Australians Need a Bitcoin De Minimis Law

Australia is living through a monetary reality: Coles bills bite harder, the rent drains our pockets faster than ever, insurance premiums have exploded, electricity bills creep up constantly (37% at last take), and a full tank of petrol feels like a luxury purchase. The humble mortgage, once our great middle class equaliser, feels more like a millstone.

Inflation doesn’t just fall out of the sky; it is a result of poor political choices made by weak political leaders, escalating public spending, chronic deficits, and decades of monetary expansion justified by a political class insulated from real world consequences.

This is why a very simple reform to tax law in Australia - the introduction of a “Bitcoin de minimis tax exemption” - is not just an intelligent idea but smart policy. It is vital national self-defence.

Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and payment app, Square, is pushing for a Bitcoin de minimis bill in the United States, and forward thinking American lawmakers like Cynthia Lummis are taking it very seriously.

If the United States, the world’s largest economy and current holder of the world’s reserve currency, recognises a growing need to not “trifle with the small things” and opt for monetary choice, then Australia, with our small, heavily inflated national currency, absolutely cannot afford to sit still.

So what does “De Minimis” mean and why does it matter?

“De minimis” comes from the Latin phrase de minimis non curat lex, “the law does not concern itself with trifles.”

When applied to Bitcoin, it simply means that small, everyday Bitcoin transactions (under say $500) would not trigger the need for capital gains tax reporting.

A $8 coffee. A $60 pub meal. Paying a friend back fifty bucks. Buying an ice cream, a T-shirt, a carton of milk. You get the idea.

Today in Australia nearly every Bitcoin transaction is technically a taxable event, even if the gain is only a few cents. It’s impractical, absurd, and effectively stops Bitcoin from being used as an alternative currency without explicitly banning it.

A de minimis exemption would fix this instantly. It would provide the legal framework for everyday Australians to use Bitcoin in the way that it was designed, as cash.

That would mean there would be no need for time consuming spreadsheets and no more “capital gains tax on a sausage roll.”

It’s simple to achieve and it’s frankly overdue.

The USA is moving. Germany already exempts long-term Bitcoin holdings. Portugal has famously embraced crypto-friendly tax treatment. Japan has simplified digital asset regulations. And even the UK is exploring more practical treatment for day-to-day Bitcoin payments.

Australia, supposedly the land of innovation and a “fair go”, is lagging behind all of them.

If Jack Dorsey and US lawmakers recognise the need for financial choice, monetary competition, and modernised tax treatment, then Australia should be racing to keep pace, not clinging to outdated frameworks built for the 1980s. We need to modernise payments in this country very quickly.

You don’t have to know anything about Bitcoin (or even care about it) to know that our Australian dollar is shrinking in real purchasing value. Working class, blue collar Australians are being squeezed from a myriad of directions.

A Bitcoin de minimis exemption would give them:

1. A modern hedge against inflation

Bitcoin is deliberately scarce by design. No government can print it. This fact alone makes it a useful long term savings vehicle.

2. A peaceful economic safety valve

If the government mismanages the currency, Australians can quietly exit into a store of value the government cannot dilute.

3. Global economic integration

As the US, EU, and Asia modernise their frameworks, Australians shouldn’t be left out of the biggest financial shift since the invention of the internet.

4. No cost, no burden, no bureaucracy

This is one of the rare reforms that would reduce red tape and cost taxpayers nothing.

Currency competition = fiscal discipline

The political class fears monetary competition because it removes their most powerful tool - the pernicious and invisible tax of inflation.

A de minimis exemption doesn’t replace the Australian dollar, it simply means the AUD has to earn Australians’ trust again instead of relying on legal threats and coercive behaviour.

When people can walk away from bad money, government must behave like every other service provider:

They must reduce waste.

They must keep spending in check.

They must avoid reckless monetary expansion.

They must restore confidence through fiscal discipline.

We cannot hope to reform Canberra through lectures alone; we can only reform it through incentives. A Bitcoin de minimis exemption creates exactly that.

It’s libertarian.

It’s potentially Australian.

And it’s absolutely time.