Hacienda already sees your cryptocurrencies: forms 172 and 173, DAC8 and AEAT letters

Yes, and with more detail every year. The AEAT (the Spanish Tax Agency) receives information through 3 channels: what providers established in Spain report (forms 172 and 173), what you declare (Income Tax, form 721 and Wealth Tax if applicable), and, expected from 2027, what other EU Member States send under DAC8. Added to this are the euro transfers between your bank and the exchange.

The AEAT cross-checks this data with your Income Tax return and, if it does not match, sends you a warning or opens a procedure. When launching the 2025 Income Tax campaign on 8 April 2026, it counted 1,243,000 references to virtual currencies and incorporated specific sections to declare them in Income and Wealth Tax returns.

What it does not see directly are the keys you keep in your own wallet or a platform outside the EU with no establishment in Spain. However, it does see the outgoing transfer from a Spanish exchange (form 173 includes transfers) and the money returning to your bank. The fact that it does not see it changes nothing: the gain is taxed exactly the same.

They are annual informative returns submitted by your provider, not by you. Residents in Spain and permanent establishments in Spain of foreign entities that custody private keys on behalf of clients (172) or that exchange cryptocurrencies, intermediate in these operations or custody them (173) are obliged to file them. They are regulated by articles 39 bis and 39 ter of the Reglamento de gestión e inspección tributaria (the Spanish Tax Management and Inspection Regulation), introduced by Real Decreto 249/2023, and Orden HFP/887/2023.

Form 172 reports balances: your name, address and NIF (Spanish tax identification number), and for each cryptocurrency, the units you held on 31 December and their value in euros, plus any money the provider holds for you. Form 173 reports every acquisition, transmission, swap and transfer, with date, units, value in euros and commissions. Exchanging one cryptocurrency for another also appears, valued at the exchange rate of that day.

They were submitted for the first time in 2024, covering 2023. That first year, form 173 only included operations from 25 April 2023, when Real Decreto 249/2023 entered into force, as recalled by the Directorate General for Taxes in ruling V2178-24.

The practical consequence: if you sold on a Spanish exchange, Hacienda knows the sale price, but not always the purchase price, for example if you bought on another platform. That is why the letters usually ask for the acquisition cost: this is what you have to prove with your transaction history.

Yes, if you are a tax resident in Spain and on 31 December your cryptocurrencies custodied by a provider not obliged to submit form 172 in Spain are collectively worth more than €50,000. Once this figure is exceeded, all of them are declared. The deadline runs from 1 January to 31 March of the following year (article 42 quater of the Regulation). In subsequent years, it is only repeated if the joint balance has increased by more than €20,000.

Form 721 applies to coins custodied by a third party who keeps the keys for you. If you keep the keys yourself, in a hardware or paper wallet, there is no third-party custodian. The Directorate General for Taxes has analysed these cases in rulings V2290-23 and V0941-24. Furthermore, form 721 is informative: gains are declared in the Income Tax return of the year you sell or swap, regardless of where the coins are.

The fines are no longer what they used to be: following the judgment of the EU Court of Justice of 27 January 2022 (case C-788/19) and Ley 5/2022, form 721 is penalised under the general regime. Failing to submit it costs €20 per data item, with a minimum of €300 and a maximum of €20,000; if you submit it late on your own, without a prior request, the penalty is halved.

DAC8 is Directive (EU) 2023/2226, which brings the automatic exchange of tax information between EU Member States to crypto-assets. Providers identify the tax residence of their clients and report their operations to their administration, which sends them to the client's country of residence.

EU providers collect data from 1 January 2026 and the first exchange is scheduled for 2027, with 2026 data. As of 1 October 2026, public information indicates that the Spanish transposition law has not been published in the BOE (the Official State Gazette); Hacienda submitted the draft royal decree to public hearing in July 2025. The Spanish delay does not stop providers in other Member States.

For you, this means that the exchange based in another EU country is no longer invisible: what you trade there in 2026 should reach the AEAT in 2027 with your name and residence. Additionally, from 1 July 2026 (end of the MiCA transitional period), providing crypto-asset services in Spain requires authorisation from the CNMV or a passport from another EU Member State, and every authorised provider identifies you when opening the account.

It depends on the letter (you have the details in the table). The informative notice, from the Income Tax campaign or in your tax data, does not open a procedure: it reminds you that the AEAT has data so you declare correctly. The information request asks for specific documents, with a deadline of no less than 10 days from the day following the notification (article 55 of the Regulation).

The limited verification actually reviews your Income Tax return. It starts with a communication explaining its scope or, if the AEAT already has sufficient data, directly with a settlement proposal. Before the provisional settlement, they must give you the proposal to make written submissions (alegaciones), in a procedure of 10 to 15 days (articles 99, 137 and 138 of the Ley General Tributaria, the Spanish General Tax Act). Against the settlement, you can file an appeal for reconsideration or an economic-administrative claim within 1 month; if you let it pass, it becomes final.

Two precautions. Electronic notifications count even if you do not open them: check the Dirección Electrónica Habilitada única (DEHú) and the AEAT electronic headquarters. Also, verify the letter with its secure verification code (CSV): fake letters invoking DAC8 are circulating, and Hacienda does not collect payments in cryptocurrencies.

4 years from the day following the end of the deadline to submit each Income Tax return (articles 66 and 67 of the Ley General Tributaria). Each financial year becomes statute-barred separately and any action by the AEAT that you formally know about interrupts the deadline.

As of 1 October 2026, the years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 remain open. The 2022 Income Tax return was submitted until 30 June 2023, so, without interruptions, it becomes statute-barred in mid-2027. The fact that forms 172 and 173 start in 2023 does not leave 2022 out: the AEAT can review it using bank information. Remember that the gain is taxed when selling or exchanging one cryptocurrency for another, not when buying it or holding it.

Regularising before the letter almost always turns out cheaper. With the complementary return (from the 2024 Income Tax return, rectifying self-assessment) submitted on your own, without a prior request, there is no penalty: only a 1% surcharge plus another 1% per full month of delay. After 12 months, it is 15% plus late payment interest from month 13. The surcharge drops by 25% if you pay the debt upon submission and the surcharge within its deadline (articles 27 and 179.3 of the Ley General Tributaria).

What closes that door is the prior request: any action by the AEAT, notified to you, aimed at verifying or regularising that debt. From then on, that financial year can no longer be regularised spontaneously and there may be a penalty. However, a letter about 2023 does not prevent you from regularising 2024 or 2025 if it does not include them.

You need the transaction history from all your platforms and wallets for the open years, and to calculate each financial year using the FIFO method (first in, first out). If there is already a request, the decisive factor is to reply on time with the documented acquisition cost: that is where the most money is saved.

If you have received a letter, with the 'Reply to a letter or request from Hacienda regarding cryptocurrencies' service, we read the notification, determine your deadline, reconstruct the acquisition cost and submit the reply or written submissions (alegaciones) at the AEAT electronic headquarters on your behalf.

If you did not declare and they have not written to you yet, with the 'Regularise undeclared cryptocurrencies' service, we calculate each non-statute-barred year using FIFO and submit the complementary returns with their surcharge, without penalty, and the late form 721 if applicable.

For this year's Income Tax return, the crypto tax report leaves your gains and losses ready to declare, and if you have more than €50,000 abroad, we submit form 721 on time. You can see the updated price on the service page and start today.