Portugal is fast becoming the number one country for anyone involved in crypto, especially long-term investors and retail traders. Official statistics clearly show that immigration to Portugal is growing a lot year after year, and a good chunk of these expats are young people below the age of 40.
Since writing the original version of the article, I’ve personally received a ton of emails from people who have moved to Portugal or are in the process of moving so, with a lot of these people having some involvement in crypto. I think this is extremely exciting for the crypto scene in Portugal and the country in general. Becoming a haven for people involved in this new revolutionary technology can only bring positive effects to Portugal and its citizens.
People involved in crypto tend to be forward-looking and risk-tolerant, and they are also likely to have made some good gains and now amass a healthy net worth. This means that they will be spending more money in the local economy, as well as inspiring the people around them to learn more about finance and investments. They will also probably want to diversify their investments, and I bet that we will be seeing a lot of these people starting new businesses in Portugal. I expect to see more modern cafes, international restaurants, and startups, all fueled by the new expats.
See also: The Best Crypto Trading Apps in 2021
For those of you who have never visited Portugal, here’s some background.
Portugal is a member of the European Union and sits right on the Western edge of Europe, bordering Spain. Its climate is generally similar to Spain but it sits on the Atlantic coast, which means that its seas are wavier and colder, which makes it a surfers’ paradise.
The population sits at around 10 million, healthcare is ranked among the best worldwide, the local population is considered to be very friendly and one can feel safe in the streets. There are very low levels of crime. One should consider that Portugal has gone through a very tough period in the past twenty years as it didn’t perform well economically. This led many of its younger people to leave and seek better conditions abroad. The NHR program is actually a countermeasure to try and restore things by making the country once again very attractive to expats and Portuguese who had emigrated years ago.
The NHR and a host of other related laws are now having the desired effect, and are a great example of how a country can pick itself up from the ashes and thrive against the odds by supporting freedom and innovation.
Portugal is one of the few countries that is forward-looking and is encouraging the immigration of high net worth individuals, investors, and entrepreneurs. This will result in these people having a positive effect in the local economy by spending their money within Portugal. Not only that, they will bring new and bright ideas, and will start new businesses in the country.
See also: Lisbon vs Barcelona
This attitude is in stark contrast to the neighboring country, Spain, which has gone out of its way to punish local and foreign entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses and help the economy. It’s a real pity to see the political situation in Spain at the moment, but hopefully, the politicians will eventually see that the Portuguese model works better and switch course.
The big attraction of Portugal, apart from its beautiful cities, nature and friendly English-speaking (for the most part) population, is the NHR programme. If you qualify for the NHR, you can get foreign dividends tax-free, and there are also allowances for specific types of professions/jobs that can also get their foreign income at 0% tax.
Requirements for NHR
You don’t have to live in Portugal during the whole year to be an NHR. The NHR (non-habitual resident) program, allows citizens from is attractive to professionals, pensioners, investors and entrepreneurs who want to enjoy a life free of income tax. The government of Portugal offers tax benefits to everyone, with a unique advantage: no minimum stay requirement in the country.
You only have to meet one of the following requirements:
- Stay for a minimum of 183 days in the country, whether interrupted or continuous
- Have a house available and have “intention” to live there
- Be a member of a Portuguese ship or aircraft crew
- Have a spouse or children in the country
- Be employed overseas by the Portuguese state
If you’re interested in the NHR programme, I can put you in touch with a Portuguese tax lawyer who can answer your questions and set you up in Portugal.
How Crypto Tax Works in Portugal
The crypto space is getting more and more complex over time with the introduction of staking, lending, DeFi, NFTs etc, and each of those needs to be considered carefully. Investors are no longer solely interested in simply buying and trading the big cryptos (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot etc.) I will keep expanding the information below based on my own research and discussions with Portuguese tax experts.
For now, let’s start with the treatment of crypto sales, which is what the majority of investors are interested in. Basically, we need to understand how the profit on sale of crypto is treated in Portugal. In most countries, this is treated as capital gains and taxed accordingly. What about Portugal?
Tax Benefits on the Sale of Crypto in Portugal
The main reason for the enthusiasm about Portugal from people involved in the crypto space is that crypto earnings are tax-free in Portugal.
