Inheriting and gifting crypto in Spain

Inheriting or receiving crypto-assets as a gift triggers Spanish inheritance and gift tax (ISD), with its general questions —valuation of the assets, which region’s rules apply, available allowances— and one particularity worth knowing: on inheritance, the deceased’s latent gain is extinguished at death and is not taxed in their income tax; on a lifetime gift, by contrast, that gain surfaces and is taxed in the donor’s income tax. The difference may determine the most convenient way to transfer.

There is also a layer that comes before any tax: access. Without a plan that allows the heir to reach the private keys, what is acquired is a right that cannot be exercised. The analyses in this section address succession planning for crypto portfolios, the regularisation of bitcoin inherited or gifted years ago and the proof of the origin of funds.