In it episode twenty-three of Separating Money and the State from CriptoNoticias, Iván Gómez spoke with José Antonio Bravo, head of cryptoasset taxation at Fiscal Crypto and one of the largest tax experts in Spain in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bravo explained that the Spanish Tax Agency already has extensive information on operations with cryptoassets through forms 172 and 173 (declared by exchanges and custodians) and model 721 (declaration of holdings abroad).
With the full entry of DAC 8 and the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), from 2027-2028 the Spanish Treasury will automatically and globally receive the movements of almost all the exchanges in the world, which will make traceability practically total. Bravo warned that the greatest future risk will not only be the inspection, but also possible leaks or internal access to that enormous database.
The most relevant:
- A taxable event is only generated by transmitting cryptoassets (sale, swap, donation or liquidation), not by maintaining them.
- Staking, loans and liquidity pools are taxed as capital gains at the market value at the time of receipt.
- Receiving a loan secured by cryptocurrency is tax neutral until the collateral is called or a margin call occurs.
- In the event of collateral execution or margin call, a capital gain or loss is generated that must be declared.
- The interest paid on a loan guaranteed with crypto is not deductible for individuals, only for companies if it is linked to the activity.
- Tax-loss harvesting allows losses from crypto assets to be offset with gains from other assets for four years.
- Tools like CoinTracking make it easy to reconstruct the tax history of crypto assets.
- The economy of AI agents and native digital entities poses unprecedented tax challenges because they do not have physical residence.
- Spain, not having full monetary sovereignty (it belongs to the euro), has limited capacity to legislate favorably on Bitcoin.
- The most fiscally attractive countries in Europe for holders are Germany (more than one year exempt), Malta and the Czech Republic.
- In countries like Germany or Malta, professional trading is considered an economic activity and is taxed as such.
- Most current inspections are based on evidence obtained from exchange information models.
- The statute of limitations for tax debts in Spain is four years (five or ten if there is a tax crime).
- The donation of cryptoassets generates a taxable event (capital gain or loss) just like the donation of real estate.
- The main advice is to structure all the information and prepare for any requirement or inspection from the Treasury.