Spain: Crypto Holders and Traders to Receive Tax Letters

The Spanish tax regulator AEAT launched a massive campaign, sending notices to more than 60,000 cryptocurrency holders and traders.

AEAT to send more than 60,000 notices, growth of more than 300%

Spanish Tax regulator AEAT (Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria) launched a massive campaign aimed at cryptocurrency holders as of April 1, 2020. The campaign is due to continue until the end of June. Back in 2019 AEAT has issued notices for some 14,700 crypto traders. This year, the regulator has issued more than 60,000 notices in regards to the taxes of suspected cryptocurrency holders and traders. This shows a growth of more than 300% if we compare the numbers from last year.

The Spanish regulator started the cryptocurrency saga back in November 2018 and continued pursuing illicit operations all throughout 2019. Back then, all clients that had access to cryptocurrency were reported to the regulator by the banks. Each of those accounts was monitored to ensure there were no inconsistencies between the tax obligations and the available funds. All major fluctuations were further investigated by the AEAT.

European directives to help the Spanish regulator

European Union directive 2018/843 (AMLD5) which came into effect on January 10 2020 implemented new rules for companies that trade with crypto currencies. While some companies chose to close down, others chose to follow the directive and gather more data for their clients while still complying with the EU GDPR rules and regulations. The directive’s sole purpose was to ensure more transparency regarding the legal owners of cryptocurrencies and reduce the risk of negative impacts for society.

Although AEAT already has established a link with Spain’s banks and they are backed up by the EU directive, the current campaign will most likely end in informative fashion. This will be a kind reminder for the traders of cryptocurrencies that tax obligations are applicable to them as well. Europa Press reported that the current campaign aims to “intensify the control” which doesn’t mean that the trading with cryptocurrencies since last year have tripled as the notices that were sent.

Spain – most affected European country by the COVID-19

Currently Spain is the most affected country in Europe by the COVID-19 outbreak followed by Italy. The total reported cases are just above 135,000 of which more than 40,400 have already recovered. While the Spanish government is pulling enormous efforts to fight the pandemic, we can say that the campaign by Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria is most probably trying to increase the country’s income and help the struggle.