Greek and foreign investors who want to open a cryptocurrency company in Greece must know that this sector has not yet been fully regulated under the legislation of this country. This implies that one may not need to obtain a crypto license in Greece for these operations.
Although there are some rules of law that are imposed to cryptocurrency operations, the field has remained decentralized. However, cryptocurrency users have to abide by specific procedures.
What is the law on cryptocurrency in Greece?
As stated above, there isn’t a very clear legal framework that is imposed to cryptocurrency operations in Greece. The Greek officials have made some efforts in creating a partially regulated industry in the last years.
Furthermore, some of the policies applied by the European Union (EU) have been introduced into the Greek legal system. Here, it must be noted that Greece applies the AMLD 5 (the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive of the EU).
The AMLD 5 was introduced in Greece through the Law no. 4734/2020, which was issued in October 2020. This legislation clearly defined what cryptocurrencies are under the Greek legal understanding, but it also introduced few distinctive obligations.
- to implement Know Your Client policies;
- to report suspicious activities to the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission;
- to impose anti-money laundering internal procedures.
What is the tax system applied in cryptocurrency in Greece?
The tax system concerning
cryptocurrency is not specifically regulated for this industry. In other words, a large part of such activities do not fall under the regulations of the
tax law.
Concerning the taxation of cryptocurrencies, there are 2 distinctive categories: 1) income that derives from cryptocurrency mining, and 2) income that derives from cryptocurrency transactions.
Currently, the 2nd category is taxed following the next rules:
- • cryptocurrency transactions are taxed following the Law 4172/2013;
- • this refers to the Income Tax Code, Article 42 (3), which describes the taxation of the capital gains tax applied to income;
- • natural persons can be taxed following the provisions of the Articles 42 and 43;
- • these stipulate that one can be taxed at a rate of 15%;
- • those who want to open a cryptocurrency company in Greece have to know that the taxation of the company is done following the Articles 47 and 58.
Cryptocurrency mining in Greece
Mining is generally a cryptocurrency activity that is more suitable for businesses and for investors who have the necessary capital to invest in the equipment necessary for mining.
Generally speaking, mining in Greece is not done be individuals (although there aren’t any restrictions in this sense) because it is very expensive.
Those who do invest in mining, will end up hiring other persons to help in mining activities, as it is a complex procedure. Crypto miners need computers that can work 24 hours, 7 days a week.
The computer equipment necessary for this can cost EUR 20,000, and the energy necessary maintaining the systems operational costs EUR 1,000 per month.