Earn money thanks to cryptos, without having to pay tax? This is possible, thanks to certain tax mechanisms. But it is better to take advantage of it while there is still time, especially for your 2024 declaration on 2023 income.
Have you invested in cryptocurrencies? If you have made a capital gain, you must declare it to the tax authorities. You will be exempt from taxes if your earnings do not exceed 305 euros per year.
But beyond that, you have no other choice than to pay tax on your capital gain, by opting for a single flat-rate deduction (PFU). Your winnings will then be taxed up to 30%, or 12.8% taxes and 17.2% social security contributions. Since this year, it is also possible, for gains made from January 1, 2023, to choose the progressive bar of income tax. An interesting change for taxpayers with little or no tax. Let’s take the example of a taxpayer who is not taxable in normal times: in the event of a capital gain during a sale of cryptoassets, the latter can today only pay the 17.2% social security contributions.
Delay tax
When you have a bank account, life insurance or a PEA, for each of these financial products you receive a annual statement of your winnings, delivered by your bank, your insurer or your broker.
But this is not the case for investors in crypto-assets, who are often left alone when they have to declare to the tax authorities the income they have generated through the trading of digital assets.
This task is tedious. Especially for the most active investors. In addition to declaring the total of your earnings over the calendar year, you must also list all crypto-euro conversions in a specific document.
However, this requirement only applies to transactions between a cryptocurrency and a Fiat currency, that is to say an official currency, like the euro or the dollar. Tax law provides that your gains are only taxable when you leave the world of cryptos.
In other words, if you exchange ether for bitcoins or another crypto, for example, you will not be taxed on this operation. And this, even if you have made a significant capital gain.
Today, what is taxed in France is the capital gain when you resell your cryptos against eurosexplained MoneyVox Claire Balva, co-founder of Blockchain Partner, a consulting firm specializing in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin: will its price soar in 2023?
The stablecoin boom
However, to protect your gains from high volatility, you can convert them into stablecoinscryptos which have the particularity of being stable, because they are indexed to a traditional currency, such as the dollar.
The latter have experienced increasing success in recent years, despite the collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD in May 2022. The total capitalization of stablecoins exceeded 160 billion dollars in April 2024, according to Coingecko.
And for good reason. When you stay in the blockchain via a stablecoin, you are not taxed. This is why investors prefer to change their bitcoins or ethers into dai or usdt [des stablecoins dollar, ndlr] rather than in euros, explains Claire Balva.
A mechanism which allows seasoned investors to avoid or delay the tax indefinitely. And this, without breaking any laws. For now at least. Because the arrival of the European MiCA regulation (for Markets in Crypto-Assets, Editor’s note), which brings a harmonized European framework to avoid too great differences between member countries on the subject of digital assets, could well reshuffle the cards. This new European regulation is indeed very interested in stablecoins. Published on June 9, 2023 in the Official Journal of the European Union, its legislative provisions will be applied no later than December 30, 2024.
Bitcoin: where to buy it? Advice and comparison of platforms