The Swedish Bitcoin exchange BTC-X is being forced by the Tax Authorities to disclose all of their customer’s financial information. Tax Authorities have demanded the full customer transaction history, which will allow them to track every financial move, from the small Swedish bitcoin exchange BTC-X customers.
This latest move made by the Swedish Tax Authority is an evident case of Privacy violation as we have never seen before. It looks like the government is seeking to take away the undeniable people’s right to privacy.
To make matters even more uncomfortable, this demand was made without the Swedish Tax Authorities having any individual or general suspicion of crime.
By demanding the transaction history for the 20,000 customers of the BTC-X exchange, the Swedish Tax Authority will be able to fully track everybody’s past, present and future financial transactions. They will also be able to fully track everybody’s financial data even those people will do outside of that exchange in the future.
BTC-X exchange decided to fight back by taking the Tax Authority to court over this demand, stating that this request constitutes a serious attack on people’s undeniable right to privacy. As this would enable traceability over transactions, BTC-X is taking the Tax Authority to court over their demands.
The Swedish government has been one of the first governments to ask the European Union to publish rules on digital currencies, and one other aspect that turns this whole situation even more important, is that bitcoin may be pseudonymous, but it’s still traceable and it can be used as the ultimate tool enabling governments to track every cent spent you spend.
