With response no. 181 dated 12/09/2024, the Italian Revenue Agency provided clarifications regarding the tax treatment of cryptocurrencies to a taxpayer holding bitcoin with an Italian company registered in the Virtual Currency Operators Registry, established at the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM).
The case in question
The applicant declares that they have regularly reported the cryptocurrencies held in the RW Form of the Income Tax Return and that in 2023, the company charged the stamp duty.
The taxpayer therefore asks the Italian Revenue Agency whether this procedure was correct and whether they still need to apply the tax on the value of the crypto-assets. They also request clarification on the tax treatment and reporting of euro amounts present in the company’s account statement.
For a general introduction to cryptocurrencies in Italy, consult our guide on cryptocurrency taxation.
The Agency’s Opinion
The Agency reviewed the evolution of regulations on cryptocurrencies, referring to its own practice.
Circular no. 30/E of 27 October 2023 provided guidance on the rules, addressing the new category of miscellaneous income introduced by letter c-sexies) of paragraph 1 of article 67 of the TUIR, namely:
“capital gains and other income earned through redemption or sale for consideration, exchange, or holding of crypto-assets, by any name, amounting to no less than €2,000 in total during the tax year. For the purposes of this letter, ‘crypto-assets’ refer to a digital representation of value or rights that can be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger technology or similar technology. The exchange between crypto-assets with the same characteristics and functions is not considered a taxable event.”
Crypto-Assets in RW Form
Additionally, with Circular no. 30/E of 2023, the agency established that crypto-assets should be indicated in RW Form of the Income Tax Return. The instructions in the 2024 Income Tax Return for Individuals, booklet 2, specify that:
“the taxpayer must complete RW Form to fulfill both tax monitoring obligations and for calculating the IVIE, IVAFE, and the tax on crypto-assets. If the taxpayer is only required to fulfill monitoring obligations, they should not fill in the boxes used for calculating taxes, paying particular attention to ticking column 16.”
The same circular suggested that crypto-assets might fall under the exemptions from tax monitoring provided by paragraph 3 of article 4 of Decree-Law no. 167 of 1990, which states:
“the reporting obligations in the income tax return as outlined in paragraph 1 do not apply to financial and asset activities entrusted to resident intermediaries for management or administration, and for contracts concluded through their intervention, provided that the financial flows and income derived from such activities and contracts have been subject to withholding tax or substitute tax by the intermediaries themselves.”
Tax on the Value of Crypto-Assets
In the case at hand, the applicant claims to hold crypto-assets with an Italian “digital wallet service provider” registered in the OAM’s registry, which applied the stamp duty. The Agency clarifies that in this case, the taxpayer is not required to apply the tax on the value of crypto-assets.
Furthermore, it is confirmed that the applicant is required to complete RW Form for tax monitoring purposes, as they do not fall under the exemptions provided in paragraph 3 of article 4 of Decree-Law no. 167 of 1990.
Stamp Duty
Regarding the euro amounts temporarily present in the account statement provided by the company, the Agency notes that, according to Circular no. 48/2012, stamp duty is not due if no financial products or transactions were present during the reporting period. Therefore, the temporarily held euro amount in the applicant’s account should not be considered for the application of stamp duty and does not need to be reported in RW Form, as it is not held in foreign bank accounts and does not constitute a financial product.