In a legislative draft by the Ministry of National Law and Finance of Greece, capital gains tax for cryptocurrency profits after conversion to fiat will be set at 10%.
“The new tax framework for crypto-assets closes the legislative gap in their tax treatment and enhances tax certainty. The capital gain of natural persons from the transfer of crypto-assets will be taxed at a rate of 10%. Goodwill will normally be calculated as the difference between the acquisition price and the transfer price, with specific rules for the documentation of transactions and the average acquisition price in the case of successive acquisitions. Capital gains of up to 500 Euros per tax year are not taxed, while the exchange of one crypto-asset for another does not create taxable capital gain. It also sets out how crypto-assets are granted as a benefit in kind to employees; partners or shareholders are valued based on their value in Euros at the time of acquisition. At the same time, the purchase of crypto-assets is included in the costs of acquiring assets for presumptive purposes. Returns from activities such as lending, liquidity provision, and the staking of crypto-assets in transaction validation (staking) mechanisms will be taxed as interest at a rate of 10%.”
A parliamentary vote will be held in November, after the deadline of public consultation on October 22. This draft aims to fill a void in terms of the legislation surrounding cryptocurrency in Greece—specifically its taxation.
Other countries, meanwhile, have already passed laws on taxing gains from cryptocurrency trades. Austria has passed a law with a taxation rate of 27.5%; France with a rate of 30%; Cyprus with a rate of 8%.
Greece has been slow to catch up with EU cryptocurrency legislation. The country only started implementing MiCA two months after the passing of Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in Europe.
However, with its draft legislations, it is ramping up its compliance with EU policies, as it sets its sights in building a comprehensive framework for overseeing virtual asset transactions, consumer protection, taxation, and policing.
