Presentantion of Cryptocurrencies in Financial Statements under the Ias and Polish Accounting Act

Abstract

As a result of the transformation on the money market, we are currently dealing with cryptocurrencies, which are a product created as a consequence of modern technologies (blockchain) and the changing habits of today's digital society. The most popular of the cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin, which has been trading since the beginning of 2009, and still is not fully regulated. In this field, regulators mainly issue opinions and positions, but they differ significantly in the world, while regulation at the statutory level is very little or in some countries even existing at all. In Poland, the only law defining virtual currencies is the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act which came into force in 2018. As of 2019, after amendments, two other acts refer to the definition of virtual currencies - Personal Income Tax Act and Corporate Income Tax Act. However, these acts do not regulate the full range of issues and areas that are in contact with cryptocurrencies. An example of the lack of regulations is accounting. The purpose of this article is to review the definitions of selected groups of assets in the currently applicable accounting regulations and to identify groups of assets in which crypto-currencies may be classified. The use of the critical analysis of the literature method and the deduction method will lead to achieving the goal of this article.