Bitcoin Buyers Don’t Need to Pay Sales Tax

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has said that bitcoin purchases will not be subject to sales taxes.
According to a tax guidance memorandum from the agency’s Taxpayer Guidance Division dated 5th December (hat tip Marco Santori), digital currencies are a type of “intangible property” and, as such, are not subject to a sales tax when purchased.
The move comes months after the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its initial guidance on taxing bitcoin as a type of property, and provides an answer to a long-brewing question about how state sales taxes in the US may be applied to bitcoin transactions.

Only in certain cases

The document states that a sales exchange involving a digital currency would be considered a type of barter transaction. Under this definition, the agency writes, only certain goods and services exchanged for a digital currency would be subject to a sales tax or related reporting requirements.
The memorandum includes several examples outlining how one party may, or may not, be required to pay and report sales taxes when a digital currency is involved, stating:

“...if the party that gives convertible virtual currency in trade receives in exchange goods or services that are subject to sales tax, that party owes sales tax based on the market value of the convertible virtual currency at the time of the transaction, converted to US dollars. If the party that trades property or services in exchange for receiving convertible virtual currency gives the other party a sales slip, invoice, or receipt, the first party must separately state the sales tax due in US dollars on the sales slip, invoice, or receipt.”

The Taxpayer Guidance Division also clarifies that its treatment of corporate and personal income taxes related to digital currency “conforms to the federal treatment of convertible virtual currency”, referring to past guidance published by the IRS.

Tax a 'systemic risk' to digital currency

Santori, global policy counsel at Blockchain and attorney at law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, told CoinDesk one of the greatest systemic risks to digital currency adoption has always been that its purchase be subject to sales taxation by governments.

"This guidance is the first official statement we have on the matter, and it is excellent news. Because the guidance could serve as a model for other jurisdictions around the world, it is difficult to overstate its importance."

The issue has reared its head in other international jurisdictions as well. While the UK has chosen not to levy its Value Added Tax (VAT) on digital currency exchanges, others, such as Singapore, would apply the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in some circumstances.

Read More Here:
http://www.coindesk.com/new-york-state-tax-agency-bitcoin-buyers-dont-need-pay-sales-tax/

Bitcoin Can't Be Trusted ?

In a new video, Matthew Driver, MasterCard’s president for South East Asia, issued a strong rebuke of digital currencies like bitcoin, suggesting that cryptocurrencies carry too many risks to be successful.
Noting that MasterCard is "not completely comfortable with the idea of cryptocurrencies”, Driver used the video as a platform to blast the technology as "against the whole principle" on which the credit card giant has established its business.
Driver argued that bitcoin's design makes it difficult for individuals to both trust that their transactions are safe and have faith in the system at large. He asserted that the ability for individuals to "guarantee [their] anonymity" by using digital currencies is especially troubling, a notable comment given that bitcoin has long been recognized as a pseudonymous network.
Driver continued:

"Trust and security, a stable form of value, are incredibly critical if you’re going to be able to gain acceptance for the services you’re looking to provide. The challenge for cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, is that they’re unstable in terms of their intrinsic value."

The payments exec went on to use the video, hosted by Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia, as an opportunity to tout MasterCard's services over both bitcoin and cash, stating that his company believes in "moving to a world beyond cash and ensuring greater transparency and security and simplicity to the way people live their lives".
The video notably follows MasterCard’s most recent testimony on the subject of bitcoin, a document submitted to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Economics that called for the application of payment standards that include guarantees on network usage.

'Purpose not entirely clear’

According to Driver, one of the main issues with digital currencies like bitcoin is that users lack safety nets should they run afoul of fraud.
"[Cryptocurrencies] don't offer, perhaps, the recourse that consumers are naturally expecting that come from using cash in the day-to-day,” he said.
Driver argued that cryptocurrencies "serve a purpose that’s not necessarily completely clear", and...

