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Getting paid in bitcoin ?

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  • 05-04-2013 12:13am
    #1
    OU812
    Registered Users Posts: 6,050 ✭✭✭


    I have a very small client, who's invoice is never more than a couple of hours work per month, rarely more than €250/300 plus VAT.

    I was considering asking him to pay me in bitcoin (as the value of them is likely to go up short term), keeping them for three months & hopefully selling them on for a small profit.

    Just wondering:
    1) Can he buy bitcoins & pay me in them in a normal transaction?
    2) Does this open me up to further tax liability (on the profit)?
    3) Do you think it's worth doing as an experiment?


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    #2
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,831 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    1. Yes.
    2. Grey area ... (but strictly speaking, yes)
    3. Yes.

    If it's your business, you can set payment terms any way you want. I had a business in the SouthEastern UK around the time of the Eurozone changeover and advertised that our clients could pay all or part of their bill in any legacy currency or the new Euro or even old-fashioned sterling. I got loads of people coming specifically to empty their holiday jars into my till and I took the currency as personal drawings for subequent holidays.


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    #3
    billy2012
    Registered Users Posts: 1,937 ✭✭✭billy2012


    OU812 wrote: »
    I have a very small client, who's invoice is never more than a couple of hours work per month, rarely more than €250/300 plus VAT.

    I was considering asking him to pay me in bitcoin (as the value of them is likely to go up short term), keeping them for three months & hopefully selling them on for a small profit.

    Just wondering:
    1) Can he buy bitcoins & pay me in them in a normal transaction?
    2) Does this open me up to further tax liability (on the profit)?
    3) Do you think it's worth doing as an experiment?

    That train has left....


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    #4
    amen
    Registered Users Posts: 2,781 ✭✭✭amen


    part of their bill in any legacy currency

    bit coins are not legal currency. Is there a cost involved in converting euros to bitcoins?

    If I was your customer I would be paying you in Euros.


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    #5
    srsly78
    Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    Legal currency is pretty meaningless when you are talking about international trade. Anyone is free to accept payment in any form they want, whether it be seashells or bitcoins.

    Where legality does come into it is how they are accounted for. This is usually at the prevailing market rate, so you would put the bitcoins down as their euro equivalent - which changes overnight obviously. Same story with any fx transactions, just not so volatile!

    It doesn't make much sense to use bitcoins for euro->euro payments, seeing as euro bank transfers are usually free. However it does make sense to use it for non-euro transactions, since you can avoid the middlemen doing the FX and taking their cut. There are fees associated with Bitcoin, the exchanges take a percentage of each each transaction (0.1 for mtgox I think). Still this works out a lot more competitive than normal fx.


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