Assistance to Cryptocurrency operators in Italy.
Following the Italian Ministerial Decree of 13th January 2022:
- service providers relating to the use of virtual currencies; And
- digital wallet providers
are required to communicate their operations on the Italian territory and to comply with a series of obligations. More specifically, in order to legitimately operate in Italy, the operators are obliged:
- to enroll in a special register kept by the OAM (Agents and Mediators Body);
- to comply with the anti-money laundering provisions in force in Italy, and in particular:
a) to identify customers and their beneficial owners;
b) to store the data, documents and information used to carry out the due diligence activity;
c) to report any suspicious money laundering or terrorist financing transactions.
3. to submit data and information related to their operations to the OAM
The information to be communicated to the OAM by the cryptocurrency operators is the surname, name, place and date of birth, residence, tax code or VAT number and the details of the identification document.
The following additional information is also required to be provided to the OAM for all customers :
- the crypto euro equivalent as of the last day of the related quarter
- the total balance of legal currencies and virtual currencies;
- conversion operations from legal to virtual and from virtual to legal currency;
- the number of outbound and inbound currency transfer operations from / to the service provider relating to the use of virtual currencies referable to each customer.
Cryptocurrency operators who need assistance to comply with these requirements in Italy can contact our offices to request a quotation.
Our firm is specialised in assisting financial intermediaries and will be able to assist you in managing all the process phases from the definition
of the AML policy and internal regulation to the operational obligations and representation at the Italian Supervisory Authorities.
Regularisation of cryptocurrency portfolios and tax assistance in Italy.
Italy considers cryptocurrencies as investement in foreign currency with legal tender, with the consequence of the obligation for Italian residents to use code 14 in line RW1 in column 3 (“Other foreign financial assets and virtual currencies”) of the annual tax return.
In addition to the declarative obligation, the sale of cryptocurrencies is taxable, and therefore subject to taxation, if in the reference year cryptocurrencies for a value of at least 51,645.69 euros were held for a period of 7 continuous days, considering the respective value as of January 1 of the reference year.
The rules to be applied are therefore contained in articles 67 and 68 of the Consolidated Income Tax Act
Therefore, the income generated by the sale of cryptocurrencies must be taxed at the rate of 26% to be applied on the capital gain.
To establish the value of the cryptocurrencies held for the purposes of declaration and taxation, the equivalent value in euros must be identified. This corresponds to the value of the virtual currency held on 1 January of the reference year, using the exchange rate displayed on the exchange website where the investments in cryptocurrency were made in the absence of regulated markets.
The criteria to be used is the LIFO for which the last entry should correspond to the currency issued first.
The user of the virtual currency must, among other things, take into account that transfer does not only mean conversion of cryptocurrencies to euros but also payments of goods and services (for example the purchase of fuel with Bitcoin) and the exchange of a cryptocurrency with another cryptocurrency.
Those who have cryptocurrency wallets and are not complying with legal obligations in Italy, can contact us for a quote in the regularisation, where we can help you to minimise penalties and to avoid the risk of serious tax disputes.
Furthermore, for those who wish, we can also provide authorised trustees who can relieve the holder of cryptocurrency wallets from any fulfillment.