In Israel bitcoin is used to pay wages: Leggi qui l’articolo in Italiano
It’s called Spot.IM, and it’s an Internet company.
It deals with allowing media companies to interact with their audiences directly, without having to switch from external social networks.
It is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and is negotiating with the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) to obtain authorisation to pay its employees in bitcoin.
The hypothesis is to grant employees the possibility of choosing to receive the paycheck, or part of it, directly in bitcoin, on an optional basis.
The company would also bear the costs of the transactions and those for converting the local currency, the shekel, into bitcoin.
Negotiations seem to be mainly about the exchange rate to be applied, and it is expected that the parties will be able to reach an agreement next month.
Every month, on a given day, the company will convert the amount requested into bitcoin and transfer the BTCs to the wallets of the employees who have explicitly requested them. The conversion rate should be calculated on the basis of the average of the lowest and highest rates recorded on the day of conversion.
The Israeli Ministry of Labour itself was also involved in this negotiation, so much so that it confirms that its officials are examining the case.
Company lawyer Itay Bracha stated that, according to a memo of the Inland Revenue, “Any amount of money or benefit granted to the employee, is recognized by the Tax Authority as part of income.
Therefore, although Israeli law does not officially recognise bitcoin as a currency, their tax system allows anything with a value to be included in the remuneration of salaries.
As more and more courts have definitely decreed that bitcoin has a value and that there is no law in Israel prohibiting its use to pay salaries.
However, the company has preferred to approach the regulators in advance in order to obtain a certain and definitive authorisation, so as not to run any risk from a legal point of view, and above all to avoid possible complications with the banking system.
Ido Goldberg, Head of Operations at Spot.IM said: “As a company that works with one of the most advanced technologies on a daily basis, we believe in the future of cryptocurrencies. However, these are based on trust and to create that trust, companies, organizations and institutions will have to recognize them as legitimate.“
