Saturday, December 28, the budget law of Italy for 2025 was definitively approved.
This is an important law also for Italians who own cryptocurrencies, because it contains an article specifically dedicated to the taxation of crypto capital gains.
The crypto taxation in Italy: the new budget law
Article 43 of bill 1330 definitively approved by the Senate sets the substitute tax rate on capital gains and other miscellaneous income at 26 percent.
This article is intended to solve a problem discovered only in October regarding crypto taxation.
In fact, originally this rate, in article 5 of legislative decree no. 461 of November 21, 1997, was 12.5%, later raised to 26%. However, when it was raised to 26% in that article 5, crypto-assets (or cryptocurrencies) were not yet included, and when they were subsequently included, the original rate had to be applied to them.
Now, however, the 26% rate has been clearly applied to all types of assets included in article 5 of legislative decree no. 461 of 1997.
The increase in crypto taxation
It has therefore been definitively averted the increase in taxation on crypto capital gains to 42% that had initially been included in the budget law.
This increase was removed from the new text that was presented and approved by Parliament, but another one was added.
In fact, article 24 of the new text, now definitively approved, states that starting from January 1, 2026, the substitute tax on capital gains generated from sales of assets included in articles 5, 6, and 7 of legislative decree 461 of November 21, 1997, will be applied at the rate of 33 percent.
This means that for the crypto capital gains generated in 2025, the current rate of 26% will apply, while starting from those generated from 2026 onwards, the rate of 33% will have to be applied.
However, from now until the end of 2025, there will still be time to intervene and modify this new rate. It is by no means certain that it will be achieved, therefore for now this measure should be considered definitive, but it is not impossible to imagine that it could be modified.
The 26% rate for 2025, on the other hand, can no longer be changed in fact.
The elimination of the exemption threshold
However, there is another piece of bad news for Italian cryptocurrency holders.
In fact, article 25 abolishes the exemption threshold of 2,000.
When cryptocurrencies were regulated in Italy, at the end of 2022, an exemption threshold of €2,000 was introduced on taxation.
In other words, if the annual sum of all capital gains and capital losses generated in a year from the sale of cryptocurrencies did not exceed the threshold of 2,000€, these could be left undeclared. In this way, one was not obliged to pay taxes on them.
Now, however, to align the crypto tax regime with that of other financial assets, this threshold has been removed, therefore in theory one will have to pay 26% even if the annual sum of crypto capital gains and losses is only 1€.
Revaluation at 18%
The 2025 budget law also introduces a revaluation.
Article 26 indeed provides the option to pay a substitute tax of 18 percent on cryptocurrencies held as of January 1, 2025.
Therefore, those who are unable to recover or demonstrate the purchase cost of the cryptocurrencies owned on that date, or do not wish to do so to avoid paying 26% on any capital gains generated from sales, can opt for this optional solution, provided that the tax is paid by November 30, 2025.
To calculate the value of this tax, it will be sufficient to calculate 18% of the value in euros of the cryptocurrencies held on January 1, 2025, completely ignoring the purchase cost.
This tax may also be paid in installments up to a maximum of three annual installments of equal amount, with 3% annual interest on the two installments following the first.
The reactions
Reiterating that the budget law has now been definitively approved, and that it will therefore certainly come into force starting from January 1, 2025, it must be said that the reactions have not been very positive.
On one hand, there are those who have cheered the fact that the increase to 42% taxation on crypto capital gains, previously announced with great fanfare by the ministry of the economy, has been completely averted, but on the other hand, there have been protests.
The first protest is for the elimination of the exemption threshold of 2,000€, given that the vast majority of Italians who own cryptocurrencies possess them for a value below this amount.
However, from this point of view, it should be emphasized that such a threshold was a specific anomaly that concerned only cryptocurrencies, in Italy, and therefore its removal does nothing but equate them to other financial assets.
Instead, the increase in taxation to 33% for 2026 has no justification other than to raise funds.
From this point of view, the protests are not only justified, but they are also inevitably numerous, given that it is effectively an increase in tax pressure in a country where it is already high.