the Netherlands, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of the U.K., and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) will gather intelligence and "collaborate internationally to reduce the growing threat to tax administrations posed by cryptocurrencies and cybercrime."

IRS Chief of Criminal Investigation Don Fort explained in a Forbes interview why the U.S. decided to take an international approach to fighting cryptocurrency-related tax crimes. He iterated that the U.S. has tried the one-man army approach in the past, but it wasn't successful.

"We cannot continue to operate in the same ways we have in the past, siloing our information from the rest of the world while organized criminals and tax cheats manipulate the system and exploit vulnerabilities for their personal gain," he remarked. With the J5 task force, Fort hopes the IRS will be strong enough to "pressurize the global criminal community” in ways it couldn't make work in the past.

The U.K.'s Director of HMRC Fraud Investigation Service Simon York believes the J5 will make "the world smaller for those seeking to exploit our systems and ensuring no one is beyond our reach."

At the first meeting of the group, leading tax and financial experts from the member states came together to develop tactical plans and identify new opportunities for pursuing international tax criminals.

The IRS has been concerned about cryptocurrency taxes since 2014, where it issued a cryptocurrency taxation guidance and announced it would treat bitcoin as a property. Early last year, it assembled a team of investigators to crack down on those who use cryptocurrency to launder money and evade taxes. In its efforts to catch American tax cheats, the IRS once ordered Coinbase to turn over records of over 480,000 users. After a protracted legal battle, which it lost, it reduced its requests to 14,000 users who engaged in trading activity above $20,000.

Zug, a city in Switzerland's Crypto Valley, completed its first blockchain-based municipal vote on July 2, 2018, the Swiss News Agency reports. Hailed as a “success” by local officials, the vote was held using a trial digital ID system announced in June of this year. City authorities, who have issued digital identities to residents since 2017, are currently evaluating different applications of blockchain technology for governance.

The votes, which were placed through a mobile app, allowed residents with digital IDs to provide feedback on matters such as the inclusion "of fireworks at the annual Lakeside Festival, and whether they think digital IDs should be used to borrow books from the library or pay parking fees."

Residents were also asked if the blockchain digital ID system should frequently be used for referendum votes in the future.

According to the head of communications for the city, Dieter Müller, “the premiere was a success,” and there will be an evaluation of the exercise's technical details in the coming months with a focus on privacy and voting secrecy, as well as on ensuring results are verifiable for future elections.

Still, Müller was not too happy about voter turnout, believing more citizens could have taken part. Out of 240 total voters who registered, only 30 percent participated in the trial. “The number of participants could have been higher,” he conceded.

Müller revealed that while most of the residents found it easy to vote using their smartphones, a small fraction of voters still had difficulty with the process. The exercise also revealed other meaningful use cases the city can explore for the digital ID system, such as using the technology for parking fee payments and tax returns.

Zug is a hotspot for cryptocurrency and blockchain companies known for its low taxes and favorable cryptocurrency laws. This blockchain-friendly city is home to a cluster of cryptocurrency businesses and foundations, including the Ethereum Foundation, Tezos Foundation, ShapeShift and Xapo.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking comments on another bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF). The proposal in question calls for the listing and trading of SolidX bitcoin shares, and stems from the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust, which states it will invest in “bitcoin only.”

VanEck and SolidX first joined forces in early June. This will be the former’s third attempt to build a bitcoin investment project from the ground up.

CEO Jan van Eck commented, “We believe that collectively, we will build something that may be better than other constructs currently making their way through the regulatory process. A properly constructed, physically-backed bitcoin ETF will be designed to provide exposure to the price of bitcoin, and an insurance component will help protect shareholders against the operational risks of sourcing and holding bitcoin.”

The SEC is now asking for comments on the Trust’s newly proposed regulatory changes from “interested persons.” Though several companies have tried to list bitcoin ETFs before, concerns regarding the cryptocurrency’s liquidity and its consistent price swings have led to rising concern amongst SEC representatives, which can make the listing process difficult or long-winded.

This may change in the future, however, as officials are now working on a new plan that would ease present legislation and boost low-risk ETF approval rates. The new laws would allow companies that sell ETFs to “launch plain vanilla versions” without requesting or obtaining approvals from respective SEC regulators. Officials say they are hoping to increase both innovation and competition in the financial industry by removing some of the current blockades.

