Currency Speculation

The Marker has an article today about taxing the bitcoin. The government considers the bitcoin a taxable object, so any transaction has to be invoiced and charged 17% VAT (מע"מ). Purchase/Sale profits are taxed at 25%. Since bitcoin transactions are anonymous and evade the bank system, they are invisible for the taxman and the tax cannot be enforced.

The Marker says that it would make sense to consider the bitcoin a currency. FOREX profits are normally taxfree. The problem is that the crypto has no Central Bank and it grows wild in the internet sphere.

My insight is that today the only profit that escapes taxation is currency speculation. Soros made his fortune betting against the British pound, and our Fishman lost the Alliance tire factory by being careless in his speculation against the Turkish lira. Macro-theoretically, it would be enough to look at the foreign trade deficit of a country and interest rates to predict devaluation, but of course economic theory is useless in this field too.

In current environment of competitive devaluation, what is to be done? I have to think.