New EU push: Uniform crypto taxes
2 min readIn times of inflation, war and climate crisis, the European Union is looking for new sources of money to fill the budget of the association of states. In the crypto sector, it seems that they have found what they are looking for. On draft from the European Parliament proposes the introduction of uniform crypto taxes on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for all member countries. In the document, the authors name several approaches.
One consideration would be the implementation of an EU-wide capital gains tax. However, levies could soon also be imposed on transactions, mining or the trading of crypto assets. The authors write that the tax rate will apply uniformly to all member states. Factors such as power consumption and environmental impact could play a role in determining the level. Proof-of-work based cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could be disadvantaged here. The Commission is to submit concrete proposals.
The industry sees the push in two ways. “A uniform European crypto taxation could make life easier for citizens and crypto companies,” writes Peter Grosskopf, CTO at Unstoppable Finance LinkedIn. Sven Hildebrandt from the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, on the other hand, is critical of the possible tax disadvantages of PoW-based cryptocurrencies. Others wonder whether the alliance of states even has the power to set EU-wide taxes. Normally, the European Union is not directly involved in setting tax rates. As a rule, this is done by the national governments.
Crypto taxes in the EU so far fragmented
However, when it comes to crypto taxation, EU member states differ greatly from each other. While in Germany, for example, cryptocurrencies can generally be sold tax-free after a holding period of one year, in Austria there is generally a withholding tax when converting crypto to fiat.
The current push would be the next European mammoth project after the introduction of the MiCA regulation, which was only recently postponed due to technical difficulties. Whether and when exactly the proposals will actually flow into a legal text is still in the stars.
