📝 Description
If you’ve been investing in crypto in Italy, you’ve probably asked yourself: “Which of my operations actually trigger taxes?” It’s a fair question and the answer is both clearer than before and still evolving in some areas.
📂 1. Basis: How is crypto taxed in Italy?
In December 2022, Italy introduced a brand-new crypto tax regime through the Budget Law 2023 (Law no. 197/2022, articles 31–35). These provisions inserted a new category into the Italian Consolidated Income Tax Act (TUIR) — Article 67(1)(c-sexies) — specifically for “crypto-assets.”
This framework was later clarified in Circular 30/E (27 October 2023) by the Italian tax authority (Agenzia delle Entrate).
Here’s the big picture in 2025:
Tax rate: 26% this year, rising to 33% from 2026.
Method: LIFO (last in, first out). The last coin you bought is the first considered sold.
No more small exemption: until 2024, you didn’t pay tax if your yearly gains were under €2,000. From 2025, every euro of gain is taxable.
Wealth tax: if you hold crypto outside Italian platforms, you pay 0.2% per year, prorated to the days you held them.
So, the key question becomes: which events count as a “gain”?
📂 2. Clear taxable events
There are three situations where tax always applies:
Selling crypto for fiat 💶
This is the simplest case: BTC → EUR, ETH → USD, etc. Always taxable.
Spending crypto on goods or services 🛒
Paying your rent in BTC or buying coffee with ETH is treated like a sale. Taxable.
Swapping crypto into certain stablecoins (only EMTs) 💳
This is the big one. Not all stablecoins are alike, and this is where debates begin…
📂 3. The stablecoin debate: EMTs vs other tokens
The law makes a crucial distinction:
E-money tokens (EMTs): Stablecoins legally recognized as electronic money under EU rules.
Other stablecoins: Asset-referenced tokens (backed by baskets of assets) or algorithmic stablecoins.
According to law, if you swap into an EMT, it’s treated like a cash-out into fiat → taxable.
But if you swap into another type of stablecoin, the operation is considered just crypto-to-crypto, which is not taxable at that moment.
Which stablecoins are EMTs in 2025? 📋
This is where MiCA, the EU regulation, comes in. MiCA defines EMTs as stablecoins that represent electronic money. But MiCA is still being phased in, and not every stablecoin has been formally recognized yet.
As of 2025, EMTs include:
EURC
USDC
EURCV
USDCV
EURe
All other stablecoins (like USDT, DAI, FRAX) are not EMTs today. That means a BTC → EURC swap is taxable, but a BTC → USDT swap is not.
The tricky part is that the definition of “electronic money” comes from EU law:
Directive 2009/110/EC (E-money Directive) and
MiCA Regulation (2023/1114).
MiCA officially creates the categories “E-money token” (EMT) and “Asset-referenced token” (ART). But MiCA is still rolling out, and not every issuer is yet authorized.
So, some stablecoins behave like EMTs in practice, but until they are registered and recognized by regulators (ESMA / national authorities), it’s safer to treat them as non-EMTs.
This is why software providers (like Waltio, Koinly, Blockpit) and many tax lawyers don’t automatically treat every stablecoin as taxable. They maintain an allowlist of officially recognized EMTs, and everything else is considered non-taxable by default.
How do you know if a token is an EMT?
There are three reliable ways:
Check the ESMA MiCA register: the EU will publish an official list of authorized EMT issuers and their whitepapers.
Look at national regulators: for example, the French ACPR or Luxembourg’s CSSF publish lists of e-money institutions.
Read the issuer’s MiCA whitepaper: Circle, for example, states clearly that EURC and USDC (EU-issued) are EMTs.
If it’s not on one of these lists, you should assume it’s not an EMT (yet).
📂 4. Fees: How does it work?
What happens to the crypto I spend on transaction fees?
→ You don’t need to declare a separate gain/loss for fees. Instead:
The sale price is considered the net amount you actually receive (after fees).
Example: you sell 1 BTC for £30,000, but the platform charges £3,000 in fees. You effectively receive £27,000.
For tax purposes:
Sale price = £27,000
Acquisition price (LIFO) = e.g. £10,000
Taxable gain = £17,000
So fees are implicitly accounted for in the net sale price, not as a separate taxable operation.