Since a ruling in 2016, the sale of cryptocurrency in Portugal has not been subject to income tax. And now, as reported by business newspaper Jornal de Negócios, Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority has decided that cryptocurrency payments and transactions are also exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT).
Hodlers trying to decide on Puerto Rico or Portugal. from r/Bitcoin
The news has quickly permeated through social media groups and led to speculation that Portugal will become the go-to destination for crypto investors.
European Tax Battleground
Europe, perhaps, provides the most telling battleground for crypto-tax ideologies.
This is because, although there is general monetary union within the EU block with the Euro as the established currency, there is nonetheless no real fiscal union. Individual countries continue to set their own taxation boundaries.
Portugal has long been recognised as being at risk under the current economic arrangement. By implementing clear and friendly taxation policies for the emerging crytpo-based financial infrastructure, they appear to be signalling their intent to rectify that predicament.
In a timely post on Twitter, Propy, a blockchain-based marketplace for international real estate, has used data collated by the visualcapitalist to highlight one aspect of the current economic climate in Portugal that may need assistance in the not too distant future.
Propy, who include a number of properties in Portugal for sale for cryptocurrency on their books, notes that Portugal leads Ireland and Canada in showing signs of reaching peak-pricing in real estate. With housing around the world known to be supported by central banks’ Quantitive Easing (QE) programmes, any fundamental change in the underlying financial system will likely negatively impact upon any commodity, including housing, that is viewed as being in a bubble.
Attracting new cryptocurrency investment through tax incentives maybe one way of avoiding, or at least delaying, those bubbles from popping.
