Latest tax news of the BMF acknowledge cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin not as official currency. Also, they do not count as financial instuments.

Cryptocurrencies are so called “Intangible assets with indefinite useful lives”.

What does this mean from an income tax view, if a private person holds or trades cryptocurrencies?

Important: The trading between different cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin to Ethereum) is also seen as an act of trade, same as the switch from digital currencies to FIAT (Euro/Dollar etc). For every exchange of economy goods there is acquisition and realization, which is taxable.

For the realization price (of the given asset [e.g. Bitcoin]) and the acquisition costs (of the received asset (e.g. Ethereum]) the current exchange rate (to country currency) must be used.

If you just hold on to cryptocurrencies and do not assess them with interest, they are viewed as speculation business and only taxable, if the duration between acquisition and realization is shorter than one year.

If you hold on to your currencies for at least one year, the profits are tax-free.

An exchange with another cryptocurrency or FIAT resets this period for these coins back to one year.

How do we determine these speculative profits?

If you are holding coins in a virtual wallet, which have been acquired at different times for different prices, it is important to determine, which of those coins exactly are traded. If it is not possible to determine these, it is possible to apply the “first in, first out” method. This means, the “oldest” units will be taken first for calculation.

To issue a valid tax report exact notations of every transaction are inevitable.

Deliveries or services, which are not paid in statutory currencies, but cryptocurrencies, are to be accounted the same way as deliveries / services that are. The basis for assessment is the current price of the currency.