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The agency now defines cryptocurrencies as «immaterial goods», not money.
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The purchase of a property with Bitcoin is considered as exchange of goods.
A fiscal sake shakes the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem in Spain. The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) issued a binding consultation (V0935-25) in which it makes it clear that digital assets will not be considered as money but as «intangible goods.»
This decision redefines the sale of goods, such as the real estate acquired with bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, such as a exchange, which generates the obligation to liquidate the property transmissions tax (ITP) in its onerous transmissions mode.
The change breaks the financial analogy, since the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) abandons its own previous doctrine (V2407-23) where Bitcoin equated to a currency for VAT. Now, for ITP, he strips them of that nature and makes it a simple «immaterial good.»
The new criteria establishes that every natural or legal person acquired by bitcoin or other digital assets in exchange for a good must pay according to the market value of digital currencies. This obligation as long as the transmitting cryptocurrencies does not act as an entrepreneur or professional, which exempts VAT and activates taxation for the ITP tax.
The tax base will be determined according to the Bitcoin market value or cryptocurrency used in the operationas well as the good for the declared value or agreed price if this is greater. The applicable types of tax will be those established by each autonomous community for movable property, which could significantly increase the tax burden.
The decision generates an immediate legal controversy. Analysts indicate the incoherence of the Treasury, which for VAT does equal digital assets with foreign currencies and applies exemptions. «It is an harmful and contradictory criterion,» warns the economist Emilio Pérez Pombo.
The measure impacts fully on transactions between individuals. Whoever sells a floor and receives payment in Bitcoin must assume the municipal surplus valuewhile the buyer will load with the ITP for the value of the cryptocurrency, creating a double imposition on the same operation.
With this ruling, Hacienda España moves the country away from international trends, discourages the use of Bitcoin as a means of payment and adds a heavy fiscal burden to an asset that enjoyed growing acceptance among citizens and entrepreneurs, as Cryptonoticia reported previously.