Portugal Crypto Tax 2026: Rules, Rates and Reporting

Portugal crypto tax is zero on gains from crypto held for 365 days or more, and 28% on gains from crypto sold before that, with the option to add them to your other income instead. Mining, validation and professional trading are business income, taxed at rates that run to 48%. Staking rewards have a rule of their own and are taxed at 28%. From 1 January 2026, the providers you use report your transactions to the Portuguese tax authority.

1. How Portugal crypto tax works in 2026

The rules arrived with the 2023 State Budget, Lei n.º 24-D/2022 of 30 December, which placed crypto inside the IRS Code across three income categories. Which one applies depends on what you do with the asset, not on which asset you hold.

The rules arrived with the 2023 State Budget, Lei n.º 24-D/2022 of 30 December, which placed crypto inside the IRS Code across three income categories.

Category G: capital gains

Selling crypto that does not qualify as a security falls under Category G of the IRS Code. Gains and losses on assets held for 365 days or more are excluded from tax by article 10.º(19). Below 365 days, the positive balance between gains and losses is taxed at the autonomous rate of 28%, under article 72.º(1)(c). You can opt to include the balance in your general income instead.

Cost basis follows FIFO, so the assets acquired first are the ones treated as sold, and it runs separately for each provider you hold with. Time held before 1 January 2023 counts toward the 365 days.

Crypto that qualifies as a security is taxed on disposal whatever the holding period. If it was held under 365 days and your taxable income including that balance reaches the top income tax bracket, 86,634 euros in 2026, adding it to general income is not optional.

Category E: staking and lending

Rewards from staking, lending and similar arrangements are capital income under article 5.º(2)(u), taxed at 28%, with no withholding at source.

A reward paid in crypto is not taxed when it arrives. It carries the acquisition value of the assets given up and is taxed later, as a capital gain, when you sell for money or for something other than crypto. A reward paid in cash is taxed in the year you receive it.

Category B: mining, validation and professional activity

Issuing crypto, mining it, and validating transactions through consensus mechanisms are commercial activities under article 4.º(1)(o) of the IRS Code where you carry them on as an activity. Frequent professional trading sits here too.

Under the simplified regime, which runs up to 200,000 euros of gross annual income, the taxable share is 15% of income from crypto operations and 95% of income from mining. That share is added to your other income and taxed at the general rates, which reach 48%, plus the solidarity surcharge on higher incomes. Ceasing activity counts as a disposal in this category.

IFICI and crypto

IFICI (NHR 2.0) applies a 20% rate to employment and self-employment income from a qualifying activity, under article 58.º-A of the Estatuto dos Benefícios Fiscais. That rate does not reach crypto capital gains or staking rewards, which stay in Categories G and E.

The IFICI exemption on foreign-source income does reach them. Source is determined by where the exchange on which the assets are traded is established, centralised or decentralised. Gains that are foreign-source on that test are exempt under IFICI even where you have held the asset for less than 365 days.

2. What counts as a disposal

3. Is crypto tax free in Portugal?

Four situations produce no tax. Gains on assets held for 365 days or more are excluded, and are still declared, in Anexo G1. Crypto exchanged for crypto is deferred rather than exempt, so the tax comes when you sell for money. Transfers between your own wallets are not disposals. NFTs are outside the fiscal definition of a crypto asset, by article 10.º(18), so the regime does not reach them, and how an NFT is taxed depends on what it represents.

4. Stamp duty and holding through a company

Two stamp duty charges apply to crypto. Gratuitous transfers are taxed at 10% under verba 1.2 of the Tabela Geral do Imposto do Selo, where the crypto is held at an entity established in Portugal, or the transfer follows a death and the deceased was domiciled in Portugal, or the transfer does not follow a death and the beneficiary is domiciled in Portugal. Transfers to a spouse or unmarried partner, descendants and ascendants are exempt under the Stamp Duty Code. The exemption does not remove the beneficiary's obligation to declare the transfer. Commissions and other charges collected by, or through the intermediation of, crypto-asset service providers are taxed at 4% under verba 30, where either the provider or the client is domiciled in Portugal.

Holding crypto through a Portuguese company moves the result into IRC, with no special crypto rules. The general rate in 2026 is 19%, with 15% on the first 50,000 euros for SMEs and small mid caps, under Lei n.º 73-A/2025. Municipal derrama applies on top. Under the corporate simplified regime, 15% of crypto income and 95% of mining income enter the taxable base.

5. What changed in 2026: reporting

Nothing in Portugal crypto tax 2025 changed for 2026 on rates or holding periods. What changed is reporting.

Providers now report, for each calendar year, the information listed in Annex III to Decreto-Lei n.º 61/2013 on users tax resident in Portugal and on entities whose controlling persons are. The deadline is 31 May of the following year, so the first report covers 2026 and is due by 31 May 2027.

The law transposes DAC8, Directive (EU) 2023/2226, which brings the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework into EU law, and Directive (EU) 2025/872. The information is exchanged automatically between tax authorities, and providers outside Portugal are covered too.

Failure to report carries 2,000 to 22,500 euros, and 1,000 to 22,500 euros where the report is late. Omissions and inaccuracies carry 500 to 11,250 euros, and failures in due diligence, registration and record retention 1,000 to 22,500 euros.

6. How to file crypto tax in Portugal

Crypto goes into the Modelo 3 return, submitted through the Portal das Finanças between 1 April and 30 June. Tax assessed is paid by 31 August.

7. Records to keep

You have to be able to prove the 365 days. Where the declared disposal value looks wrong to the tax authority, it can set the value itself, using the market value at the date of disposal. Keep the records for five years. The assessment period runs for four years from the end of the year in which the income arose.

8. Sources and dates