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Mining and Staking Crypto in Portugal: Cat B Tax Treatment Explained

PT taxes mining and staking as Cat B self-employment, not capital gains. Covers CAE codes, the 0.95 coefficient, recibos verdes, and SS contributions.

By Andrew Kovalenko · · 9 min read
Contents
  1. Why it’s Cat B, not Cat G
  2. The simplified regime, applied to crypto yield
  3. Social Security on Cat B crypto yield
  4. Year-1 benefits apply
  5. How to register as a crypto autónomo
  6. What about CEX-paid staking rewards?
  7. DeFi: same rules, harder bookkeeping
  8. Reporting on Modelo 3
  9. When to upgrade to organized accounting
  10. Related reading

If you stake ETH, run a Lightning node that earns routing fees, mine BTC, or earn DeFi yield from any source that PT can characterize as “ongoing yield from holding/working on the network,” you’re not in the friendly long-term capital gains regime. You’re a self-employed person earning Cat B income.

This catches almost everyone off guard. Here’s what it actually means.

Why it’s Cat B, not Cat G

PT tax law categorizes income by source:

  • Cat G = capital gains (sold something for more than you paid)
  • Cat B = self-employment income (you did work, or operated a business, or generated yield from an asset you control)

Staking, mining, lending yield, validator rewards, MEV income - all of these involve ongoing activity on your part: operating hardware, running validator software, providing liquidity, lending out capital. PT views this as a business activity, even at retail scale. The tax code is explicit: yield from crypto-asset operations falls under Cat B.

The simplified regime, applied to crypto yield

If your annual crypto Cat B revenue stays under €200,000, you’ll use the simplified regime (regime simplificado). Under this regime, you don’t track actual expenses - the law presumes a flat percentage of gross is “expenses” via a coefficient.

For mining/staking yield, the coefficient is 0.95, meaning 95% of gross is taxable.

€10,000 gross × 0.95 = €9,500 taxable base for IRS
Taxable Cat B base from €10,000 staking rewards

That €9,500 then gets aggregated with your other income (salary, freelance, etc.) and hits the progressive IRS brackets.

Why 0.95 and not 0.75?

The 0.75 coefficient applies to “professional services” (consulting, IT, design). PT lawmakers explicitly chose 0.95 for crypto yield because they don’t view holding/operating staking infrastructure as having significant deductible costs - 5% expense allowance is what they consider reasonable for the activity.

If you can demonstrate substantially higher actual expenses (industrial-scale mining with electricity costs eating 40% of gross), you can opt into organized accounting (contabilidade organizada) and deduct real expenses. This is only worth it if expenses well exceed 5% of gross, and it triggers full bookkeeping obligations.

Social Security on Cat B crypto yield

After your 12-month new-activity exemption, Cat B income triggers Segurança Social contributions at 21.4% on 70% of declared income (the contribution base).

Contribution base: €10,000 × 70% = €7,000 SS owed: €7,000 × 21.4% = €1,498 / year
Social Security from €10,000 staking yield, year 3+

This is on top of IRS. So full effective rate on €10,000 of staking yield for a year-3 freelancer in IRS bracket 5:

  • IRS: €9,500 × ~31.1% marginal = ~€2,955
  • SS: €1,498
  • Total: ~€4,453 (44.5% effective)

Year-1 benefits apply

The two first-year freelancer benefits cover crypto Cat B activity too:

  1. IRS coefficient reduction: year 1 = 0.475, year 2 = 0.7125 (vs the normal 0.95)
  2. 12-month SS exemption from the day you register the activity

Eligibility for the IRS reduction: no Cat A income in the same year, and no freelance activity in the prior 5 years. See the first-year freelancer guide for full details.

How to register as a crypto autónomo

  1. Get your NIF and Portal das Finanças access if you haven’t already - see the NIF guide
  2. Open activity at Finanças - in person at a Loja de Cidadão or online via Portal das Finanças
  3. Choose your CAE - the standard suggestion is CAE 64.99 (“Other financial services not classified elsewhere”), though some contabilistas use 70.22 for crypto consulting if you also advise clients. Verify your specific situation with the CAE finder
  4. Set up recibos verdes issuance - the Portal das Finanças interface for issuing electronic receipts
  5. Choose the simplified regime unless you have major deductible expenses
  6. Register with Segurança Social - happens automatically when you open activity at Finanças

What about CEX-paid staking rewards?

Centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance run staking-as-a-service products. The economic substance is the same as solo staking - you receive yield from a proof-of-stake network. PT treats them identically: Cat B income from euro 1, even though you’re “just clicking a button on Coinbase.”

The one mitigation: if the exchange pays you in EUR (some “earn” products do), you skip the FX conversion step. If it pays you in the underlying crypto, you must value it at the EUR rate on receipt day.

DeFi: same rules, harder bookkeeping

Yield from DeFi protocols (Aave deposits, Compound lending, Curve LP rewards, Yearn vaults) is Cat B from the first euro. The complexity is in the tracking:

  • Liquidity pool tokens received on deposit aren’t yield - they’re a position
  • LP token value fluctuates with pool composition (impermanent loss/gain)
  • “Reward” tokens (CRV, COMP, AAVE) received as incentives are Cat B income at receipt-day EUR value
  • Removing liquidity is a disposal event (Cat G)

For meaningful DeFi exposure, use a crypto-specific tax tool (Koinly, CoinTracker) and have your contabilista review the output.

Reporting on Modelo 3

Cat B crypto income goes on Anexo B along with any other simplified-regime income. The 0.95 coefficient is selected from a dropdown when categorizing the activity. You’ll also need to file Anexo SS with your annual Segurança Social contribution declaration.

The quarterly SS declaration (declaração trimestral) is a separate obligation - file every January, April, July, October for the previous quarter’s income. See the quarterly SS declaration guide.

When to upgrade to organized accounting

Switch from simplified to organized accounting (contabilidade organizada) when:

  • Annual gross exceeds €200,000 (becomes mandatory)
  • Actual expenses regularly exceed 5% of gross (industrial mining, large validator infrastructure)
  • You have substantial deductible startup costs (hardware purchases, facility rent)

Organized accounting requires a contabilista certificado (mandatory by law) and full double-entry bookkeeping. Cost: typically €100-€300/month for the accountant plus their fees.

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