Italy Wants To Tax Crypto Profits At 26% From 2023 – Taxes Bitcoin News

The new government in Italy plans to introduce a 26% tax on capital gains from crypto trading, according to the draft budget for next year. The ruling centre-right coalition is also preparing to force Italians to declare their digital assets and pay 14% of their holdings.

The government of Italy intends to capitalize on cryptocurrency profits

The authorities in Rome appear to be expanding and tightening regulations on the disclosure and taxation of digital assets. The change is likely to come with Italy’s 2023 budget which is expected to target profits from crypto wealth and trade.

A provision in the budget, proposed by the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, extends to crypto assets a 26% tax on capital gains that exceed a threshold of 2,000 euros (about $2,080), Bloomberg reported.

The ruling coalition, which was elected at the end of September, is also offering taxpayers the option to declare the value of their digital assets from 1 January 2023 and be taxed at a rate of 14%. The aim is to encourage Italian taxpayers to declare their holdings in their tax returns.

According to current tax rules, digital currencies and tokens in Italy are treated as foreign currency subject to lower taxation. The draft law, which could still see changes in parliament, also introduces disclosure obligations and extends stamp duty to cryptocurrencies.

Around 1.3 million Italians (2.3% of the country’s population) own crypto assets, the report notes, citing Triple A data. That compares with Britain’s 5% and 3.3% in neighboring France.

Meloni, Italy’s first woman to head the executive in Rome and head of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, has previously campaigned for lower taxes.

Her government’s stricter stance on crypto now follows in the footsteps of Portugal, one of the EU’s most crypto-friendly members, which revealed in October its intention to tax short-term crypto profits by 28% from next year. It also comes amid a global tightening of regulations following a wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry, such as the recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

Do you think Italian lawmakers will support the proposed increase in the tax burden on crypto investors? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens’ quote: “To be a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.