Read more and See Video here:
 http://www.coindesk.com/mastercard-executive-argues-bitcoin-cant-trusted/

OneWallet, the New Auction Site for Bitcoiners

For those still mourning the demise of early bitcoin auction sites like Bitmit, there is a new place to bid for a special deal with your cryptocurrency: OneWallet.io.
Like Internet auction giant eBay, OneWallet has both bidding auctions and direct sales from anyone who wishes to join as a retailer, with 620 product listings in categories including electronics, fashion, health and beauty, and home and garden after only two weeks of public activity.
As the name implies, OneWallet also functions as a digital wallet for users to store their bitcoins, even if they're not spending them on the site. The system automatically generates new wallets for merchant or buyer accounts, though all customers are free to use their existing external ones.
The new site is working in partnership with CoinsForTech.com, an established online electronics retailer that accepts bitcoin, dogecoin and litecoin, and has already processed over $500,000 in orders to 56 countries. It should be noted, however, that OneWallet for the moment accepts only bitcoin.
Both companies have the same founder, Lee Marburg, and are registered in Australia. Sellers are based in several countries so far, but can be anywhere, and generally ship worldwide.

Encouraging bitcoin use

Speaking to CoinDesk, Marburg said he built the site with Bitcoin Brisbane founder Lucas Cullen in their spare time over the past six months. Testing was conducted privately with select customers over the two months before the public launch.
One aim, he said, was to build a beginner-friendly bitcoin wallet and an avenue for people to actually use the digital currency to buy goods and services.
Marburg added:

"The second aim is to push bitcoin as an international trading tool. My experience with CoinsForTech has been hugely positive and I’ve got no doubts that bitcoin/digital currency has a huge role to play in the future of international B2B and B2C commerce. I am associated with some powerful suppliers and merchants who are not overly keen on accepting bitcoin."

OneWallet could entice these reluctant merchants with "a relatively hands-free option to get their feet wet" with bitcoin, he said, while also creating buyer demand for purchasing with bitcoin through low fees and an easy-to-use platform.
The company charges merchants 2% of the final price for every successful listing.

Building in features

Buyers on OneWallet are also protected when purchasing from any merchant with the 'BusinessVerified' badge next to its name. The company investigates any claim pertaining to a purchase from a verified seller and refunds the USD value of the purchase if the claim is successful.

Read more:
http://www.coindesk.com/meet-onewallet-new-auction-site-bitcoiners/

Seeking to Solve Bitcoin's Banking Dilemma

When Fidor Bank's Michael Maier spoke to CoinDesk in June, the Internet bank COO framed his industry as one that bitcoin would grow to challenge directly, suggesting at the time that its partnership with Kraken demonstrated its intent to accept this future and even cooperate with it.
However passive these statements may have seemed at the time, they came into sharper focus on 31st October, when Fidor announced it would team with its San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange partner to launch "the world's first cryptocurrency bank".
The unnamed project seeks to build a regulated financial institution that would help bitcoin startups that have struggled to secure and maintain accounts even for day-to-day business.
Given this backdrop, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell sees his company's most prominent collaboration with Fidor as more than an exercise in bringing another first to the ecosystem. In a new interview, Powell positioned the specialized bank for cryptocurrencies as a necessity should the ecosystem succeed at delivering on bitcoin's full technological potential.
Powell said:

"For Kraken to be a viable business long term, for most players to be viable, we need to see the pie grow. That’s what we want to do with Fidor, is create a bank with the specific mandate to bank bitcoin companies and provide reliable banking to end-users of bitcoin."

By providing stable banking partnerships to companies in the ecosystem, Powell aims to, in turn, return lost time and energy to the community. In the process, he will also expand his business beyond one that targets market makers and bitcoin companies with a VC-backed order-book exchange.
However, Powell contends that Kraken has the experience it will take to rise to the challenge and deliver on its goal.
"We’ve talked to more than 200 banks in the last year-and-a-half about banking bitcoin companies, and the successes are the ones you’ve seen so far, the 1% success rate," he said. "[The bitcoin community] can’t go on wasting time. How many man hours is the industry wasting talking to banks? It’s just insanity."

A 'bitcoinized' financial institution

Though Powell was clear on the goals the project is set out to achieve, his statements suggest that Fidor and Kraken are far from solidifying any concrete plans on the types of services they will provide. As the original release relayed, even the name of the bank – BICONDO, BYSE Bank or Cryptocurrency Bank – remains a matter of debate.
However, Powell indicated that the bank does intend to offer certain services to clients, like the ability to borrow against bitcoin assets and invest in lending products.
"We hope to leverage blockchain technology to offer some additional services and 'bitcoinized' traditional financial services," Powell added.

