Spanish tax authorities demand tax from cryptocurrency owners

Efforts by Spanish tax officials to identify cryptocurrency holders are beginning to pay off. After investigating several firms, the Treasury is looking to introduce a new cryptocurrency tax.

According to El Pais, in April of this year, the Spanish Treasury requested information about the owners of cryptocurrency from various companies. Among them were 16 major banks, 40 firms that help facilitate cryptocurrency payments, and several different intermediaries such as service providers and ATM operators.

According to El Pais, as a result of these requests, the Treasury received information on 15,000 taxpayers who own cryptocurrency. It is not clear from the newspaper article whether companies and firms are included in the list of “lucky” winners, or whether the Treasury requested information only about individuals. 

Any income from cryptocurrency capital gains in Spain is now subject to a tax rate of 19% to 23%. The rate is determined by the amount of the individual's capital gains. It is still difficult to understand exactly how the country's authorities are going to introduce a cryptocurrency tax.

Even if the government has information about individual holders, it still needs to somehow force them to pay. After all, cryptocurrencies are not stocks, and holders do not receive any dividends from them.

It is also unlikely that the IRS will accept payment in cryptocurrency. In this case, it is indeed difficult to calculate the amount in fiat that the taxpayer owes to the treasury - especially considering that at the moment any of the cryptocurrencies can lose a third of their value in a week.

Thus, it can be assumed that the Spanish authorities view the cryptocurrency tax not as a means of replenishing the budget, but as a means of preventing fraudulent activities that so often take place in the cryptocurrency industry.