Individuals who make a profit from transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies must pay a 10% tax applied to the positive difference between the sale price and the purchase price, including the direct costs related to the transaction.
Earnings below the level of 200 lei per transaction are not taxed, provided that the total earnings in a fiscal year do not exceed the amount of 600 lei.
If these earnings – single or cumulated with other taxable income, such as investments, self-employment, rents, etc. – exceed the level of 12 minimum gross wages per country, the person must pay the social health insurance contribution, in addition to taxes.
Payment of tax obligations can be made to the treasury assigned to the home address of the individual
The Order of the President of ANAF no. 139/2020 brought in 2020, as an element of novelty, regarding the declaration of the gain from virtual currency transactions, the introduction, in the Single Declaration, at subsection 1, section 1, Chapter I of “Taxable income” to support taxpayers who have made gains from the transfer of virtual currency or taxable income as a result of the assignment of receivables
The individual acquires a real benefit only when converting these units of virtual currencies into currency units, legal tender (for example, highlighting the income in the bank account), or in goods or services that the individual actually benefits from.
Basically, the amount initially invested is deducted from the amount won at the end, highlighted in a bank statement. The resulting gain will be exactly the amount subject to tax, as long as it is positive and exceeds the 200 lei profit/transaction and/or 600 lei profit/year.
It is important to emphasize that crypto-to-crypto transactions are not taken into account because they do not transit a bank account, they are transactions in a virtual account.
The virtual currency “bitcoin” is mainly used for payments between individuals on the Internet, as well as in some online stores that accept this currency. The mentioned virtual currency does not have a single issuer but is created directly within a network, through a special algorithm. The virtual currency system “bitcoin” allows the possession and anonymous transfer of amounts expressed in “bitcoin” within the network by users holding a “bitcoin” address.
A “bitcoin” address could be compared to a bank account number. Since the “bitcoin” virtual currency is a contractual means of payment, it cannot, on the one hand, be considered a current account and no deposit account, payment, or bank transfer.
On the other hand, unlike receivables, checks, or other negotiable instruments, it is a means of payment directly between the operators who accept it.
Transactions in non-traditional currencies (other than currencies that are legal tender between one or more states), in so far as these currencies have been accepted by the parties to a transaction as an alternative means of payment to legal tender and not they have a purpose other than that of means of payment, they constitute financial operations.
We specify that the income and profit from the sale or purchase of Bitcoin and/or cryptocurrencies or cryptocurrency mining during the year 2020 will be reported for taxation in 2021, until May 25, 2021, through the Single Declaration on income tax and social contributions due by individuals.
Since opening an account for Bitcoin does not require formal conditions, the accounts being anonymous, this makes the transfer of money undetectable – the only thing the user receives in the account is a username and password.
Thus, in order to correctly identify the amounts invested and the amounts withdrawn, it is necessary to follow the transit of these amounts in a bank account.
- deposits from the bank account to the account of the virtual currency trading exchange (the transfer of the amount to be invested in the exchange account);
- withdrawals of amounts from the trading exchange account to the current account.
Normally, the trading platform of these types of currencies should provide information regarding the advanced amounts, withdrawn amounts, earnings, trading history.
Thus, given that a natural person has withdrawals from the trading exchange account in the current account in 2020, it is necessary to determine the correspondent of the initial cost allocated to the withdrawn amount (with information received by the trading platform related to the amount invested-withdrawn in virtual currencies).
The transaction with virtual currencies will be accounted for in lei, at the amount written on the documents certifying the transaction or by converting the currency at the exchange rate communicated by the NBR valid on that day.
This requires a crypto transaction to be reflected in the bank statement.
In conclusion, the income tax rate is 10%, and following the classification of these incomes to incomes from other sources, the gains from these transactions are exempted from the application of the social contribution, but not from the social health insurance contribution (CASS ).
CASS is given only if the accumulated income is at least equal to 12 minimum gross salaries per country.