In a 2016 official ruling, the Portuguese Tax Authority analysed the possible classification of cryptocurrencies within certain types of income that are subject to Portuguese tax, notably capital gains, capital income and income from business activities, and decided that, as a general rule, natural persons should not be taxed in respect of gains derived from the valuation or sale of cryptocurrencies, except that, in the case of sale of cryptocurrencies, if they correspond to the individual’s main recurrent activity, income obtained from such activity could be subject to Portuguese tax. It should also be noted that this was only a partial decision that did not elaborate on other types of income derived from other cryptocurrency-related activities (e.g. mining and farming activities).
Have a look at the 2016 binding information as it’s the most relevant document for crypto investors. The linked document is in Portuguese, but it consists of the Portuguese tax authority’s reply to a direct question about crypto taxation.
I’ll provide a basic interpretation (in my own words, not a word for word translation) for those of you who don’t understand Portuguese:
Cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies are not technically considered money due to not having legal tender in Portugal. However, they can be exchanged, with a resulting profit, for real currencies (euros, dollars, or other) at exchanges, with the prices being determined by the demand for said cryptocurrency.
Thus, cryptocurrencies can generate different types of taxable income:
- Gains obtained from the purchase and sale of virtual currency units/exchange from the cryptocurrency to real currency (whatever it may be)
- For obtaining commissions for the provision of services related to obtaining cryptocurrency.
- For gains derived from sales of products or services in cryptocurrency
This document only considers the first scenario. This is the scenario faced by most crypto investors.
The profits from this activity are candidates for three categories of income types:
- Capital Gains – category G (e.g. sale of an apartment, sale of shares)
- Capital Yields – category E (e.g. rent of an apartment, dividends)
- Professional Income – category B (e.g. consultancy, freelance work)
Category G
Article 10 of the IRS Code specifies the cases that are taxable as capital gains. The key thing to note here is that when the legislator created this law, they resorted to a closed type, meaning that the law is specifically for the items mentioned and nothing else. Since cryptocurrencies do not fall within the specific cases mentioned, and their value is merely determined by supply and demand, therefore we can conclude that they are not taxable within this category.
Category E
This category clearly does not apply to the sale of crypto assets since it relates to yields on capital e.g. dividends, rental income. On the other hand, I would note that the income derived from services such as BlockFi, YouHodler, and other crypto interest accounts would probably fall in this category. The same goes for income from crypto staking e.g. Ethereum staking.
Category B
Here’s the tricky one. Category B relates to the income of a self-employed worker. When a type of income can be classified as of category B or any of the other two categories considered here, category B would prevail. So in this category income can be taxed whether it comes from sales, whether it is capital income, or any other nature, pursuant to paragraph 1 of article 3 of the IRS Code.
To determine whether the income falls into this category, one would need to consider its frequency and the orientation of the activity towards obtaining profits. If the existence of the exercise of a business or professional activity is verified, then the taxpayer is obliged to comply with the declarative obligations contained in paragraph 6 of article 3 of the Code of IRS, i.e. to issue an invoice or equivalent document (electronic invoice-receipt), whenever you sell some product or provide a service.
The reason I say that it’s a tricky one is that crypto traders need to consider carefully whether their activities would be considered professional income or not. Here I would suggest that if you’re in doubt you should consult a tax lawyer. The general rule worldwide is that if trading is your main source of income and you are opening and closing positions on a daily basis you would most likely classify as a professional trader and your income will fall in this category – therefore not being tax-free.
The conclusion of the document states clearly that the sale of cryptocurrencies is not taxable in Portugal unless due to its frequency it constitutes a professional or entrepreneurial activity, which would make it taxable under category B.
This latter point also results in a lot of questions about whether or not one would be classified as a professional trader.
There are several factors that determine whether one’s trading activity is professional or not. These include:
- Number of trades per day/week/month/year.
- Holding period of financial products
- Complexity of traded financial products
- Number of trading platforms used
- Debt-to-equity ratio, credit financing
- Profit level and relationship to other income
- Additional relevant trading activities (such as advice)
- Traders’ main activity (where else do you get your money from?)
The fact that one of the factors listed above applies to you does not automatically make you a professional trader. Ultimately one must look at every individual’s overall situation, and this can only be reliably done by involving a tax lawyer who will give you a written opinion.
In summary, cryptocurrencies in Portugal are only taxable if you do it as a professional trading activity and therefore you need to open an activity as a trader and pay taxes according to your profit, otherwise they are considered non-taxable in Portugal due being unable to fit in any category.
Note that the above is true for individuals but not for corporate entities. If you hold your crypto in a Portuguese company, all the gains from cryptocurrency trading are taxed together with any other profit the company had, irrespective of whether the company is engaged in trading or whether it held the crypto as a long-term investment.
