Spain cryptocurrency tax guide

What this guide covers

This guide covers Spain's general approach to individual cryptocurrency taxation for the 2025 tax year (Renta 2025, declared 2026). Spain has no dedicated crypto legislation, so this guide is based on secondary sources describing how the Agencia Tributaria (AEAT) applies general IRPF (personal income tax) rules to crypto, guided by Dirección General de Tributos binding rulings. agenciatributaria.es wasn't directly fetched in this research pass. This is educational information, not individualized tax advice.

Tax treatment of cryptocurrency

Spanish tax law has no crypto-specific statute. PwC's own commentary on the AEAT's position reports that DGT binding queries (consultas vinculantes) are the only guidance currently available to clarify crypto's nature and resulting taxation. Here's the core rule: disposing of crypto — selling for euros or swapping for another crypto — generates a capital gain or loss, integrated into the "base del ahorro" (savings income base) alongside gains from other financial assets.

Common taxable events

• Selling crypto for euros — a capital gain/loss within the savings income base.
• Crypto-to-crypto swaps, airdrops, and forks — reported as treated as a 'permuta' (exchange/barter) generating a capital gain or loss, the same mechanism as a sale.
• Paying for a purchase (e.g., real estate) with crypto — can generate a capital gain if the crypto's value exceeds its acquisition cost.
• Mining — reported as treated by the AEAT as an economic activity (actividad económica), with income declared under business-income rules rather than the savings income base.
• Interest, staking, and lending rewards paid in crypto — reported as declared as 'rendimientos del capital mobiliario' (investment income), the same category as bank interest or share dividends.

Potentially non-taxable events

• Buying and simply holding crypto, without disposing of it, does not generate an obligation to declare it under IRPF.

Tax rates and thresholds

Gains within the savings income base are taxed at progressive rates. Secondary sources report brackets of 19% up to €50,000, 21% from €50,000–200,000, and 26% above €200,000 — but this guide flags that these specific breakpoints were sourced from 2021-era material and weren't independently re-verified against the current 2025 brackets. Confirm the exact current thresholds directly with the AEAT. Losses from crypto can offset other capital gains for the year, and up to a reported 25% of investment income (rendimientos del capital mobiliario), subject to Spain's general loss-offsetting rules for the savings income base.

Cost basis and calculation

Your gain is disposal value minus acquisition cost, consistent with Spain's general capital-gains framework for financial assets. The DGT's position across multiple consultas (including V0975-22 and V2520-22) is that FIFO (first-in, first-out) applies to partial sales of crypto held across multiple purchase lots. This is genuinely contested, not settled: the Basque Country High Court ruled on 9 January 2025 that FIFO shouldn't apply to crypto the way the DGT applies it, treating crypto as not equivalent to homogeneous securities and favoring a per-exchange approach instead of a global one. That ruling's binding effect outside the Basque Country is limited, but it shows the DGT's FIFO position isn't unanimously accepted by Spanish courts.

Reporting and compliance

• Capital gains/losses are declared as part of the annual Renta (IRPF) return.
• Separate informational models (Modelo 721, for crypto holdings held abroad, reported as newer than the older Modelo 720 which the AEAT indicated does NOT cover crypto) may apply — this guide does not independently confirm the current status or exact thresholds of Modelo 721 (or related Modelos 172/173) and recommends checking the AEAT's current forms directly.
• Mining income is declared as business/economic activity income, a separate filing track from the savings income base.

Residency and cross-border issues

Your Spanish tax residency governs whether your worldwide crypto gains fall within IRPF. Using a foreign exchange doesn't, by itself, change this for a resident taxpayer, though it may trigger the separate foreign-holdings informational reporting referenced above. This guide doesn't cover non-resident-specific rules or double-taxation treaty interactions in depth.

Example

This example is hypothetical, for illustration only. Lucía buys crypto for €3,000 and later swaps it entirely for a different token worth €4,500 at the time of the swap — a €1,500 gain. The AEAT reportedly treats a crypto-to-crypto swap as a "permuta," so this gain is taxable within the savings income base at the applicable progressive rate for that bracket, in the year of the swap, even though Lucía never converted anything to euros.

Official resources

• Agencia Tributaria (AEAT): https://www.agenciatributaria.es/

Limitations and review information

Tax year covered: 2025. Last verified: October 28, 2026 (citation-integrity pass). Known verification gap: agenciatributaria.es was not directly fetched; a specific, independently-readable source for consulta V1543-25 by that exact reference number could not be re-located in this pass, though the general IAE-registration and capital-gains framework it described is corroborated via a directly-read secondary source covering adjacent consultas. The FIFO cost-basis method is actively contested by at least one regional high court, not unanimously settled. The specific savings-income bracket breakpoints cited are from material that may be as old as 2021 and were not independently re-verified for 2025; the status of Modelos 721/172/173 was not independently confirmed. This is educational information only, not individualized tax advice — confirm current specifics directly with the AEAT (including its Manual de la Renta) or a Spanish tax professional.