Do I have to pay taxes when I buy or sell Bitcoin?

In most countries, you pay tax on the trade of most commodities but the situation is different in every country. As it gets quite complicated and every country has its own legislation, we strongly advise you to contact your personal tax advisor for further information about your individual situation. 

We strongly advise you to contact your personal tax advisor for further information about your individual situation.

Buying a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin on a platform like Bitpanda with fiat currency is a very easy process. But things get more complicated once you transfer your cryptocurrency to an exchange in order to exchange it into another cryptocurrency. 

In most countries, this act is considered a “taxable event” by law like any transaction involving a commodity, meaning that you will have to pay taxes because the event produces capital gains (or losses). 

Spending cryptocurrencies is also a potentially taxable event, which again depends on the country you live in and respective regulations. 

In Austria, cryptocurrencies are considered private assets. Thus profits from the sale of cryptocurrencies are tax-relevant. Your individual tax situation depends on the gains you made, as well as on the holding period (how long you have been holding your crypto) and other factors. You should only be paying taxes on gains. Losses can also offset gains. 

In Austria, profits from the sale of cryptocurrencies, which are considered private assets, are tax-relevant.

Keeping track of your portfolio with Blockpit

You should keep track of the cryptocurrencies you have bought for a number of reasons, such as making sure that you record your transactions for your taxes correctly. One option is to create a spreadsheet and add all the details you need for taxes right once you buy, trade or sell. You can either keep track of your transactions manually or download your trade history as a .csv file on your personal Bitpanda profile to import all relevant information into your spreadsheet. 

However, keeping track of all your transactions manually can be tedious and time-consuming. In order to make it easy for our users to file their tax reports, Bitpanda has teamed up with Blockpit, a provider for tax compliance solutions. Just set up an account with Blockpit, synchronise your account on Bitpanda via API, monitor your transactions and generate tax reports.