Contact me if you need to speak to a tax lawyer who knows how to deal with crypto. It’s very important that you assess your individual case before making any decisions.
Inheritance Taxes
There is no precedent, specific rules or particular approach regarding the treatment of cryptocurrencies for the purposes of estate planning and testamentary succession in Portugal.
Notwithstanding, certain aspects of estate planning and testamentary succession should be highlighted. Inheritance tax does not exist in Portugal, but stamp duty may apply to certain transfers of certain assets (e.g. immovable property, movable assets, securities and negotiable instruments, provided they are located, or deemed to be located, in Portugal) included in the deceased’s estate in case of succession.
However, in the absence of a legal amendment or binding information from the Portuguese tax authorities, it may be argued that the drafting of the relevant legal provisions does not expressly foresee assets such as cryptocurrencies, thus excluding the same from the scope of application of stamp duty, which de facto mitigates the need for estate planning with respect to cryptocurrencies. Estate planning and testamentary succession must therefore be analysed on a case-by-case basis, considering all variables involved.
VAT
In a 2019 official ruling, the Portuguese Tax Authority confirmed the precedent from the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-264/14, Skatteverket v. David Hedqvist) to argue that although cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin were analogous to a “means of payment” and therefore subject to VAT, they were exempt by application of VAT exemption rules, which should be consistent across EU Member States considering existing VAT EU harmonization.
Get in touch with a Portuguese crypto tax lawyer
How to Buy Bitcoin in Portugal
You can use the world’s best crypto exchanges in Portugal without any problem, there are no limitations imposed by the country or by any of the big exchanges.
My suggestions would be to use any of the following:
- Binance (see my review)
- Coinbase (see my review)
- Kraken (see my review)
- eToro (see my review)
- Bitpanda (see my review)
For those of you who are more advanced traders, the platforms you’re accustomed to will also work in Portugal:
- Deribit – best platform for crypto derivatives (see my review)
- PrimeXBT (see my review)
- Bitfinex
- Bybit
- FTX
You can also use crypto borrowing and lending platforms such as BlockFi and YouHodler without any problems.
Keep in mind that you will still need to keep good track of your crypto trading activity even though it might be tax-free. I suggest you use a tool like Cointracker for that. Check the other options in my article about crypto portfolio and tax preparation tools.
Crypto-Friendly Banks in Portugal
From the information I have so far, it seems that Santander and BBVA both play nice with crypto exchanges. Please leave a comment and let me know if you have tried other banks.
Participating in the Portuguese Crypto Community
You can follow this Twitter list that features many of the big crypto players that are based in Portugal. Please let me know about other crypto players and communities in Portugal by leaving a comment below or by contacting me.
Hard Fork Cafe is a cool YouTube channel dedicated to crypto, although you need to understand Portuguese for that. It’s a good way to practice learning the language though if you want to hit two birds with one stone.
If your only regular source of revenue is the rewards of staking crypto (falls into category E) and you get a decent monthly revenue from that (at least 700-2000€), is it possible to only pay taxes on those staking rewards revenues while the other crypto sales remain considered as personal incomes and non taxed (as long as they fit the criterias you wrote) ?
Then is it mandatory to have at least one category B income to be able to go to social security, or as long as you pay taxes on your category E revenue you are fine ?
Thank you very much, your article is the best by far I’ve seen on the internet on that complex topic.
Hello,
Thx for the overview.
Does a permanent resident in Portugal needs to declare his capital gains from crypto in his yearly taxation statement (IRS) although they are not taxed? Long time holding, no frequent trading.
I’m unclear about something. Perhaps someone can help. I am an EU citizen (Ireland).
I understand that to qualify for 0% tax on any crypto profits one must reside in Portugal for 180 days in a 12 month period.
Does this mean I must have resided in Portugal for 180 days BEFORE selling my cryptos in order to avoid taxation on my cryptos profits?
Or does it mean if I move to Portugal next week and sell my cryptos next month that in order to avoid tax on crypto profits I would then need to continue to reside in Portugal after I have sold my crypto until I have accrued a total of 180 days in order to qualify for 0% tax?
Looking forward to a response.
Excellant information. Thank you!
Hello Jean, in which cases they can consider you as a professional trader? I´m considering to move to Portugal before July, but this is the main doubt I have, I have done about 500 trades this year (2021), don´t know if I could be considered professional with these numbers. Do it depends on the number of trades, total amount of money earned…?
Thank you!
