Dutch people who accept payments in the new Internet currency Bitcoin will have to pay income tax on the funds they receive. Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem confirmed this two weeks ago after parliament had asked questions about Bitcoin, Nu.nl reports.

According to the minister, the “alternative virtual currency” cannot be seen as “electronic money” because it fails the definition set by the Dutch law. Dijsselbloem also reported that approximately 2% of all Bitcoin users in the world are Dutch, and that these Dutch owners possess about 20 million euro worth of Bitcoin. At the time of writing 1 Bitcoin represents about 75 euro.

Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet helpfully explains that the Wet financieel toezicht (the law on financial control) defines electronic money as a monetary value that

• Is stored electronically.
• Represents a claim on the person or organisation who issues it.
• Is issued in exchange for money to make payments with.
• Can be used to pay both the issuer and others.

Since Bitcoins do not represent a claim on the issuer and they aren’t necessarily issued in exchange for money, they aren’t electronic money. The reason you still have to pay income tax is simply because the law on income tax doesn’t mention money. Any form of income, whether that income consists of money, goods or Bitcoins, is susceptible to being taxed. The problems start when you have to pay these taxes though, because the Dutch tax office only accepts money. Your revenue will somehow have to be valued in euro before you can calculate how much you have to pay.

I can well imagine that the belastingdienst (tax office) isn’t going to chase down small time Bitcoin users just yet. I remember the first time I became self-employed and asked the belastingdienst for a VAT number. The man on the other end of the line laughed at me and said they could not be bothered to issue me my number for the couple of hundred guilders I expected to make that year.

Another complicating matter according to Engelfriet is that Bitcoins aren’t financial products either. That would mean you will have to pay VAT (‘btw’) over the Bitcoins you receive, which would make trading in Bitcoins less attractive for the Dutch.

Today, during the last day of the TERENA Networking Conference 2013 (TNC2013) held in Maastricht, the ‘largest and most prestigious European research networking conference’, featured the first-ever demonstration of a transatlantic 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps or one billion bits per second) transmission link for research and education between North America and Europe.

Demonstrations of the intercontinental 100 Gbps link included big data transfers between Maastricht and Chicago, Illinois taking a few minutes instead of several hours over the public Internet. This first transatlantic 100 Gbps link for research and education will advance high-end projects such as the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, the ITER fusion reactor in France and similar international programs.

Short but powerful, as the Dutch would say.

(Link: phys.org, Photo by Jacek Szymański, some rights reserved)

The folks at Dutch Rail (NS) are currently testing a post called the ‘ChagR’ (pic with complicated instructions) that would allow two commuters at a time to charge up their mobile phones for free while they wait for the train. Some 110,000 people take the train every day from Rotterdam Central Station, so if this were to be implemented, more posts would be a must.

Although Dutch Rail has said to be thrilled about the idea, commuter response has been apathetic, with only 40 people having used the post, which works for micro USB, iPhone and even ordinary batteries. The instructions are apparently long-winded and more testing is needed, but the idea is not bad.

I would rather charge my phone in the train and ideally plug in my laptop there as well. I picture easy smartphone theft as well and two people at a time is way too little charging power.

(Link: blog.phonehouse.nl, Photo of by Flickr user UggBoy hearts UggGirl, some rights reserved)

Jip Moors and his father Holly went to the volunteer-run botanical garden in Haren and asked each volunteer what their favourite spot was. This led to an album of 16 photos by Jip Moors. Father Holly interviewed the volunteers and wrote the accompanying text.

The hortus botanica features amongst others a Chinese garden, a rock garden, an apple orchard and a bamboo forest.

The Hortus Haren was founded in 1626 in Groningen by pharmacist Henry Munting out of necessity—colleagues sent him plants from all over Europe and he needed a place to put them. Munting’s knowledge of plants grew enormously and at 1654 at age 71 he even became the first botany professor of the republic. Later, the Muntings had to sell the garden to the state because they couldn’t afford the upkeep, but they were hired for generations to tend the garden.

In 1917 the garden was moved to the nearby town of Haren because it was getting too big. The owners wanted to add new greenhouses for which there was no room at the inner city location. Currently the garden occupies 200,000 square metres.

(Photo: Jip Moors)

If you’ve driving around the North of the country and listening to certain local radio stations, you will soon be able to hear ambulance sirens through the radio, a partial solution to people in their cars not hearing ambulances due to car noise or loud music.

The system will cut off radio signals from about a 300-metre radius around the ambulance and broadcast its siren for a short period. However, many radio stations are weary of this system, as they fear loss of advertisers. Another obvious concern is for anyone living near a hospital and hearing every siren that goes off from incoming and outgoing ambulances.

In true Dutch fashion, they’ll give this system a whirl for a year and see what happens.

Here’s what a Dutch ambulance looks and sounds like

Here’s a Dutch ambulance trying out an American sound

And for anyone who didn’t know, “You hear the high pitch of the siren of the approaching ambulance, and notice that its pitch drops suddenly as the ambulance passes you. That is called the Doppler effect.”

