Poland’s finance ministry published an update of the country’s tax code, stating that it will not tax income from transactions on cryptocurrencies.
The MoF justified its taxing decision by stating that it considers conducting an in-depth analysis to better regulate the emerging industry.
Under this provision, cryptocurrency traders will get tax exemptions after they were required to pay two tax brackets of 18 percent and 32 percent regardless of whether they made a profit.
More painful for digital currency traders in Poland, the ministry’s guidance had previously considered the cryptocurrency transaction a transfer of property rights, which triggers a 1 percent levy on the market value of each trade.
The ministry’s updated stance was published nearly three weeks after the deadline for Poles to file their annual personal income statements, which came to effect on April 30.
The Polish government has recently announced a crackdown on cryptocurrencies amid growing concerns that the digital currency is being used for money laundering and tax evasion. The Council of Ministers has adopted a draft law to regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to bring them in line with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financial legislation.
The ministry’s statement, translated using Google, further reads:
”In consequence of the adoption of such interpretation, if trading cryptocurrency is made on the basis of a contract of sale or exchange, it becomes subject to tax on civil law transactions. Taking into account the specificities of virtual currencies, which boils down to rotate the rights of property through their purchase, sale and the exchange, and therefore the repeated conclusion of sales and exchange contracts, on the side of the entity trading virtual currency may arise the obligation to pay tax in an amount often exceeding the funds invested.”
”Temporary abandonment of tax collection will allow for an in-depth analysis and preparation of system solutions regulating this economic space, including in the tax context,” it concluded.
(Photo: pixabay)
