Jason van Heerden, a team member of Gulden, has stated it appears there is no stance on taxation of Bitcoin in South Africa and the ongoing talks might all be speculation. He insists there has not been any official declaration from the government.
“I don’t think it’s really been tackled yet, probably profits will be taxed capital gain which is 15 percent eventually,” Jason said. But he is convinced this can only happen if you have held the bitcoin for 3 years or more.
Last week there were talks of Bitcoin Trading Earnings being taxable by the South African Government. The country’s prominent exchanges like Luno urged its clients to make sure they consult a professional on paying a levy on their gains.
Yet still, in an interview with the Bitcoinchaser, Jason intimated that the SA government has not even looked at regulating bitcoin yet. He revealed regarding digital currencies there is no well standard tax law in his country.
Tax Is Destructive
In Australian, after losing Bitcoin business to economically free countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, the government had to rethink their policy framework and abolished taxation. If South Africa chooses the path of levying Bitcoin earnings it stands the chances of losing business.
But the Gulden team member has two perspectives on this. “It’s going to help and people will view bitcoin here like they view gold, a commodity as a hedge against the Rand that is losing its value over time,” he announced.
But on the other hand, he feels It could deter Bitcoin Business as you take a risk investing in bitcoin and you can lose like any other stock but if you make profits the government gets 15%.
He says:
“Basically, if you hold a stock for 3 years and don’t trade it then it’s capital gains tax of 15% on the profit you make. if you are a trader it can be up to 45% tax on the profit depending on the amount. South Africa is very counter productive on tax especially with all the billions being stolen and misspent.”
When queried whether Luno is urging its clientele to seek professional advice on taxation because of fear the government will target them, he disagreed emphatically. “I don’t believe so, as long as they are focused on their own profits from trading fees they can’t be held responsible for how the people using their services handle their own personal tax situations,” Jason replied.
Going Forward
Irrespective of the government’s predatory nature Jason thinks it cannot be a threat to the ecosystem. In his judgment, the South African government is rather liberal on most things but they will want a hand in the pie at some point.
It will be a very big blow for the whole of the African continent if government interference in the Bitcoin and Blockchain sector leads to a decline in the Southern African country. This is very true in the sense that the country is leading in adoption and an innovative growth of start-up in the sector in Africa.
Jason, therefore, is 100 percent sure his country will continue to be the leader in the space in Africa. “Yeah, FinTech is gaining pace especially in cities like Cape Town and payfast.com allowing bitcoin payments across the nation,” he declared.
He further explained that all merchants who accept Payfast have the option to also accept Bitcoin as well as altcoins like Gulden. Particularly, he referred to the largest online retailers takealot.com which accept bitcoin as payment using the payfast.co.za payment gateway.
Bitcoinchaser checks revealed that Payfast enables individuals, businesses and charities– to accept steady payments from buyers in a diversity of ways. There are more than 2000 merchants on the Payfast platform from our research.
