Crypto Tax in Portugal 2026: The Complete English Guide

Portugal had a reputation as Europe’s crypto haven for years, and the reputation half-survives. The country still doesn’t tax long-term crypto gains for individuals - but the 2023 reform (Lei do Orçamento do Estado 2023) introduced rules that closed the obvious loopholes, and 2026 brings new reporting via DAC8. This guide explains what’s still tax-free, what isn’t, and what changed.

The 365-day rule (and what it doesn’t cover)

The keystone of PT crypto tax is Article 10.º of the CIRS as amended by OE 2023: gains from disposal of crypto-assets held for 365 days or more are exempt from IRS when the holder is an individual not engaged in professional trading activity.

That word “individual” is doing heavy lifting. A holder who:

• buys BTC in January 2024
• sells in February 2025 (held 13 months)
• isn’t running a trading business or earning their livelihood from crypto

owes zero PT tax on the gain. The disposal is still declared, though: exempt long-term sales go on Anexo G1, Quadro 7 (Anexo G Quadro 18A is limited on its face to holdings of less than 365 days). No tax results - the G1 entry is what evidences the 365-day holding. The Modelo 3 reporting guide walks through the fields.

What’s not covered:

• Mining is Cat B income from euro 1, regardless of how long you hold what you earn
• Professional traders (defined by frequency, dedicated activity, percent of income) get pushed into Cat B - no 365-day exemption applies
• Disposals where one party sits outside the EU/EEA with no double-tax or information-exchange agreement in place are taxable however long you held
• Losing PT tax residence counts as a deemed disposal of your holdings

Two things people wrongly expect to find on this list:

• Swapping one crypto-asset for another is not a disposal for Cat G purposes. Where the consideration is itself crypto, CIRS art. 10 says no tax arises and the coins you receive inherit the acquisition value of the coins you handed over. Your holding clock and cost basis carry straight through the swap; tax happens when you convert to fiat.
• NFTs sit outside the regime entirely. Art. 10 excludes criptoativos únicos e não fungíveis from the definition of a crypto-asset, so the 365-day rule neither helps nor binds them.

Short-term gains (under 365 days)

If you bought BTC in March 2025 and sold in November 2025, you held it 8 months - that’s short-term Cat G capital gain. The default rate is 28% flat, applied to the net gain after deducting EUR cost basis and transaction fees.

You can opt for englobamento - aggregating the gain with your salary or other income and paying progressive IRS brackets instead. This is cheaper only if your marginal bracket is below 28%, which means roughly: total annual income (including the gain) under ~€23,000.

Flat 28%: €5,000 × 28% = €1,400 Englobamento: aggregate at marginal bracket ~24.1% = ~€1,205 Englobamento wins by ~€195

Use the crypto tax calculator to model your scenario.

Losses

Short-term losses can offset short-term gains in the same year. Unused losses carry forward 5 years against future Cat G gains - but only if you opt for englobamento, because CIRS art. 55 makes the carry-forward conditional on aggregating the income. Losses from professional-trader activity (Cat B classification) can’t offset individual gains - they’re business losses with separate rules.

Mining is Cat B; staking and lending are Cat E

This is the area where crypto holders get blindsided, and where a lot of English-language guidance is simply wrong. Portugal does not put all “crypto income” in one category.

Rewards for staking, lending or supplying liquidity are Category E - capital income - under CIRS art. 5.º n.º 2 al. u), taxed at 28%. There is a large carve-out attached: where the reward is itself paid in crypto, art. 5.º n.º 11 says nothing is taxed on receipt. It is taxed instead as a capital gain when you dispose of the coins you were paid. That covers most ordinary retail staking - and it means opening a freelance activity for it is usually the wrong move.

