- Crypto gains and income of a private individual are “redditi diversi” and pay a flat substitute tax: 26% on gains realized until 31 December 2025 and 33% from 1 January 2026.
- From 2026, gains on euro-denominated e-money tokens are taxed at 26%, and converting euros into such tokens and back is not a taxable event.
- The €2,000 tax-free threshold was abolished from 2025. Fees are not deductible, and without proof of what you paid the cost is zero.
- A swap between crypto with the same characteristics and functions, such as bitcoin for ether, is not taxed. Swapping crypto for a stablecoin that is an e-money token is.
- Residents also pay 0.2% a year on the value of their crypto: as stamp duty through an Italian intermediary, or otherwise as a separate tax in the return.
- Staking rewards are taxed in full, before the platform’s cut. There is no exit tax for individuals who leave Italy.
This page covers income tax for private individuals who hold crypto in Italy. When and how to report it is on filing and deadlines; companies and sole traders are on business tax. It is general information, not tax advice.
How crypto is taxed
Since 2023 the Income Tax Code (TUIR, Article 67(1)(c-sexies)) has a separate category for crypto-assets: gains and other income “realizzati mediante rimborso o cessione a titolo oneroso, permuta o detenzione di cripto-attività”. In practice that covers selling crypto for euros, paying for goods or services with it, swapping it for a different kind of crypto, and income from holding it, such as staking rewards. Holding crypto that rises in value is not taxed until you realize the gain. Outside a business, these amounts are not added to your other income but taxed separately at a flat rate (imposta sostitutiva).
| Item | Rate or amount | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Substitute tax on crypto gains and income | 26% | Realized until 31 December 2025 |
| Substitute tax on crypto gains and income | 33% | Realized from 1 January 2026 |
| Euro-denominated e-money tokens | 26% | From 1 January 2026 |
| Tax-free threshold | €2,000 a year | Gains realized until 31 December 2024; abolished from 2025 |
| Losses carried forward | Up to the fourth following year | Only if reported in the return for the year of the loss |
| Tax on the value of crypto held (stamp duty or IVCA) | 0.2% a year | Since 2023, see holding tax |
The gain is the price received, or the market value of the crypto received in a swap, minus the cost or purchase value. These are the main rules from the law and the Agenzia delle Entrate’s Circular 30/E of 27 October 2023:
- Cost needs proof. The cost must be documented “con elementi certi e precisi”; without proof it is zero. Purchase records from the exchange count as proof.
- Fees do not count. Unlike for shares, fees and other costs of buying and selling crypto are not deductible.
- Which coins you sold. When you report gains yourself and hold several units of the same crypto, the Agenzia says the cost is set with the LIFO method (last in, first out). An Italian intermediary that taxes for you uses the weighted average cost.
- Gains and losses offset. Gains and losses on crypto within the same year are added together. A net loss can be carried forward for four years against crypto gains, but only if it is in the return for the year it arose.
- Inheritance and gifts. Crypto you inherit takes the value used for inheritance tax as its cost; crypto you receive as a gift keeps the donor’s cost.
The 33% rate comes from the 2025 Budget Law (Law 207/2024, Article 1(24)); the 26% rate for euro e-money tokens was added by the 2026 Budget Law (Law 199/2025, Article 1(28)). It applies to tokens “il cui valore è stabilmente ancorato all’euro e i cui fondi di riserva sono detenuti integralmente in attività denominate in euro presso soggetti autorizzati nell’Unione europea”. Stablecoins pegged to the dollar are taxed at 33%.
A worked example
Our own example, following the rules above: a resident bought 1 bitcoin in 2024 for €40,000 and sells it in March 2026 for €60,000, paying a €100 fee. She has no other crypto gains or losses in 2026 and did not use the revaluation option.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Price received | Sale price (the fee is not deducted) | €60,000 |
| Cost | Documented purchase price | €40,000 |
| Gain | €60,000 − €40,000 | €20,000 |
| Tax-free threshold | None since 2025 | €0 |
| Substitute tax (2026) | €20,000 × 33% | €6,600 |
Had she sold in 2025, the tax would have been €20,000 × 26% = €5,200. Had she swapped the bitcoin for ether instead of selling it, there would have been no tax at that moment: the ether takes over the bitcoin’s cost of €40,000. If she keeps crypto in her own wallet worth €50,000 at the end of the year, she also owes the 0.2% holding tax of €100. This is an illustration, not a tax calculation for your situation.
Swaps, stablecoins and revaluation
The law says “non costituisce una fattispecie fiscalmente rilevante la permuta tra cripto-attività aventi eguali caratteristiche e funzioni”. The Agenzia gives these examples in Circular 30/E:
- Not taxed: swapping one cryptocurrency for another (for example ether bought with bitcoin), swapping one NFT for another, and swapping a cryptocurrency for an asset-referenced token (ART). The new coin takes over the cost of the coin you gave up.
- Taxed: buying an NFT with a cryptocurrency, and swapping a cryptocurrency for an e-money token (EMT), a stablecoin that references one official currency and can be redeemed at face value.
Revaluation (rideterminazione). Twice the law let holders replace their cost with the market value on a fixed date, by paying a substitute tax on that value: on the value at 1 January 2023 at 14%, and on the value at 1 January 2025 at 18%, payable by 30 November 2025 (in up to three yearly instalments with 3% interest). A revalued cost cannot create a deductible loss. At the time of writing (October 2026) we found no new revaluation option in the 2026 Budget Law.
The 0.2% holding tax
Since 2023 crypto is also subject to a tax on its value, whether or not you sell:
- Through an Italian intermediary: the intermediary charges stamp duty (imposta di bollo) of 0.2% a year on the value reported to you.