Read more:
http://www.coindesk.com/kraken-seeking-solve-bitcoins-banking-dilemma/

Doctors and Experts

 

DOCTORS AND EXPERTS WITH THE COURAGE TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT DISTILLED WATER

Distilled water is the only water which runs through all water-based life forms. Here are the writings of doctors and experts who all support the benefits of Distilled Water. Take note of the STEADY, CONSISTENT VOLUME which is recommended by them…

DR. ARTHUR R. REYNOLDS:

“It may safely be taught that THE ONLY ABSOLUTELY PURE WATER IS THAT PURIFIED BY DISTILLATION. Instruct the public how distillation can readily and cheaply be done. It furnishes a fruitful yield for the genius that will devise a small distilling apparatus for the use of every family.
It would be safe to teach that the GENEROUS USE OF PURE WATER both within and without the body has never yet done any harm; that the functional ailments that afFlict the great host of mankind, are in a great part due to the fact of the imperfect elimination of waste matter, and that GENEROUS LIBATIONS OF PURE WATER is a most potent agent TO FLUSH THEM FROM THE BODY, through the skin, the lungs, the kidneys and the bowels. The diseases caused by impure water are numerous and fatal.”
—Dr. Arthur R. Reynolds, M.D., Health Commissioner of Chicago, from “Distilled Water and Longevity” by Elmer Ellsworth Carey, Chicago, in Suggestion magazine, Volume 10, January 1, 1903

DR. GARY NULL:

“You should DRINK AT LEAST ONE GALLON of purified water a day. Most of us drink only at mealtime and when we’re noticeably thirsty. Wrong. You can develop a habit of NOT drinking water and walk around being 66 or 67 percent water, instead of 74 percent, which is what your body needs.
When you don’t have the water in you, you won’t ever have the energy you need. The very first thing I do to get people’s energy up is to increase the amount of water in their diet. Immediately, their energy goes up.
When someone has dementia, the first thing I do is give them lots of cold water all day, every day. About three weeks later, I start to see their dementia dissipate because they have rehydrated their brains. Unfortunately, your brain actually shrinks as you dehydrate. By DRINKING LOTS OF PURE WATER, you get better neuron activity and better cellular chemistry, and you’re able to detoxify the cells with water.
Water has to be pure, free from fluoride, chlorine, and chemicals, which is why I recommend distilled water. To achieve optimum health, I recommend that you DRINK A HALF GALLON TO ONE FULL GALLON PER DAY.”
— Dr. Gary Null, Ph.D., from, “Gary Null’s Ultimate Anti-Aging Program,”  Kensington Publishing Corp., 1999, Based on the PBS Documentary, “How to Live Forever”

DR. C.W. DELACY EVANS:

“USED AS A DRINK, DISTILLED WATER IS ABSORBED DIRECTLY into the blood, the solvent properties of which it increases to such an extent that it will KEEP IN SOLUTION salts already existing in the blood, prevent their undue deposit in various organs and structures, favor their elimination by the various excreta, and tend to remove these earthy compounds which have already accumulated in the body.
There is no doubt as to THE HIGH VALUE OF DISTILLED WATER USED FREELY as a retarder of the ossifying conditions which appear to constitute the condition of old age.”
— Dr. C.W. DeLacy Evans, M.D., from How To Prolong Life

NIKOLA TESLA:

“…ONLY A LUNATIC WILL DRINK UNSTERILIZED WATER.”
— Nikola Tesla, when asked about his predictions for the next 100 years in an article appearing in Liberty magazine, February 9th, 1935

BERNARR MACFADDEN:

” …it is important that we GIVE TO THE BODY A SUFFICIENT QUANTITY OF PURE WATER in order that the blood may be kept in its normal fluid condition, and the disease-producing effete matter eliminated.
THERE IS NO CLEANSING AGENT AS IMPORTANT AS WATER, not only for the exterior of the body, but for the interior from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. It is a simple matter to drink a glass of water, yet the results of the act are marvelous. A very small portion of it enters the intestines, but by far the larger quantity is absorbed into the blood and enters immediately into the circulation of this life-giving fluid.”
“ONE IS ALMOST DRIVEN, if he be particular as to his water supply, TO THE USE OF DISTILLED WATER.”
— Bernarr Macfadden, from Macfadden’s Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, 1911.
“Baby’s Bath: Have ready also a glass of distilled water, a few spoonfuls of which will prove a refreshing drink to baby after his bath.”
“Baby’s Natural Food: The secretion of the breast, proves all that baby requires, unless it be an occasional spoonful of distilled water.”
— Bernarr and Marguerite MacFadden, from “Physical Culture for Babies” 1904.

DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL:

“I thought if I DRANK PLENTY OF IT, I might get rid of some of the salts that were covering my sciatic nerves. I tried drinking it, and it worked like a charm. Within a short time my sciatica left me and I have been free of rheumatism from that day to this. I have KEPT UP MY DRINKING OF DISTILLED WATER and I attribute my almost perfect health largely to it.”
— Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor of the Telephone


Read More Here:
http://aquariusthewaterbearer.com/doctors-and-experts/ 

Why Use Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a relatively new form of currency that is just beginning to hit the mainstream, but many people still don't understand why they should make the effort to use it.
Why use bitcoin? Here are 10 good reasons why it’s worth taking the time to get involved in this virtual currency.

It’s fast

When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. Similarly, international wire transfers can take a relatively long time. Bitcoin transactions, however, are generally far faster. Transactions can be instantaneous if they are “zero-confirmation” transactions, meaning that the merchant takes on the risk of accepting a transaction that hasn’t yet been confirmed by the block chain. Or, they can take around 10 minutes if a merchant requires the transaction to be confirmed. That is far faster than any inter-bank transfer.

It’s cheap

What’s that you say? Your credit card transactions are instantaneous too? Well, that’s true. But your merchant (and possibly you) pay for that privilege. Some merchants will charge a fee for debit card transactions too, as they have to pay a ‘swipe fee’ for fulfilling them. Bitcoin transaction fees are minimal, or in some cases free.

Central governments can’t take it away

Remember what happened in Cyprus in March 2013? The Central Bank wanted to take back uninsured deposits larger than $100,000 to help recapitalize itself, causing huge unrest in the local population. It originally wanted to take a percentage of deposits below that figure, eating directly into family savings. That can’t happen with bitcoin. Because the currency is decentralized, you own it. No central authority has control, and so a bank can’t take it away from you. For those who find their trust in the traditional banking system unravelling, that’s a big benefit.

There are no chargebacks

Once bitcoins have been sent, they’re gone. A person who has sent bitcoins cannot try to retrieve them without the recipient’s consent. This makes it difficult to commit the kind of fraud that we often see with credit cards, in which people make a purchase and then contact the credit card company to make a chargeback, effectively reversing the transaction.

People can’t steal your information from merchants

This is a big one. Most online purchases today are made via credit cards, but in the 1920s and ’30s, when the first precursors to credit cards appeared, the Internet hadn’t yet been conceived. Credit cards were never supposed to be used online and are insecure. Online forms require you to enter all your secret information (the credit card number, expiry date, and CSV number) into a web form. It’s hard to think of a less secure way to do online business. This is why credit card numbers keep being stolen. Bitcoin transactions, however, don’t require you to give up any secret information. Instead, they use two keys: a public key, and a private one. Anyone can see the public key (which is actually your bitcoin address), but your private key is secret. When you send a bitcoin, you ‘sign’ the transaction by combining your public and private keys together, and applying a mathematical function to them. This creates a certificate that proves the transaction came from you. As long as you don’t do anything silly like publishing your private key for everyone to see, you’re safe.

Read more:
http://www.coindesk.com/information/why-use-bitcoin/

Self-Cleaning Fish Tank

A young British designer Suzy Shelley has just launched the only fish tank that never needs cleaning, water changing or a new filter. 15-litre fish tank Avo is packed full of innovative technology, enabling fish, plants and bacteria work together to create a balanced micro-ecosystem. All you will ever need to do is top up the water and feed the fish. It’s so effective in fact, the prototype has been going strong for 18 months without a cleaning and still has healthy fish, plants and clear water! Avo also features automated LED lighting specifically optimised for plant photosynthesis and growth, which promotes clear and healthy water. Avo’s unique lighting has the added aesthetic benefit of producing soft red light in the morning, fading to daylight white, to cool blue in the evening. Suzy has just launched a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds to manufacture Avo.

Read more here:

 http://www.beautifullife.info/industrial-design/avo-self-cleaning-fish-tank-by-susan-shelley/