Boris Johnson Aims To Tax Crypto – Popular With Youngsters, Not With His Voters
Last Updated on 1 December 2021 by CryptoTips.eu
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been in power for a few years now, and although the number of scandals he’s dragged along with him seems to grow ever larger, the lack of any serious opposition (with all due respect for Keir Starmer of the Labour Party) means that his Conservative Party continues to rule the British Isles.
Voters for the Conservative Party tend to be older and wealthier (than those for the Labour Party) and thus Johnson’s treasury department unsurprisingly came up with a new tax to fill his coffers, which will hurt youngsters, but not the elderly that much.
Digital services tax
By taxing crypto winnings, he tends to hurt millennials and Generation Z, not really his target audience. The HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) therefore concluded that cryptocurrency exchanges would also be levied a so-called ‘tech tax’. A tax normally aimed to ensure that tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon pay more to the Exchequer. However, just like Silicon Valley’s companies will, so is it sure that crypto companies in the UK will charge those additional costs through to their customers.
🇬🇧 A recent update to @HMRCgovuk regulations has introduced a digital services tax that will be levied on #crypto exchanges operating in the UK.#Crypto exchanges in the UK will now have to pay a 2% digital services tax.
— Koinly (@koinly) November 29, 2021
Via @CoinTelegraph:https://t.co/fGCiCqqY9I
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HMRC said:
There are a wide variety of crypto assets, each with different characteristics. It is unlikely that crypto asset exchanges can benefit from the exemption for online financial marketplaces.
Ian Taylor, director of CryptoUK explained in the Telegraph that the “arduous” licensing regime introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) would indeed automatically lead to higher fees for people buying and selling cryptocurrencies.
Amazon and Google meanwhile have both already decided to pass the cost of the digital services tax to merchants and advertisers on their sites.