- Everywhere else: on a foreign exchange, or on a USB stick, computer or phone, as the Agenzia puts it, you pay the tax on the value of crypto-assets (imposta sul valore delle cripto-attività, often called IVCA) of 0.2% yourself, in quadro RW or quadro W of the return, with tax code 1727.
- The value is the value on 31 December on the platform where you bought the crypto, or on a similar platform or price site if that is not possible, and the purchase cost if there is no value at all. The tax is due in proportion to the days you held the crypto and your share of it. A wealth tax paid abroad on the same crypto can be deducted.
Unlike the reporting duty in quadro RW, the IVCA is owed by every resident who holds crypto on which no stamp duty was charged, including people who work abroad and are exempt from quadro RW for their foreign salary account. How to report it is on filing and deadlines.
Mining, trading and other situations
The crypto category applies to individuals as long as the income is not earned in a business, a profession or as an employee. If you trade or mine as a business, the profit is business income; see business tax. Circular 30/E deals with mining by companies and with VAT on mining, but we found no guidance from the Agenzia on mining by private individuals outside a business (October 2026). If you mine as a hobby, ask the Agenzia or a tax adviser how to report the coins you receive.
Losing your private keys or having them stolen does not create a deductible loss: the Agenzia says the law gives no relevance to such losses. What it means for the reporting duty is on regulation.
Crypto is part of an estate for inheritance and gift tax (imposta sulle successioni e donazioni). Circular 30/E says it is valued at its market value on the date of death or gift, for example on the exchange where it was bought.
Staking, DeFi, airdrops and NFTs
The Agenzia has published guidance on staking and NFTs, but not on DeFi (decentralized finance), lending, liquidity pools or airdrops (free tokens sent to your wallet). What it says:
- Staking. Rewards are income from holding crypto, which the law taxes “senza alcuna deduzione”. If the platform keeps a percentage of the reward, you are taxed on the gross reward, before that cut (Circular 30/E, section 3.1). Before 2023 the Agenzia treated staking rewards as capital income (ruling 437 of 26 August 2022).
- NFTs (non-fungible tokens, unique tokens that stand for a digital or physical item). Swapping one NFT for another is not taxed; buying an NFT with a cryptocurrency is a taxable swap.
- Airdrops, lending and DeFi. Circular 30/E does not mention them, and in October 2026 we found no other published position. The general rule covers income from holding crypto, but the Agenzia has not said how it applies to these cases.
If you earn large amounts from staking or DeFi, ask a tax adviser or the Agenzia (through a ruling request, interpello) before you file.
Moving to or from Italy
Residents are taxed on their worldwide crypto gains and must report their crypto in quadro RW; non-residents are taxed only on income produced in Italy. What decides residence:
- Tax residence. Since 2024 you are resident if, for most of the tax year (counting fractions of days), you have your residence under the civil code or your domicile in Italy, or are physically present there. Domicile means the place where your personal and family relations mainly are. Registration in the population register (anagrafe) for most of the year counts as residence unless you prove otherwise (TUIR, Article 2).
- Leaving for a tax haven. Italian citizens who deregister and move to a country on the government’s list of privileged tax regimes are presumed to remain resident unless they prove otherwise (Article 2(2-bis)).
- No exit tax for individuals. Italy’s exit tax (Article 166) applies to businesses that move abroad. We found no rule that taxes a private individual’s unrealized crypto gains on departure.
- Flat tax for new residents. People who move their tax residence to Italy and were not resident in 9 of the previous 10 years can, after a favorable ruling, pay a flat tax on their foreign income instead of normal income tax: €300,000 a year for those who move from 1 January 2026 (lower amounts apply to earlier arrivals), €50,000 per family member, for up to 15 years. They are also exempt from quadro RW and from the taxes in Article 19(13) and (18) of Decree-Law 201/2011, the paragraph that since 2023 also contains the crypto holding tax. The Agenzia has not said, in what we found, when a crypto gain counts as foreign income.
The country you move to or from has its own rules, including any exit tax of its own. Crypto providers report your data to the country where you are tax resident (see DAC8), so tell them when you move.
Upcoming changes
A new consolidated Income Tax Code (Legislative Decree 117 of 19 June 2026) applies from 1 January 2027. It keeps the crypto rules and rates, including 33% and 26% for euro e-money tokens, but moves them: the crypto category becomes Article 76(1)(i) and the rates Article 304(7). A new consolidated code of tax penalties also applies from 2027. The 2026 Budget Law adds crypto to the wealth counted for the ISEE, the means test for social benefits, once an implementing decree is adopted; at the time of writing (October 2026) we did not find that decree.
Sources
- Agenzia delle Entrate: Circolare n. 30/E del 27 ottobre 2023, Trattamento fiscale delle cripto-attività (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Testo unico delle imposte sui redditi (DPR 917/1986), articles 2, 24-bis, 67, 68 and 166 (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Legge 29 dicembre 2022, n. 197 (Legge di Bilancio 2023), article 1, paragraphs 126 to 147 (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Legge 30 dicembre 2024, n. 207 (Legge di Bilancio 2025), article 1, paragraphs 24 to 29 (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Legge 30 dicembre 2025, n. 199 (Legge di Bilancio 2026), article 1, paragraphs 26, 28 and 32 (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Decreto-legge 6 dicembre 2011, n. 201, article 19, paragraphs 18 to 21 (last checked October 2026)
- Agenzia delle Entrate: Redditi Persone fisiche 2026, istruzioni Fascicolo 2 (quadro RT section V-A and quadro RW) (last checked October 2026)
- Normattiva: Decreto legislativo 19 giugno 2026, n. 117 (new Testo unico delle imposte sui redditi), articles 76, 304 and 377 (last checked October 2026)
This page is general information, not tax advice. Rules and rates change, so check the official sources above before you act.