This plan would apply strictly to open-ended ETFs — funds that bear no restrictions or limits on the number of shares they can issue — which already make up most of the ETF space. However, issuers would still be required to obtain permission from the SEC to sell funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Commissioner Kara Stein explains, “The rule would also include many of the website disclosure requirements that are in existing orders such as disclosing the ETF’s current net asset value per share, market price and premium or discount.”

The proposal is garnering praise from several figures and organizations in the finance industry like the Investment Company Institute, based in Washington. Representatives of the trade group commented that they’re in favor of regulated funds, stating, “Investors — and the asset managers who serve them — deserve a more uniform ETF regulatory framework. The time is right to codify these orders into a single rule.”

Chinese cryptocurrency exchange BTCC has announced the official relaunch of its trading platform, while also suggesting that it will eventually offer its own token.

One of the world’s longest-running digital exchanges, BTCC was originally launched in 2011 under the name BTC China. The company issued a statement on Monday, July 2, 2018, that a new program will be in play in which users will receive “reward points” for completing various tasks. These points can then be converted into BTCC tokens, which can be traded for a variety of cryptocurrencies.

The statement reads, “Referring users and many other activities will also provide you with the opportunity to earn points. All reward points are fully convertible to BTCC tokens upon release. Our reward point system will give you tangible benefits that you can use across the whole BTCC ecosystem.”

BTCC is one of China’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform offers support for most major assets including bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC), all of which can be traded and paired with USD.

Executives are also offering perks to customers who get in the game early. For example, new customers will be exempt from both registration and transaction fees during their first three months of trading.

China’s attitude toward cryptocurrency has not always been positive. The country instilled bans on both bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related websites during the first half of the year, and the regulatory environment has made things relatively difficult for exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses. BTCC was ultimately forced to suspend its operations last September due to new measures adopted by Chinese legislators that restricted commercializing cryptocurrencies.

BTCC later attempted to reposition itself in Hong Kong but was forced to give up control of its mining pool, trading platform and Mobi wallet to a Hong Kong investment firm in January 2018. Chinese regulation began to ease up in late May, however, which is around the time when BTCC initially announced that it was planning to reenter the crypto space.

Among the company’s latest features are new crypto trading pairs and quicker deposit and withdrawal times. Representatives also spoke of the company’s enhanced safety measures, stating, “BTCC’s exchange is backed by seven years of operational experience, and has been optimized to include offline cold storage and SSL-encrypted traffic to protect your digital assets. We take security very seriously, and are proud of the fact that we have never been compromised.”

Chinese cryptocurrency exchange BTCC has announced the official relaunch of its trading platform, while also suggesting that it will eventually offer its own token.

One of the world’s longest-running digital exchanges, BTCC was originally launched in 2011 under the name BTC China. The company issued a statement on Monday, July 2, 2018, that a new program will be in play in which users will receive “reward points” for completing various tasks. These points can then be converted into BTCC tokens, which can be traded for a variety of cryptocurrencies.

The statement reads, “Referring users and many other activities will also provide you with the opportunity to earn points. All reward points are fully convertible to BTCC tokens upon release. Our reward point system will give you tangible benefits that you can use across the whole BTCC ecosystem.”

BTCC is one of China’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform offers support for most major assets including bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC), all of which can be traded and paired with USD.

Executives are also offering perks to customers who get in the game early. For example, new customers will be exempt from both registration and transaction fees during their first three months of trading.

China’s attitude toward cryptocurrency has not always been positive. The country instilled bans on both bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related websites during the first half of the year, and the regulatory environment has made things relatively difficult for exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses. BTCC was ultimately forced to suspend its operations last September due to new measures adopted by Chinese legislators that restricted commercializing cryptocurrencies.

BTCC later attempted to reposition itself in Hong Kong but was forced to give up control of its mining pool, trading platform and Mobi wallet to a Hong Kong investment firm in January 2018. Chinese regulation began to ease up in late May, however, which is around the time when BTCC initially announced that it was planning to reenter the crypto space.

Among the company’s latest features are new crypto trading pairs and quicker deposit and withdrawal times. Representatives also spoke of the company’s enhanced safety measures, stating, “BTCC’s exchange is backed by seven years of operational experience, and has been optimized to include offline cold storage and SSL-encrypted traffic to protect your digital assets. We take security very seriously, and are proud of the fact that we have never been compromised.”