Bitcoin Daily: New Zealand Might Change Crypto Tax Rules; Singapore Rules Against eCurrency Operator; ConsenSys To Use Crypto In Healthcare Projects

New Zealand is considering changes to its treatment of cryptocurrencies, including dropping a tax on goods and services that many people are unhappy with, according to CoinDesk.

The goods and services tax (GST) is unpopular with some. Bitcoin is treated as a property, with all the normal rules of taxation applying, which means crypto is liable to be taxed 15 percent under the GST.

That means a “double tax” could later be applied with income tax, after the coin has changed hands.

The New Zealand Inland Revenue Department said the situation was “unfavorable.” It said the GST may be dropped in terms of cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal in Singapore ruled Monday (Feb. 24) that virtual currency operator Quoine must pay damages for wrongfully reversing seven trades on the platform, The Straits Times reported.

Quoine argued that it was allowed to reject the payments on the basis of said payments being a mistake. The payments were made by trader B2C2 to sell ethereum for bitcoin. Quoine argued that the traders who worked with B2C2 were under the wrong impression that the trades were at market price, and B2C2 believed this.

The court rejected that argument, saying the operator couldn’t just unilaterally cancel the orders.

The case is the first legal dispute in Singapore regarding cryptocurrency, and potentially the first to deal with how the legal question of a mistake should be handled when those decisions are made by computers as opposed to humans.

Finally, ethereum-focused ConsenSys announced a plan Tuesday (Feb. 25) in which it would spin off its health division into a ConsenSys Health, using blockchain to address challenges in the U.S. healthcare industry, according to Cointelegraph.

The idea is an extension of ConsenSys’ recent embrace of companies such as Codefi and Infura, which guided it to spin out several internal projects into independent entities.

ConsenSys will focus on helping with issues in the health industry, like rising costs and access to care.