Virtual currencies

Income received from the use and mining of virtual currencies is subject to tax. File the income you have received from virtual currencies or cryptocurrencies on your tax return. You can file the expenses on your tax return as deductions.

Virtual currencies include ethereum, tether, litecoin and bitcoin. 

Income received from spending and exchanging virtual currencies is taxed as capital gain, which is considered capital income. Taxable income is accrued when

you exchange virtual currency for euros or for some other official currency

you exchange virtual currency for another virtual currency

you use virtual currency to pay invoices

you pay for goods or services with virtual currency.

Income from the mining of virtual currency is usually taxed as earned income.

The value of a virtual currency is the exchange rate in euros that the virtual currency has at the time when it is spent or mined. You can check the value at a well-known cryptocurrency exchange.

File income and expenses on the tax return

1

Calculate your profits

Estimate your gains and losses from virtual currencies using the Tax Administration’s FIFO calculator. The calculator is available in Finnish and Swedish. The calculator utilises the FIFO principle (First In – First Out) according to which virtual currencies are considered to have been spent in the order that they were acquired.

Enter all your purchases and sales in the calculator. Calculate the gains and losses separately for each sales transaction during the tax year, i.e. every time you have exchanged virtual currency for some other currency or spent it on purchases.

Go to the calculator

2

File your income on the tax return

Exchanging and spending virtual currencies

Mining

  • Report the income received from mining in the Other income section.
  • Enter the expenses related to mining under Deductions - Expenses for the production of income -
    Expenses for the production of other income than wage income. These expenses include the costs arising from the increased use of electricity and the acquisition cost, either fully or in part, of any equipment used for mining.

File in MyTax

If you submit the information on paper, make sure you use the correct form:

3

Keep your records for 6 years

Do not attach any acquisition, purchase or sales documents to your tax return. You must keep the receipts and other documents for a period of 6 years after the end of the tax year. If necessary, the Tax Administration may ask you to provide the documentation at a later stage.

How to calculate capital gain or capital loss

When exchanging a virtual currency into euros, dollars or another virtual currency, you generate either a capital gain or a capital loss.

When calculating the amount of profit or loss, deduct the following from the selling price of the virtual currency:

  • the purchase price of the virtual currency
  • expenses associated with the purchase, sale and custody of the virtual currency, such as broker’s fees.

Alternatively, you can use the deemed acquisition cost

If you do not know what the virtual currency’s actual purchase price or purchase date is, capital gain is calculated according to the deemed acquisition cost. As a result, the deemed acquisition cost is deducted from the virtual currency’s selling price, instead of deducting the purchase price and selling expenses from it.

  • If you owned the virtual currency you have sold for less than 10 years, the deemed acquisition cost is 20% of the selling price of the virtual currency.
  • If you owned the virtual currency you have sold for at least 10 years, the deemed acquisition cost is 40% of the selling price of the virtual currency.

If you do not know what the exact purchase date is, report the virtual currency’s acquisition year on your tax return, as it affects the amount of the deemed acquisition cost. Enter the first date of the year in the Acquisition date field in the calculation of capital gain tax, e.g. 1 January 2013, and leave all other fields blank.

Please note that if you apply the deemed acquisition cost to your calculation, you cannot deduct the purchase price of the virtual currency and selling expenses from the selling price.

Some time ago, Sebastian bought 200 units of the “A” virtual currency at €5 per unit. In other words, the total acquisition cost was €1,000. Sebastian visits an online shop. He buys goods for €1,000 and pays for them with his “A” units. At that time, the virtual currency is valued at €10 per unit. Sebastian has now exercised his position, having exchanged 100 units of his virtual currency “A” for goods.

The transaction, i.e. the trading of virtual currency for goods, triggers tax liability for the realised increase in the value of the virtual currency, and Sebastian makes a taxable capital gain of €1,000 – €500 (= acquisition cost of 100 units of “A”) = €500.

Sebastian reports the capital gain generated from the use of the virtual currency on his tax return as follows:

  • Selling date: the date on which he bought the goods with the virtual currency
  • Selling price: the value of the virtual currency spent in euros at the time of purchase
  • Purchase date: the date on which he acquired the virtual currency
  • Purchase price: the value of the virtual currency used to make the purchase in euros on the purchase date

You can check values at a well-known cryptocurrency exchange. Sebastian can also deduct any expenses that were related to his acquisition of virtual currency, such as broker’s fees.

After the transaction, Sebastian is left with 100 units of virtual currency “A” , their acquisition cost equalling €500.

See more examples about the Taxation of virtual currencies 

How is income from the mining of virtual currency taxed?

Income from mining is usually earned income (proof-of-work protocol). It comprises your income in the year, during which a virtual currency or other consideration was transferred to your virtual wallet or virtual currency account.