Great information- I’m hoping to move there in a few years and most of my retirement funds are in bitcoin and Etherium so hopefully I’ll be able to use my dividends from my crypto to live on . I plan on buying a house hopefully with my bitcoin.
Keep in mind that in a few years’ time crypto capital gains might be taxed at 28% like stocks, for example.
The current situation is a temporary one according to the opinions of several lawyers I’ve spoken to. We will see what happens.
Hi Jean,
This is really useful information, thank you. Will any funds need to be withdrawn to a Portuguese bank account? I made my initial investments before moving to Portugal and have just discovered this benefit so am trying to work out how to make the most of it.
There shouldn’t be any such requirement. The most important thing is to document everything meticulously.
Hi Jean. Can i declare crypto -funds as investment from 2015, and when convert it to EUR as capital gains without taxation? what is a maximum of these non-tax funds?
There is minimum or maximum when selling your crypto. There simply is no capital gains tax due on crypto at the moment in Portugal.
Great article! Very informative. Thank you very much much. I just sent an enquiry to speak with a lawyer as I have some questions and would love to make sure when I move there everything is ok.
You’re welcome.
Hey Jean,
thanks for that really comprehensive overview.
I just have one question – I am taking into consideration moving to Madeira and my trading activity would most likely be classified as a professional activity. But I’ve heard there is some rule for a special 5% tax rate in Madeira for businesses. Do you know whether and how this would also work for cryptocurrency trading?
I’ve heard about it but I’m not sure of the details there.
Hi Jean,
Thank you for all the info. I was wondering, do I have to become a tax resident in Portugal if I plan on withdrawing crypto gains to a Portuguese bank account?
I mean, would I have to be living there full time? My job is remote but would I have to move to Portugal full time to benefit from these tax advantages?
Thanks,
C
No, you don’t have to live in Portugal during the whole year. The NHR (non-habitual resident) program, allows citizens from is attractive to professionals, pensioners, investors and entrepreneurs who want to enjoy a life free of income tax. The government of Portugal offers tax benefits to everyone, with a unique advantage: no minimum stay requirement in the country.
You only have to meet one of the following requirements:
Hello and thank you for the useful post and comment section !
So if I apply for the NHR status and live on Madeira or Portugal mainland, the income from ethereum or cardano staking would be tax free right ?
Also do it also apply for income by crypto lending ?
Cheers,
Anton
I’ll cover these specific cases with a tax lawyer in an upcoming episode of my podcast, so stay tuned for that.
If you or anyone else have any more questions regarding taxation of crypto in Portugal just leave a comment here and I’ll base my questions to the lawyer off them.
The crypto space is getting more and more complex over time with the introduction of staking, lending, DeFi, NFTs etc and each of those need to be considered carefully for each country in question.
We will move fully to Madeira or Mainland Portugal and our source of income will be mostly from the profits of investing in Crypto IDO’s I did in the past. I will continue this kind of investing and taking profits out of it. Are those kinds of profits taxable in Portugal? Income from DeFi (providing Liquidity) is another source of income for us. Is this taxable too? Thank you
Can you please post the link here?
Can’t wait for the podcast you mentioned. Any ETA? 🙂
Especially interested about taxation of staking profits (ETH2.0, ATOM Cosmos etc.), lending interest (DeFi such as Compound, or CeFi such as Blockfi or Celsius) as well as yield farming (such as Sushi or KepperDAO). With the NHR programme.
If this is also tax-free, then I am ready to move to Portugal next year :). Or Madeira – love trail running.
My country (EU) does not have any exit taxes, so should be fine from that perspective. Only wondering, how the Portugal tax authority will look at documents if they show that the crypto has been acquired (and interest earned, staked, yield farmed) prior to moving there. How much documentation do you have to provide in your tax statements?
Thanks! 🙂
I’ll take note of all these questions for the podcast, it should be recorded and published within the next month.
Okay more Questions:
Do you need to register your Assets, even when you are not selling them in Portugal.
So for example: I move there and plan to live from cash, I just want to hold for a few years. Do I have report to the tax authorities: I have x amount of BTC, y amount of ADA and so on.
How is staking taxed?
– Not at all.
– When you receive the Staking Rewards?
– When you sell the Rewards against fiat?
– Is there a minimum hodl time to get tax free
How is Lending taxed?
When you are seen as professional trader? how many trades? what are the criteria here?
What if your income is from crypto only?
How you see the risk of high taxation or even forbidden on btc/crypto?
Would there always be a ramp-up time before laws fall into place, so everyone could leave if the situation change for the worst.
