According to the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the new administration in Italy intends to levy a 26% tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency trading. Italians will soon be required to declare their digital assets and pay 14% tax on their holdings, according to the center-right coalition in power.
The Italian government wants to profit from cryptocurrencies
The rules governing the disclosure of and taxation of digital assets appear to be expanding and becoming more stringent in Rome. With Italy’s 2023 budget, which is anticipated to target gains from cryptocurrency wealth and trading, the shift is most likely to occur.
According to Bloomberg, a proposal in the budget by the right-wing administration headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni extends a 26% tax on capital gains over 2,000 euros ($2,080) to crypto assets.
The ruling coalition also gives taxpayers the choice to declare the worth of their digital assets as of Jan. 1, 2023 and be subject to a 14% tax rate. The ruling coalition was elected in late September. It is intended to encourage Italian taxpayers to report their assets on their tax filings.
Digital currencies and tokens are considered as foreign currency in Italy under the present tax laws, which results in a lower tax rate. The draught bill also adds disclosure requirements and increases stamp duty, however there may yet be changes made in parliament.
According to the research, which cites Triple A data, around 1.3 million Italians (2.3% of the nation’s population) are crypto asset owners. This contrasts with 3.3% in neighbouring France and 5% in the United Kingdom.
Meloni, the president of the far-right Brothers of Italy party and the first woman to run Italy’s executive branch in Rome, has advocated for reduced taxes in the past.
Her government is now taking a harder position on cryptocurrency, following in the footsteps of Portugal, one of the EU’s most pro-crypto member states, which declared in October that it intended to tax short-term cryptocurrency earnings at a rate of 28% starting in 2019. It also coincides with a worldwide tightening of laws as a result of a wave of bankruptcy filings in the cryptocurrency sector, including the most recent failure of the crypto exchange FTX.