In this guide, we’ll break down everything Spanish crypto investors need to know to report their crypto taxes. We’ll share how Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria taxes cryptocurrency and discuss how you can get all the information you need to file your taxes.
Note: This guide is updated regularly based on the latest information from the Spanish government.
In Spain, cryptocurrency is subject to income tax, income savings tax, and wealth tax.
Income tax: When you earn cryptocurrency, you’ll recognize income based on the fair market value of your coins at the time of receipt.
Income savings tax (capital gains tax): When you dispose of cryptocurrency, you’ll recognize a gain or loss depending on how the price of your crypto has changed since you originally received it.
Wealth tax: Crypto-assets are part of your net wealth — which means they can be subject to wealth tax if you meet the threshold.
When you dispose of your cryptocurrency, you’ll incur a capital gain or loss depending on how the price of your crypto has changed since you originally received it.
In this case, Rodrigo’s capital gain will be subject to income savings tax between 19-26% depending on his income level.
It’s important to remember that income savings tax is progressive. That means you’ll have to pay progressively larger tax rates on each portion of your yearly capital gains.
When you earn cryptocurrency income in Spain, you’ll recognize income based on the fair market value of your coins at the time of receipt. It’s likely that getting paid in crypto, cryptocurrency mining, cryptocurrency staking, and airdrops all fall into this category.
How much your income is taxed may vary depending on where you live in Spain. Tax rates are set by the state and individual autonomous communities.
Certain regions in Spain charge a wealth tax for taxpayers with assets greater than €700,000.
You will need to sum up the value of all of your assets (including crypto-assets) at the end of the tax year. If the net result is positive after allowances, you will be required to submit a wealth tax declaration.
If you are a Spanish resident, you get an exemption against the value of your primary home (€300,000 in most of Spain).
Wealth tax can vary from 0.21% to 3.75% depending on where you live in Spain.
Madrid is the only autonomous community with no wealth tax. However, you will be required to submit a wealth tax declaration for information purposes if you have more than €2 million in assets.
It’s important to remember that governments across the world are cracking down on cryptocurrency tax fraud, and Spain is no exception.
The European Union’s Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive requires cryptocurrency exchanges to register with EU authorities, collect customer information, and monitor for illegal activities like tax fraud.
In July 2021, the Spanish government published Law. No. 11/2021, which increased reporting requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. In the near future, these exchanges will be required to share customer information with the Spanish government.
In Spain, the tax year runs from January 1st to December 31st.
You’re required to file your taxes by June 30th of the following year.
In Spain, the FIFO (first-in first-out) method is used for cryptocurrency. This essentially means that the first coins that you acquire are also the first coins that you dispose of. When you dispose of cryptocurrency, your cost basis is your cost for acquiring your earliest units of cryptocurrency.
Buying cryptocurrency with fiat currency like EUR is not considered a taxable event.
When you sell cryptocurrency, you’ll incur a capital gain or loss depending on how its price has changed since you originally received it.
When you trade cryptocurrency for other cryptocurrencies, you’ll incur a capital gain or loss depending on how the price of the crypto you’re trading away has changed since you originally received it.
Giving a cryptocurrency gift is considered a taxable event. You’ll incur a capital gain or loss depending on how the price of your crypto has changed since you originally received it.
Receiving a cryptocurrency gift is subject to gift tax. You’ll pay taxes based on the fair market value of your crypto-asset at the time of receipt. Gift tax currently ranges between 7.65% and 34%.
Getting paid in cryptocurrency in compensation for labour is considered income based on the fair market value of your crypto at the time you received it.
Cryptocurrency mining rewards are considered income at the time of receipt. If you dispose of your coins in the future, they’ll be subject to income savings tax based on how the value of your coins has changed since you originally received them.
At this time, Agencia Tributaria hasn’t put out any guidance on cryptocurrency staking.
It’s likely that cryptocurrency staking rewards will be considered income at the time of receipt. If you dispose of your staking rewards, you’ll likely incur a capital gain or loss depending on how the price has changed since you originally received them.
At this time, Agencia Tributaria hasn’t put out any guidance on cryptocurrency airdrops.
The conservative approach is to treat crypto received from airdrops as income subject to income tax.
It’s likely that if you dispose of your airdrop rewards, you’ll be subject to income savings tax based on how the price of your crypto has changed at the time of disposal.
At this time, Agencia Tributaria hasn’t put out any guidance on how transactions on DeFi protocols are taxed.
Based on existing guidance, we can assume the following.
If you receive an inheritance in cryptocurrency, you’ll be subject to inheritance tax. Your tax may vary depending on the value of the crypto you’ve inherited and your region of residence. Generally, inheritance tax ranges from 7-37%.
It’s recommended that you keep detailed records on your crypto transactions for at least five years for tax purposes. This should include:
Remember, you’ll need to keep records of the fair market value of your crypto in EUR. Even if you’ve conducted your transactions in another currency like USD, you’ll need to convert these to their EUR value to accurately report your taxes.
If you have trouble tracking your crypto transactions, crypto tax software can help. Just plug in your wallets and exchanges and the platform can automatically find historical prices and calculate your crypto tax bill for you!
There’s no need to track all of your gains, losses, and income manually. With CoinLedger, you can automatically import your wallets and exchanges and calculate your tax liability in minutes.
More than 500,000 investors across the globe use CoinLedger to take the stress out of tax season.
Let’s cap things off by answering some frequently asked questions about cryptocurrency taxes.
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This guide breaks down everything you need to know about cryptocurrency taxes, from the high level tax implications to the actual crypto tax forms you need to fill out.
