According to local reports, the Spanish Ministry of Finance is looking to implement a new tax reform to expand its control over the monitoring of cryptocurrencies and the digital assets sector.
New Tax Reform Tackles Cryptocurrencies
As reported by El Economista on February 2, Spain’s Ministry of Finance has proposed a new reform to the General Tax Law that would allow the agency to gain control over digital assets to settle tax debt.
Specifically targeting Article 162 of the General Tax Law, the reform would allow the Spanish Tax Agency to identify and bank on digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and NFTs when enforcing taxpayer’s debt. Similarly, an amendment to the General Collection Regulation was proposed to allow the possibility of seizing digital assets in the event of unsettled debt.
The reforms follow previous efforts from the Ministry to be able to seize digital assets. Most recently, the Spanish Government approved a Royal Decree modifying the General Collection Regulations on February 1.
The decrees require payment entities and electronic money institutions collaborating with the Spanish Treasury to collect tax debt. Previously, only banks, savings banks, and credit cooperatives could collaborate with Spain’s treasury.
The latest Royal Decree ensures the obligation to report transactions made by institutions or individuals extends past the banking sector and includes electronic money institutions, like PayPal, and payment institutions, such as American Express, Getnet, and UniversalPay, that offer payment services like transfers.
The move guarantees that foreign entities that have payment and electronic money services in Spain inform the tax authorities of all activity carried out by its services in the country, such as several fintechs that operate in the country and allow users to make transactions with crypto assets fall under the electronic money institutions licensing.
Spain’s Efforts To Regulate Crypto Assets
Over the years, The Spanish Government has enforced different crypto regulations that have granted it more control to oversee crypto users’ activities. According to the report, the Bank of Spain’s data shows that more than 60.000 million euros in crypto were moved into the country in 2021. In 2023, the richest taxpayers declared over 2,100 million euros in cryptocurrencies.
In October 2023, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation informed that the country would implement the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) six months in advance, in December 2025.
Since 2021, taxpayers in Spain have been obliged to report the profits from their crypto investments in their income tax returns. Similarly, in 2023, the Spanish government approved a reform that requires individuals and companies residing in the country to annually declare their current and previous crypto holdings locally or abroad and provide the details of their crypto transactions to the Spanish Tax Agency starting January 1, 2024.