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl, Photo of a Dierenambulance (animal ambulance) by Alberto Garcia, some rights reserved)

Last Saturday, the town of Valkenswaard, Noord-Brabant played host to the first men’s roller derby tournament of the Netherlands, fittingly called ‘Battle of the Beasts’, featuring three national teams put together for the occasion: Team Holland, Team Belgium and Team Germany.

In a tournament of three complete matches called ’bouts’, the men did some heavy hitting in this full contact sport that is in fact originally a women’s sport. Not only did this tournament become part of Dutch sports history by being the first ever men’s event on Dutch soil, but it also put men’s derby on the map in The Netherlands. Team Holland was mostly made up of referees from Dutch women’s roller derby leagues, many of which play in the only Dutch men’s league from Groningen, Roaring Thunder Men’s Derby.

Team Holland took a surprising second place, decided in a nail-biting recounting of points in their second bout, which first had Team Germany pegged as the winners, but then turned into an unexpected win for the Dutch. The small yet dedicated crowd went wild, as the Dutch men performed beyond anybody’s wildest dreams. The fact that the Dutch were neck and neck points wise with the Germans was a delight to watch.

Team Belgium was the solid winner of this tournament, beating Team Holland in the first bout and Team Germany right afterwards in the second. For those who don’t know, bouts are an hour long with two 30-minute periods called halves, and that’s a lot of skating, sweat and in this case as well, injuries, albeit no broken bones.

Team Germany took third place, but put up a fierce fight all day, according to Team Holland’s captain, Rollin’ Reckless. “We went from zeroes in the first bout to heroes in the third bout. We rose to the occasion. I’m so freaking proud of all the Dutchies.”

(Disclaimer: I was one of the announcers of this tournament and Branko was one of the photographers, hence these lovely pictures)

Planned for this year Dordrecht will have the very first modern day baby hatch where unwanted babies can be safely left for them to become foundlings. Modern day because it has been a practice since the Middle Ages and, depending on one’s beliefs, there’s also the Bible telling us about Moses who was adopted as a foundling by the Egyptian royal family.

The Netherlands currently does not have a place for mothers who do not want to keep their children, and the baby hatch in Dordrecht plans to fill that void. Since Belgium allowed baby hatches in 2000, three babies have been ‘dropped off’. During the same time span some 278 babies in Germany have been ‘deposited’. At the moment, Dutch law forbids abandoning babies for them to be adopted as foundlings.

On the one hand, more help could be given to these women for them to keep their infants, on the other hand, sometimes it is the father, step-father, other family members or even pimps that give away the baby for them. There must be a plethora of reasons why someone would give up a child, but considering the process is anonymous, actually finding out what those are is difficult, making way for much speculation and easily blaming the mothers for everything.

Although the UN claims opening baby hatches goes against the rights of children, even the Vatican has a baby hatch or ‘baby box’ as they are sometimes called.

(Links: www.trouw.nl, www.bbc.co.uk, Illustration by Leonardo da Vinci)

Copies of this year’s Cito exam for final year Dutch primary school pupils were found for sale on Dutch online auction site Marktplaats.nl. The Cito exam is usually held in February before children move on to secondary school and it also plays a major role in deciding what level of schooling they will receive as teenagers as well as their chances of going to university.

The education authorities are not sure whether or not they will pull the exam. Some 75% of 165,000 pupils should be taking the leaked Cito exam, while the rest will take one at a lower level that was not leaked, the first time ever a lower level Cito exam is being given. The higher level exam was being sold for € 450.

The authorities have also tried to play down this leak by trying to convince parents that getting a better score won’t help their kids in the long run. Considering the rampant discrimination against students of ethnic minorities, usually urging them to follow a lower level of education than the Dutch even when they have similar Cito exam results, I figure the authorities can take their superior morals and shove it. At least that’s what I would say if I was one of those parents. Oh, and take responsibility for your leaks seriously instead of passing the buck.

(Links: www.nrc.nl, amsterdamherald.com)

Last Thursday Kuinre, Flevoland played host to the first edition of the Dutch ice fishing championship. Some 25 participants had two hours to reel in a catch, but in the end, not a single fish was caught.

Ed Piek of the Visfederatie Oost Nederland told Spitsnieuws that he did not know why nobody caught anything. “Maybe the lack of experience? Also the ice was very clear, which could have scared off the fish.”

The news site adds that the prizes, a mountain bike and a trophy, will be saved for the next edition.

For photos of the event, see here.

“Today the fish won,” Piek said. Sounds like the fish are not off the hook yet.

(Photo by Jani Uusitalo, some rights reserved)

A museum dedicated to the computers of US manufacturer Apple has opened its doors in the town of Ureterp, just East of Drachten in Friesland.

The Apple Museum Nederland is run by volunteers and focuses on keeping Apple computers up and running so that visitors can experience first hand how these machines used to work. The museum is housed at the top floor of a Mac repair shop and is not affiliated with Apple.

On 22 December the museum opened its doors for the first time and it will also be open on 29 December and 5 January. The official opening will be on 16 March, Bright reports.

Macfreak says this is the third Apple museum in the world. The name Ureterp stems from Urathorp and means ‘Upper Village’, as in upstream from the river Boorne.

(Photo: Google Street View)