It took a while for the Federal Ministry of Finance to make the judgment of the European Court of Justice a fact in Germany. But now the time has come. Worries that the Bitcoin sales will somehow still be controlled are finally over. 

After we had the message about two weeks ago that the tax office in Bonn-Innenstadt was trying to Asking a Bitcoin entrepreneur to pay sales tax for the sale of Bitcoin has caused some horror on the scene. According to unconfirmed reports, this has led to insomnia among Bitcoin traders and, in one extreme case, even caused psychosis. Many a trader began to fear for his economic existence because of the potentially high additional sales tax. The unrest was triggered, for example, by reports from the tax advisor Rüdiger Quermann and the lawyer István Cocron. 

Experts such as the tax advisor Christian Densch from Essen, who as "Kryptotaxpert" hosts a popular Facebook Group, have vigorously pointed out from the start that panic is unnecessarily spreading here. The demands of the Bonn-Innenstadt tax office cannot be kept in any way. They are also not the result of any kind of conspiracy by the tax authorities who are now trying to break Bitcoin and ruin the Bitcoin traders, but merely the result of a certain inertia on the part of the authorities.It is neither necessary to worry, nor appropriate to stir up fears or even to announce the personal Armageddon. There are already several ways to make money on bitcoin in the world, one of them describes BD. 

As soon afterwards it became clear, the tax advisor Christian Densch is right. In a personal conversation and a subsequent email correspondence, he succeeded in obtaining an assessment by Dr. Christian Hufen to get. Dr. Hufen is personal assistant to the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Michael Meister. He writes that Kryptotaxperts "assumption that the exchange of Bitcoins for other currencies falls under a sales tax exemption has been confirmed". The decision of the European Court of Justice in the Hedqvist case applies. "According to this, the exchange of conventional (legal) currencies into units of the virtual currency 'Bitcoin' and vice versa is a service against payment that is subject to the tax exemption under Article 135 (1) (e) of Directive 2006/112 / EC of the Council of November 28, 2006 (so-called EU Value Added Tax System Directive, VAT Directive) falls. “

The tax advisor Densch asked a few more questions - for example about mining or the tax handling of payments with Bitcoin - to which the personal advisor gives interesting and, by and large, pleasant answers. But more about that another time. It should be noted here that the subject of sales tax for the sale of bitcoins was off the table. 

A letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance to the highest financial authorities of the federal states dated 27.February, which is published on the website of the ministry, now confirms the application of the judgment of the ECJ to the authorities and confirms the content of the email that "Kryptotaxpert" published on its website on 02/21/2018. The exchange of Bitcoin for Euro is a "taxable other service, which is VAT-free within the framework of a directive-compliant interpretation of the law according to § 4 No. 8 Letter b UStG." The principles of this order are to be applied in all open cases. So anyone who still feels threatened by sales tax can now officially breathe a sigh of relief.

But why has the Bonn tax office issued a sales tax assessment despite all this? The answer to this should give an interesting insight into how German authorities are obliged to work. During a phone call with Mr. Densch, the head of the tax audit and trade tax department at the Bonn-Innenstadt tax office referred to the fact that the tax office may not implement a ECJ judgment directly without a letter of application from the superior authority. Unfortunately, the administrative opinion was still based on the opinion of the BMF that sales of Bitcoin are subject to sales tax. The Bonn-Innenstadt tax office had no choice but to issue the unpopular decision, even if it was clear to itself that it could not be legal. 

It would be interesting if the person concerned would also have to speak once, with the excitement that has been generated around this topic, it should not have escaped him.