Taxation and Legal Requirements on Sensible Taler

Sensible Taler is not about tax evasion.

Nobody likes to pay taxes, but we all enjoy living in a well-structured society. If we want the latter, we need to fund it somehow, and that is the purpose of tax.

Sensible Taler, like GNU Taler, does not try to avoid taxation. It also does not want to be a vehicle of money laundering. If it aimed for such things, then governments could ban it from the market. Living up to public interests means that it must actually be supported, in line with the Human Rights, specifically the Freedom of Association.

On the other hand, small cash spendings are private by default, and it continues to be possible to do that. The Sensible Taler currencies circulate as a right to claim ownership, but they are not the title of ownership. The the ownership actually changes hands, for whatever composite transaction, then it enters bookkeeping systems which may be traced.

The point of transfer of ownership is the proper point for taxation. Moreover, GNU Taler has merchant interfaces that can be tax-audited, but they will not reveal the paying party (because the GNU Taler technology places blind signatures on currencies).

The obligation to report high transactions remains a legally enforced requirement, and the instruments of money laundering and know-your-customer exist at the point where the transfer of title occurs. This is the vital point in money laundering analysis; not to know each and every intermediate step, but to see how money concentrates and how that correlates to money departing from a questionable source.