Slovenia - Crypto penetration

intro

According to the Wikipedia guide (1), Slovenia is ranked 88th in the world by GDP. That’s why local government needs to attract investments in the country. According to Advantage Austria (2), Slovenia has the lowest level of bureaucracy and taxation in the EU.

Security level

According to our rating, Slovenia has a safe place security level, with 75.8 points (from 100) for safety level in Numbeo's crime rating (3). The homicide level (4) is 0.4 per 100,000 inhabitants a year, and the firearm-related death level (5) is 1.91 per 100,000 inhabitants a year.

Crypto Payments

In Slovenia, there is an act regulating virtual currencies - Payment Services, Services of Issuing Electronic Money, and Payment Systems Act (6). This act doesn’t define crypto as a legal tender or money. However, according to the new tax law (7), paying in cryptocurrencies for goods and services in Slovenia is legal.

The Euro Introduction Act (7¹)(ZUE) defines banknotes and coins denominated in euros as legal tender in Slovenia (which points of sale are required to accept), and supervision of the implementation of this provision of the ZUE is conducted by the Market Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia. The cited provision of the ZUE does not place any constraints on merchants and points of sale in deciding to accept other means of payment, be they regulated (e.g., payment instruments, electronic money, foreign currencies) or unregulated (barter, new means of payment such as crypto-assets, etc.). It is, therefore, not illegal to accept crypto-assets as a means of payment in Slovenia (and in the EU).

Crypto Salaries

We haven’t found an exact legal act regulating crypto salaries in Slovenia. However, according to this thread (8) on Reddit, getting feedback from local Tax Authorities - FURS about taxation procedures is essential. Also, for local crypto community members, Getting a payment on your personal/business account on the centralized crypto exchange and then withdrawing it into fiat to the bank is legal. Also, we think that in some cases, it may be considered a barter exchange or payment by financial assets.

Legal

In May 2020, Slovenian legislators approved (9) AML legislation for crypto assets in the form of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (the ZPPDFT-1B). A list of VASPs is published on the official government website (10). As for February of 2024 it had 30 entities.

If you're interested in details of VASP regulation, you can check out Article 5 of the AML law (11). According to the law, the Financial Administration of Slovenia (FURS) was the primary crypto regulator in the country.

However, in 2024 Slovenia implemented MiCAR and prepared draft version of crypto bill (12), which wasn't approved as for December 2024. So we currently have no information about transition period and new regulator for CASP licensing in Slovenia. Please connect with us if you have this information.

Taxation

Tax name	Index
PIT tax Min	16
PIT tax Max	50
Corporate tax (CIT)	19
Min Individual CGT (for crypto)	0
Max Individual CGT (for crypto)	25
Wealth tax Min	0
Wealth tax Max	0

You may find a detailed overview of crypto taxation in the following documents:

-Full FURS Crypto Tax Guide in English (13)

-FURS official statement about crypto taxation (14)

PIT

According to Freemanlaw (15), PIT is applied for crypto income in the case of employment income or profits derived from a permanent business activity. Mining is also subject to the individual’s income tax.

According to rue.ee overview (16), in the case of applying PIT to crypto income, it has the following rates:

-If the taxable income doesn’t exceed 8,755 EUR – 16%

-If the taxable income is between 8,755 EUR and 25,750 EUR – 26%

-If the taxable income is between 25,750 EUR and 51,500 EUR – 33%

-If the taxable income is between 51,500 EUR and 74,160 EUR – 39%

-If the taxable income exceeds 74,160 EUR – 50%

CGT

CGT tax is applied in the case of conversion from crypto to fiat. The primary cause for it is the crypto trading income or crypto holding. CGT rate is 25% for holding crypto from 0 to 5 years – 25 %. The minimal CGT rate is 0% for 15+ years holders.

CIT

Based on Freeman's law overview for corporations, crypto taxation rules are also unclear based on FURS's statement that accounting treatment depends on “circumstances in the specific case.” Corporations must pay 19% CIT for capital gains.

According to local lawyer Mateja Babic (17), the government had 2022 a regulation proposal to apply a 10% flat tax to “any exchange of virtual currency for Fiat currency or purchase of goods or services with virtual currency.” Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected. Here is a detailed overview of the law on the Slovenska language that was published in the local media.

Links

1)Wikipedia. List of countries by GDP (nominal)

2)Slovenia remains an attractive destination for Austrian investors. PDF-file

3)Crime Index by Country 2023 Mid-Year

4)List of countries by intentional homicide rate

5)List of countries by firearm-related death rate

6) Payment Services, Services of Issuing Electronic Money and Payment Systems Act

7)Golobovi ustavili kritpozakon in davčni postopek – 181. Doves stop crypto law and tax procedure - 181. Article

7¹) Zakon o uvedbi eura (ZUE)

8)Reddit. Being paid in crypto

9)New AML obligations for the crypto industry. Article

10)Official government website