VAT Treatment of Initial Coin Offerings

Initial coin offerings (ICOs, also referred to as token sales) are a new means of raising capital where new cryptocurrencies (tokens) are sold for other cryptocurrencies or legal money. In this article, the author examines the VAT treatment of ICOs and investigates whether the principles established by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the VAT Committee in relation to Bitcoin transactions can be transposed to token sales.