While its government has yet to issue a firm ruling on Bitcoin, Poland’s Ministry of Finance is on record saying Bitcoin is at least not illegal.
Speaking at a seminar on Bitcoin legality last week in Warsaw, Szymon Wozniak, an official representative of the finance ministry, said: “What is not forbidden is permitted. However, we certainly cannot consider Bitcoin to be a legal currency.”
Instead, the Polish government intends to keep an eye on Bitcoin’s development, he said. “We expect [Bitcoin] users to declare whether they want the state to protect and regulate, or to remain uninvolved.”
Polish law does consider profits from digital-currency transactions to be taxable, and taxpayers earning such profits must report them.
Poland and its 40 million citizens could represent a huge opportunity for Bitcoin development in the EU. Already, some Polish businesses are accepting the currency. Warsaw-based social media agency faceADDICTED adopted Bitcoin payment back in October. Web design firm El Passion followed suit a couple of months later.
Bitcoin startup InPay, which will seek to offer Bitcoin payment terminals to local retailers, also presented at the Warsaw conference, hosted by the Warsaw School of Economics.
Back in June, Poland’s Deputy Minister of Finance Wojciech Kowalczyk signed a policy document that said the ministry would consider Bitcoin as a private two-party transaction.
The paper also stated “all eventual actions related to digital currencies should be taken at [the] international level, in particular at the European Union level.”