Aliens TLDR

The first to do so is the government of Biscay, which has approved a “preliminary draft” of a local bill that would oblige firms providing “cryptocurrency buying and selling services” to provide the Biscayan Treasury and tax service with “detailed information” on “the balances” of crypto and fiat held by the owners of virtual currencies.” This would apply presumably to crypto owners residing in Biscay, and exchanges would also be obliged to hand over data on “the operations on said currencies” – i.e. transaction data.

The Biscayan government reportedly told El Independiente that the reporting burden would “fall on entities that facilitate crypto-related operations” and “not on the owner of the coins” – as exchanges and brokers “make possible” the holding and trading of [crypto-related] operations.” The Biscayan parliament will vote on the proposed law.

It remains to be seen how effective the Biscayan and wider Basque crypto tax push will prove, however – the central Spanish tax body’s own attempts to tax crypto holders and traders recently slid into farcical territory, with reports of impending tax “chaos” coming before an apparent climbdown from the taxman .