Privately held bitcoins: liable for tax?

Anyone who has recently attended a birthday party or similar gathering has found that at least some of the guests tend sooner or later to broach the topic of whether or not to invest in bitcoins. Whether you should or shouldn’t is not a question we can answer for you. What we can do, however, is provide you with some basic tax advice.

Now that the deadline for filing the 2017 income tax return is coming closer, we would remind you that any investment in bitcoins or other crypto currencies you held as at the first of January 2017 should be accounted for in your tax return, as this type of investment comes under the general rule for “Box 3” sundry assets. The value to be disclosed would be the bitcoin value as at the first of January of the relevant (tax) year.

Please note that any failure on your part to disclose the bitcoin value in your tax return would be tantamount to tax evasion.

Those of you who have outgrown the dabbling stage and are operating as full-fledged crypto currency traders should remember that the profits – if any – are liable for “Box 1” tax on income, at a maximum rate of 52%. If you are not sure whether or not this applies to you, simply have us find out for you.

One of the topics we will be devoting attention to shortly is that of crypto currency holdings at the level of your business. Keeping abreast of these and other articles couldn’t be easier: all you need to do is subscribe to our (dutch) newsletter!

Dutch version: Bitcoins in privé: belast of niet?