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Comment by Nursie | Hacker News Reader

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Nursie·

With only an 8% surcharge!

What was that about low/no processing fees?

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That's the currency exchange rate he is offering not a transaction fee. The bitcoin transaction itself is free

Except if you actually read the linked page it says that it's at least partially due to the 7% fees have to deal with when converting the BTC back to sterling, which is all they're really interested in.

Add on whatever fees you pay to get hold of the BTC in the first place and you have quite an expensive system.

of course, there really is no need to pay fees to exchange BTC for GBP. Posting a sell ad on bitcointalk.org is likely to net you someone who will take them off you for between 2 and 5% above mtgox daily average.

Ah, so an unofficial/casual exchange method, with higher risk. Awesome.

A lot of Bitcoin holders bought/mined them at much lower prices than current $100. Compare this 7% premium when buying things to a potential 20-30% capital gains tax you'd have give up when cashing out via exchange.

BTW, you probably still owe capital gains tax when you buy something with Bitcoin.

In the US, "probably" is probably an understatement.

"'Probably' is probably an understatement" is probably an understatement.

Oh dear, I think I've broken it.

I guess so. But for those who want to avoid paying it, buying things daily is less risky than going through the bank. Just like with earnings in cash that you spend in brick and mortar stores.

in the UK if your gain in any tax year is less than £10,600 you do not need to inform HMRC, so any gain made by purchasing beer is unlikely to be of concern to them.

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