Country overview

#21

Portugal

Country stats

Rating Points

380

This indicator describes the overall rating of a given jurisdiction on several parameters according to cryptocurrency operations - market volume, crypto regulation, business climate, taxation framework.

Crypto Penetration

2.6%

Estimated percentage of crypto users out of the country's total population based on public data.

Legal Entities

Number of crypto companies registered in the country based on regulator data if available or other types of public data.

Regulation Points

170

An overall assessment of the granularity of crypto regulation in a given country. A high score is also given to countries where cryptocurrency transactions are highly regulated.

Amount of crypto users

267 800

Total amount of crypto users out of the country's total population based on public data.

Taxation points

This figure, according to our analysts' calculations, indicates the overall level of tax burden for cryptocurrency transactions in a given country. The higher the indicator, the lower the burden.

Market volume points

114.2

A rough estimate of this jurisdiction's retail crypto market relative to the rest of the world. The higher the indicator, the higher the market potential.

Status of crypto

Legally allowed

General status of cryptocurrency regulation in this jurisdiction.

Crypto payments

Legally allowed

The legal status of cryptocurrency payments for goods and services in a given country based on information from regulators, public data and feedback from our community.

Security Level

Safe place

The overall level of security in a given country based on open data.

Crypto Salaries

Legally allowed

The legal status of cryptocurrency salaries to employers in a given country based on information from regulators, public data and feedback from our community.

Business Climate

Medium

Overall assessment of the friendliness of this country for crypto-business. This indicator takes into account the cost of obtaining a license and the attitude towards crypto entities in the country.

Stablecoin Regulation

Basic

This indicator is evaluating the regulation of stablecoins in a given country. Complex regulation means that it is possible to issue steiblcoins and obtain a license for this activity. Basic regulation means that the issuance of stablecoins is possible, but not all legal aspects are defined in the law. Standard regulation means that there is a legal practice of steylcoin circulation in a given country.

Bad Factors

This section describes the unfavorable economic factors for crypto-business in a given country. These are countries that are under sanctions or on the FATF grey list and other factors.

Types of licenses

Crypto-to-crypto

This license type allows VASP to provide legal exchange from one cryptocurrency to another.

Crypto-to-fiat

This type of license regulates the exchange from cryptocurrency to fiat.

Wallet/Custody

This country has a legal licensing procedure for companies that store cryptocurrency - - crypto wallet providers and custodians.

Good

Medium

Bad

intro

Portugal, together with Germany and France, has a crypto-friendly taxation framework. For a long time, individual crypto purchase income was tax-free, applying a non-habital taxable regime. Although now it’s taxable.

Security level

According to our rating, Portugal is a Safe place at the security level. Jurisdiction has 69.3 points (from 100) for safety level in Numbeo crime rating (1). The homicide level (2) is 0.8 per 100,000 inhabitants a year. Story of firearm-related death (3) 1.48 per 100,000 inhabitants a year.

Crypto Payments

The official treatment of cryptocurrency from 2016 can be found here (4) (in Portuguese). The legal status of cryptocurrency in Portugal is that cryptocurrency should be treated like any other currency in Portugal. This was clarified in a statement by the Portuguese tax authorities (5) given to a company that was planning on mining bitcoins in Portugal.

Crypto Salaries

According to Globalcitizensolutions (6), paying salaries in crypto in Portugal is legal, and there is a straightforward taxation procedure for them. They are an object for PIT.

Legal

According to the Official Tax Authority Bulletin (7) and Thomson Reuters' assumption (8), “An exchange of cryptocurrency for ’real’ currency constitutes an on-demand, VAT-free exercise of services,” the Portuguese tax authorities have said.

Two main regulators are the Local Tax Authority and the Central Bank of Portugal (BoP). According to the official site of BoP (9), there is a straightforward license procedure for crypto assets in the country.

When carried out within Portuguese territory, the following activities or operations with virtual assets are subject to prior registration with the Banco de Portugal, including where the applicant exercises another profession or activity covered by Law No 83/2017 of 18 August 2017:

Activities with virtual assets subject to registration with the Banco de Portugal and regulated in Portuguese territory

In April of 2022, Bison Bank, a Portugal-based financial institution, received (10) a license from the Portuguese central bank (Banco de Portugal) to operate as a virtual asset service provider (VASP).

According to Cryptoslate, Criptoloja, and Mind The Coin also got (11) licenses from the Central Bank. In 2022 there were five licenses (12) and 12 requests. As for 2024 there 8 companies having VASP license according to the register (13) in the following website section (14). The main document with BoP's requirements for VASPs is Notice No. 3/2021 (15).

There is little information about MiCA implementation in Portugal - BoP will probably publish the relevant requirements only in December 2024. This may be due to the small number of VASP licenses in the country - only 8.

Taxation

Tax name	Index
PIT tax Max	48
PIT tax Min	14.5
Corporate tax (CIT)	21
Max Individual CGT (for crypto)	28
Min Individual CGT (for crypto)	0
Wealth tax Min	0.4
Wealth tax Max	7.5

According to Nomoretax (16), the crypto asset is “any digital representation of value or rights that can be transferred or stored electronically through distributed ledger technology.

In 2022, Portugal changed its crypto policy (17). The government has applied CGT for short-term crypto gains starting in 2023.

PIT

According to Euronews (18), professional crypto activities are also subject to income tax. The lowest PIT rate is 14,5%, and the maximum rate is 48% for incomes higher than 78,834 EUR, based on PWC taxsummaries (19). Data about DeFi taxation in Portugal needs to be provided.

CGT

According to Cointelegraph (20), the CGT tax rate for crypto purchases is 28%, in case crypto is held for less than one year. Long-term holders still pay no tax.

CIT

According to PWC (19), Portugal has a flat CIT rate of 21%.

Links

1)Crime Index by Country 2023 Mid-Year

2)List of countries by intentional homicide rate

3)List of countries by firearm-related death rate

4)FICHA DOUTRINÁRIA. PDF-file

5)FICHA DOUTRINÁRIA (2). PDF-file

6)Portugat Crypto Tax Ultimate Guide. Article

7) Official Tax Authority Bulletin

8)Thomson Reuters assumption. Article

9)Registration of virtual assets service providers