EY: Cryptocoins revenues must be declared and taxed, but we need regulations from NBR and FSA

Aurel Dragan 13/04/2018 | 16:49

Revenues earned from cryptocoins, either by mining or by transactions are required to declare the income through the Single Form no. 212. The problem is that revenues from cryptocoin are yet to be regulated so it will be considered „other revenues”, not financial investments. That means that if the total is over RON 22,800, apart from income tax of 10 percent there will be also social and health contributions (for those who are already employed).

„We need regulations from National Bank of Romania and Financial Services Authority in order to legally know if cryptocoins are considered currencies and therefore decide how to categories the revenues”, says Gabriel Sincu, director of Direct Tax Department at EY Romania.

There are three categories of income in which crypto can enter. In case of transactions, buying and selling, like in a normal capital market, if there is profit it should be considered investment income. If cryptocoin is not a currency, then it should be considered „other income” and today this is the case considering that NBR officials made a statement in which they say that crypto should not be taken as a currency.

In the case of mining, when somebody is using his own computers to generate cryptocoin the income can be considered as patrimonial or „other revenues”. All this cases should be regulated distinctly, but so far there is no such regulation.

„We have cases of clients that managed to make million from buying and selling crytocoin over the years and it is a real problem of how to categorize and to tax this kind of income”, explained Sincu. Another problem is that if crypto is not a coin then the acquisition should be taxed with VAT, „Or maybe not?” says Sincu.

On top of that if transactions come at a loss, if it would be financial income then it could reported as a loss and be deductible in the coming years, but if it is „other income” then it will not be declared.

There is the possibility not to declare the income from crypto, but if it is carried through a bank account (and this is the way it usually is) then it can be easily traced by a fiscal inspector. „We recommend our clients to declare the revenues based on voluntary compliance”, said Sincu.

There are many crytocoins used in different transactions around the world, the most famous being Bitcoin and Ethereum, and while transactions on blockchain technology are not transparent or traceable, when  somebody changes crypto in one of the regular currencies, the transactions is carried through a bank.

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