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Cashback related to crypto assets and virtual currencies

When you buy something with a card that enables you to pay for goods and services using the crypto assets in your account, your account gets a credit entry known as “cashback”, consisting of crypto assets. This credit is subject to capital income tax, because it is an amount of income worth the crypto asset’s quoted value on the day when you receive it. 

The income in the form of cashback is taxed in a different way from how other loyalty cards, points, and bonuses are taxed. Typically, grocery stores and banks roll out loyalty cards and provide bonuses. There are several reasons for the difference:

  • The size of the credit transaction with cashback is a percentage based on how much crypto assets you have in your account in the crypto-asset exchange. But the size of your bonuses from the grocery store is based on your household’s volume of purchases.
  • After you receive the cashback, it is not spent on (a bank’s) service fees or on other similar purposes. Instead, you receive more units of crypto assets, which means that you now own a higher total balance. You can spend the added units any way you like, which means that there are no limits to the use.

However, there is one exception to the standard tax assessment of cashback-income. The credit transactions are exempt from tax if the credit is based on goods and services bought with a payment card and the card user is not required to stake or lock the crypto assets to gain cashback. If the crypto-asset service grants a minimum credit to all users (for example, 1% of the value of all purchases), the cashback you receive is treated as tax-free income for you.

Submitting the tax return and reporting the cashbacks subject to tax

A. If your cashback card lets you receive credit, and this is treated as being taxable income, you are required to report it on your pre-completed tax return under Other capital income.

If you sell or otherwise use your position in crypto assets later and make a profit, you can declare the capital-gains taxes entering the position’s “acquisition price” as equal to the value of the cashback that you had reported to the tax authority as the current value on the date of receipt.

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Example:  Matt has 100 units of crypto asset A in the crypto-asset exchange service. Matt’s account balance entitles him to a 5% reward, as cashback, for payments made with the payment card when shopping.

Matt buys consumer goods for €5,000 and his card account is credited with 5 units of crypto asset A. The current quoted value of the 5 units is €250. As a result of this cashback reward, Matt has €250 of income. He must report this income, classified as “other capital income”, to the tax authority.  Later, if Matt sells, or otherwise uses, 5 units of crypto assets A, he can indicate that the acquisition of the 5 units had cost him €250. This serves as the “acquisition cost” on his tax return for capital gains.

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B. When cashback credits are tax-exempt income, it is not necessary for you to declare them on the pre-completed tax return.

If you sell or otherwise use your position in virtual currency later and make a profit, you have to indicate “0 euro” as the position’s acquisition price on your tax return for capital gains. However, natural persons or estates of deceased persons can declare their capital gains based on a deemed acquisition cost. This is more beneficial, because the deemed cost is either 20% or 40% of the selling price. The percentages depend on how long you had owned the crypto assets before you sold them.

Page last updated 1/9/2026