The tax regime of crypto active assets foreseen in the draft law of the State Budget for 2023
Crypto assets are digital representations of assets based on blockchain technology (technology that allows the distributed recording of electronic transactions) not issued by a central bank, credit institution or electronic money institution. They can be used as a form of payment in a community that accepts it or have other purposes, such as granting the right to use certain goods and services or a financial return.
At a time when the first real estate transactions with cryptocurrency are beginning to emerge (in May 2022 the first real estate property was transacted in cryptocurrency – 3 bitcoin, about 110,000 euros – occurring the exchange of the digital asset for the right to the property without any prior conversion into euros), the legislator comes, through the draft law of State Budget for 2023, to present the tax framework it advocates for crypto active assets.
Until now, Portugal has been considered a “crypto-friendly” country not by virtue of a regime that concretely created a favorable taxation of income arising from operations with these assets, but by virtue of the absence of regulation.
So far, the Tax Authority, has issued two doctrinal sheets in response to binding information requests (Doctrinal Sheet no. 1490 with ruling of 1/4/2019 and Doctrinal Fact Sheet 5717/2015 with ruling of 27/12/2016), where the specific issue of the sale of cryptocurrency to individuals is analyzed and where it is concluded that “the sale of crypto active assets is not taxed under the Portuguese tax system unless its regularity constitutes a professional or business activity of the taxpayer, in which case it will be taxed under category B”.
One of the news of the draft State Budget Law for 2023 is, therefore, the creation of a specific legal framework for the taxation of crypto active assets, which covers IRS, IRC, Stamp Duty and IMT.
