Cryptocurrency salaries are a bad flashback to company scrip

For most people, it would not be desirable to be paid in a highly volatile asset that routinely drops its value in double-digit percentage terms when compared with real-world currency. But an increasing number of cryptocurrency industry workers are choosing to waive regular payments in stable fiat money for bitcoin and other digital money equivalents of this sort. 

Many crypto enthusiasts therefore celebrated an announcement earlier this month by New Zealand’s tax authority governing the payment of salaries in crypto alternatives. Aficionados saw the move as an official endorsement of rival monetary systems and a huge step forward for the maturity of cryptocurrency as an asset class.

Except, much of that interpretation was wrong. New Zealand authorities weren’t endorsing crypto or legalising its use for salaries. They were simply issuing guidance on how they would treat such payments from the perspective of tax liabilities from September onwards. 

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