The value of a virtual currency is determined according to the exchange rate it has in euros at the time of mining. In the case of income from mining, you can use the daily or monthly average rate, if required. In valuation, use the period you have chosen consistently, i.e. the daily or monthly average rate, and the values provided by the same exchange throughout the year.

Expenses arising from mining are deductible

Your expenses, if any, that support your mining activity can be deducted from your mining income. For this reason, expenses cannot be later deducted from any capital gain when you exchange or use a virtual currency.

For example, you can deduct costs arising from the increased use of electricity caused by mining from earned income (first, identify the actual increase in electricity costs). You can also deduct the acquisition cost of the equipment used in mining.

You can deduct the following percentages from the equipment acquisition cost:

  • 25% when the equipment is used to obtain infrequent mining income
  • 50% when the equipment is used to obtain mining income
  • 100% when the equipment is used primarily to obtain mining income.

Please note that you need, upon request, to present proof of how often and for what purposes the equipment is used.

Kalle bought a computer at a purchase price of €1,800. He bought the computer for private use but also uses it for mining. Fifty percent of the purchase price, i.e. €900, is considered an expense deductible in tax assessment. Kalle can deduct the whole deductible acquisition cost of €900 on his tax return for the year in which the computer was bought.

Income received from the mining of virtual currencies, and taxable as capital income

One way to obtain some new virtual currency is to block an existing amount for a limited time in order to ensure the integrity and balance of the network’s cryptocurrency ledger. The reward for this can be an increase of 5% per annum (or other comparable percentage) on top of your existing virtual currency, and paid on a daily basis (the proof-of-stake protocol).

In this case, taxation is based on the idea that you are receiving income because you own virtual currency previously.  What you own previously is seen as your capital. Accordingly, the amount added to it is capital income.

If you receive this kind of income, enter the amount under “Other capital income”. If you had paid any expenses relating to the production of that income and you claim deduction, enter the amount in “Other deductions from capital income”. 

Further information

Read more and see examples of the taxation on virtual currencies in the guidance Taxation of virtual currencies

Frequently asked questions

Report the information on your tax return as follows:

  • Selling date: the date on which you exchanged bitcoins for ethereum
  • Selling price: the value of ethereum you received through the exchange on the exchange date
  • Purchase date: the date on which you originally acquired your bitcoins
  • Purchase price: the value of the bitcoins in euros on the purchase date
  • Also report the property acquisition costs and selling expenses, such as broker’s fees.

You can check the values of virtual currencies at a well-known cryptocurrency exchange. When calculating capital gains, the bitcoin purchase price and expenses are deducted from the selling price.

Yes. An increase in the value must be taxed separately every time you exercised your virtual-currency position i.e. exchanged it for another currency. Whether you leave the funds in a brokerage service’s account or transfer them to your own bank account is irrelevant.

Yes. If the result of your use of a virtual currency is a loss, the Tax Administration will primarily deduct it from your capital gains, if any. If such gains do not exist, the deduction will be made from all of your capital income. If you have no capital income or if said income is lower than the losses to be deducted, the deduction will be carried forward to the following 5 years.

If you have only acquired a virtual currency but have not yet used it to make purchases or exchanged it for another currency, you do not need to report the amount of the virtual currency on your tax return.

Instead, any virtual currency acquired through mining must always be reported because it is earned income.

It is important to note that CFDs are not virtual currency, so the tax treatment is different from that of the gains and profits you may receive from virtual currencies. The tax rules on capital gains do not apply, and if you made a loss due to a CFD, you cannot subtract the amount of the loss from your profits.

If you make a profit on a CFD, it is taxed as capital income. The tax rate for capital income is 30% up to €30,000. If you earn more, the excess part is taxed at 34%.

Losses incurred from CFDs are not taken into account in taxation – not as capital losses nor as tax-deductible expenses.

Please note that each transaction is processed independently in the taxation of CFDs. This means that any profits made from trading CFDs are taxed as capital income and losses incurred from trading CFDs cannot be deducted from the profits. If you are trading CFDs, you can lose the capital you have invested and still be liable to pay tax for the profit you make.

File your income on a pre-completed tax return

Add up the profits you have made on CFDs and report this sum on your pre-completed tax return in MyTax under Foreign income – Other foreign capital income. If you file on paper, use Form 16B Statement on foreign income (capital income).

Instead, losses or expenses incurred from CFDs should not be filed on a tax return as they cannot be deducted from the profits.

The Tax Administration receives information on income from foreign sources and monitors that the details of these transactions are submitted to the Tax Administration.

For more information, see the Tax Administration’s detailed guidance on the taxation of derivatives (available in Finnish and Swedish)

Virtual currencies — other pages

Page last updated 6/21/2023