How someone can make it legally safe, at least for some time? So what laws are here important?
Thanks, keep them coming!
It would be great if you can also compare all these topics for residence and nhr people, if there is a difference and tax at all for any kind of crypto created income (staking, lending, mining, sale of coins).
Is it expected that there will be exempts for NHR in the future, for example:
New laws fall in place, NHRs will be probably exempt from these new laws or how was in the past with change of rules?
How can I find a Tax-Adviser/Accountant?
How much is a Tax-Adviser typically in Portugal and is it anyhow connected to the amount of taxes/income?
How much is a Accountant typically in Portugal is it anyhow connected to the amount of taxes/income?
How will the process work? I just sent my bank statements to an accountant? So, maybe here the full story could told? From first client contact to doing tax returns and chill 😀
How much work is involved with this for the client?
Is the Tax-Adviser/Accountant in legal charge if the client reported everything correctly to them, but the Tax-Adviser/Accountant missed an important part or even did not know it. Or is it always the client who needs to check it and understand it, because in the end he is still responsible.
Are there already living examples for staking taxes. Means People which have done there tax returns and the government said alright. We accept this, that and you are tax free or you have to pay this % for your staking rewards. Same question would be nice for lending, mining, but for me personally staking is the most interesting.
Is there the possibility to get cheated or are all Tax-Advisers regulated?
What kinds of quality signs can someone check to see: ahh okay this is a good one, this one is maybe not the best Adviser or Accountant. What Certificates are important and so on?
Thank you very very much, if I can get these information’s I will be very happy. I would love to come to your beautiful country, but I just don’t want to trap into trouble. <3
Very good questions Tim, I will cover them in the podcast.
Thanks for that. Another few:
Do I have to do tax returns at all or can you sell crypto and get it on my bank account and don’t tell the fiscal authority about it, because it will be anyway tax free.
How much cost a full package for the tax consultants on average per year.
So that we can estimate how much it would cost and the pricing is legit.
– Accounting
– Tax returns
– …
Looking really forward for the podcast. Thanks a lot!
Tim, what do you mean by the last question?
“How someone can make it legally safe, at least for some time? So what laws are here important?”
Hello,
I wondered if you have any information regarding the rules on double taxation in Portugal. More specifically, what I mean is, let’s say I bought and HODLed a cryptocurrency outside of Portugal, and then I moved to Portugal before selling in the bid to avoid cryptotax: do you know if I would still owe my country of origin any tax after selling my cryptocurrency as a Portugal tax resident? Or how long it would take to cease to owe my country of origin any tax in this instance?
Thank you!
You’d have to speak to a tax lawyer in your country first, since some countries have exit taxes and special provisions to try to prevent their citizens from making tax optimising moves like this one.
Hi there,
I enjoyed the article very much,
I will be moving to Portugal soon & my income is from dividends
paid to me in btc. Which is the best crypto exchange to use in Portugal with the Santander bank for the frequent selling & cashing out?
Thanks.
Congrats on managing to get dividends paid in BTC, I think you should be able to use any of the well-known exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, Binance etc.
I hear lots of portuguese banks make it difficult to cash out of an exchange, is there any banks which are especially crypto friendly ?
Moving in 3 weeks 🙂
BBVA and Santander should play nice with exchanges, but in the case of big amounts it’s always better to talk to them before making any transfers to make sure that you will have the documentation they will most probably ask you for.
Hi Jean
Thanks for this article on crypto tax in Portugal.
Lots of very helpful info, much appreciated.
Have sent you an email too re any recommendations for a crypto tax lawyer in Portugal.
Have a great day
James
Welcome, will put you in touch.
Thanks for this article, seems almost too good to be true!? Could you forward the tax lawyer to me too. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the great article!
Sylvain, how did you sign up in Portugal? Are you “normal” citizen or did you go for “NHR” more beneficial sign up? I think this is the most unlcear thing to me right now and Im about to move there next week possibly?
The Bank advise of Santander was great!
From what i understand its a bit unclear who is pro trader or not?
I also just read trough the important parts of MICA (EU regulatory crypto) and it seam like its minimum 1 year away for anything so this bullruns profit would be safe from what i understand anyway.
Hey Janne,
I am not a portuguese citizen, I came here under the NHR status last july.
Regarding Estelle comment, don’t you think that Yield farming could be seen as capital gains by the tax authority ?
