Spanish corporate tax and crypto-assets

When crypto-assets are held or traded through a company, the applicable tax is Spanish corporate tax, and the starting point changes: the tax is computed from the accounting result. How the crypto-assets are booked —as intangible fixed assets if they are held, as inventory if they are meant for sale— determines when and how the income is taxed. The rate is flat, as opposed to the progressive savings scale of personal income tax, and that difference explains much of the interest in corporate structures.

Interposing a company has, however, costs and risks that should be measured beforehand: substance requirements, related-party transactions with the shareholder and the possibility that the tax authorities regard the company as purely instrumental. The analyses in this section examine when it pays off and when it does not.