For anyone arriving who was not a Portuguese resident in the last 5 years, you qualify for the NHR program. Non-habitually-resident is a tax status and your passive income will be taxed 0% (if it is truly passive, in the above case, interest from yield farming would have to be declared in your Portuguese tax filing, but would be tax-free). Note that under NHR you have to declare your worldwide income, but you won’t be taxed on anything passive. I don’t think a one-time HODLers gain is deemed professional trading. NHR is good for 10 years. I think we are ok with regs in Portugal at least until MiCA comes into force which will affect the entire EU, and will include or prompt tax reform I imagine… so 4 or 5 years.
What’s MiCA Estelle?
It’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0593
Hi Jean,
Fantastic write up , I have NHR status in Portugal and live in vilimoura, can you please recommend a good tax lawyer regarding crypto,
Thanks 🙏
Thanks Kevin, contact me via email and I’ll put you in touch.
Very good comments. will need also name of layers for Crypto.
Can you give me your email address for a few questions.
Thank you.
Best Regards,
Teresa Afonso
Leave all questions as a comment here please and I will address them in an upcoming podcast with a Portuguese tax lawyer.
Thank you very much for this detailed article.
I moved in Portugal recently and I thought there was no tax at all but I understand it is a bit more complicated than that. I undersrand from your post that if you are a day trader you will pay taxes bit what about if you are an hodler and make millions ?
Lets say I bought 30 bitcoins in march 2020 at 4000$ and I sell them at 60k$ for a benefit of 1 680 000$. Will I have to pay taxes as it will be my main source of income ?
Same questions if I bought like 20 others cryptocurrencies and make a huge profit by just holding them ?
And last question, what about yield farming on stable coins like usdc ? Let’s say I sold my 30 btc for 1 680 000 usdc and I put this money on yield farming and get 10% (168 000$) of interests every year. I guess it could be considered ad capital gains but how is it in reality ?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Sylvain.
According to my understanding of the subject:
In the first case, no, you don’t have to pay any taxes, even if it is your main source of income for this particular year. It’s obvious that you were holding and eventually sold because it was convenient for you to sell, but you’re not a professional trader.
I’ll get back to you on the second case as I need to confirm a few things first.
As always, I have to say that I’m not a tax professional and you should therefore contact an accountant or tax lawyer in Portugal before submitting your tax returns.
Hi Jean,
Thank you very much for you answer. Of course I will talk with my lawyer regarding this matter but I like to gather information on my own first ;).
Is there any likelihood of Portugal changing it’s beneficial Crypto tax laws in anytime soon, e.g in 2021?
I’m just conscious of the fact that Portugal, being an EU member state, could potentially be pressured to amend its tax laws if the EU wanted to harmonise them across Europe.
I only mention this because when someone mentioned the favourable Crypto capital gains tax laws in Portugal on an online chat, and a couple of them responded, “for the time being”…
The reason they say that is that Portugal did not specifically put in tax law that states that crypto gains are not taxed. Rather, the ruling is based on a technicality in the existing law whereby crypto gains do not fall into any of the explicit classifications of assets that are taxable.
On the other hand, the fact that there is an official ruling on this is already a very positive thing, as many other countries have dragged their feet in even pronouncing themselves on the topic. There are also several other European countries with favorable crypto taxation, for example Germany and Malta, where long-term holdings are also tax-free.
Tax harmonization in Europe is a pipe dream in my opinion and can never happen. The smaller and weaker countries practically all have significant tax benefits that they use to attract foreign investment, and a harmonized tax system would destroy their economies and make them much less attractive.
You can see this tax play all around the world, for example with barely known Caribbean countries offering tax advantages, or certain “unattractive” states in the United States also offering low taxation and low regulatory pressure.
Having said that, there are plenty of rumors that the Portuguese government will make crypto gains taxable at 28% in the next budget, so it’s basically a waiting game.
I would be cautious about moving to Portugal only for this benefit, since it can change at any point. There are other countries like Malta that might be better for long-term holders who want to cash out, since they have specific laws dealing with cryptos. Germany is another ideal country as holdings beyond one year are not taxed when sold.
Portugal’s biggest attraction is the NHR-programme. The fact that crypto sales are not currently taxed is just the cherry on the cake.
Hey any advice on which Portuguese bank is crypto friendly (or which to avoid)? I just moved here.
Try BBVA or Santander.
I am using Santander and no problem so far. It is a good bank that I would recommend
Great information. I’m wondering what other countries might follow in this path? Also, you must try beach tennis ! https://youtu.be/QacR5DWINtA
Let’s hope more countries follow. I also play beach tennis 🙂