Mining is different. It’s Category B self-employment income from euro 1, and it carries the heaviest coefficient in the code. If you mine, you:

• Register as autónomo (recibos verdes) at Finanças
• Choose a CAE that fits (typically 64.99 - “Other financial services” - but check with a contabilista)
• Declare the gross in campo 422 of Anexo B, which applies a coefficient of 0.95 (95% of gross is taxable)
• Pay Social Security at 21.4% on 70% of declared income (after year-1 exemption)

If you run staking or trading as a business rather than passively, that’s Category B as well - but it belongs in campo 419 at a coefficient of 0.15, not campo 422.

Coefficient quick-reference

Anexo B field	Activity	Coefficient	Taxable %
campo 419	Crypto-asset operations run as a business	0.15	15%
campo 422	Mining of crypto-assets	0.95	95%

Campo 419 is the default. Campo 422 is for mining and nothing else, and the gap between the two is more than six times your taxable base.

NFTs and DeFi

NFTs are outside the crypto-asset regime: CIRS art. 10 excludes criptoativos únicos e não fungíveis from the definition, so neither the 28% short-term rate nor the 365-day exemption applies to them as such. That is not the same as “tax-free” - trading them at volume raises a Category B question instead. Get advice rather than filing them as Cat G.

DeFi is more nuanced because the underlying mechanic varies:

• Liquidity provision rewards → Cat E, deferred to disposal if paid in crypto
• Token swaps within a pool → crypto for crypto, so no Cat G event; basis carries over
• Wrapping / unwrapping (WETH ↔ ETH) → AT hasn’t published clear guidance; conservative position treats it as a non-taxable internal conversion
• Lending on Aave/Compound → the reward is Cat E; underlying asset position remains your cost basis

For meaningful DeFi exposure, get a contabilista who tracks the position-by-position guidance. The crypto tax calculator doesn’t cover DeFi specifically.

Professional trader recharacterization

PT can reclassify what looks like personal trading as Cat B professional activity, voiding the 365-day exemption. The factors AT examines:

• Frequency - hundreds of trades per year suggests professional activity
• Dedicated infrastructure - trading desk, multiple monitors, paid data feeds
• Percentage of total income - if crypto income is >50% of your annual income, you’re likely a trader
• Time spent - if it’s your full-time activity, it’s Cat B
• Volume relative to capital - high turnover ratio suggests business activity

There’s no bright-line test. Two people with identical income can land on different sides of this line based on how they trade. If you’re trading meaningfully, talk to a contabilista before you file - getting reclassified during an audit means back taxes, penalties, and interest.

Foreign exchanges and DAC8

PT residents are taxed on worldwide income, so gains on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, or any non-PT exchange are reportable. The “they won’t know” calculus is changing in 2026:

• CRS (Common Reporting Standard) already covers crypto exchanges in major OECD jurisdictions - balances and transactions get auto-reported to your country of residence
• DAC8 (EU directive, effective 2026) extends this within the EU specifically: every EU-based exchange must report user-level data to home-country tax authorities
• MiCA (EU regulation, in force 2024+) requires exchanges to be licensed in an EU member state, making them subject to DAC8

For PT residents, this means: if you traded on Coinbase Germany or Binance Spain in 2026, AT will likely see those records before you file your Modelo 3 for 2026 income.

Moving to PT with existing crypto

A common scenario: you accumulated crypto in another country, then moved to Portugal. The 365-day clock starts when you acquired the asset, not when you became a PT resident. So if you bought ETH 18 months ago in Germany and become a PT resident today, selling that ETH after a single day of PT residency still qualifies for the long-term exemption (provided you can document the original acquisition date).

The trickier part is cost basis. PT uses your original EUR-equivalent purchase price. If you bought ETH at $1,200 (then €1,080 at the prevailing FX rate) three years ago and it’s now €2,500, your taxable gain (for a short-term disposal) would be €1,420. Keep purchase records from your origin country - exchange exports, bank statements, anything that proves acquisition date and price.

For the full walkthrough - documenting acquisition dates, reconstructing cost basis, and timing your move around the 365-day rule - see Moving to Portugal With Crypto: cost basis & tax planning.

NHR / IFICI and crypto

A common myth: “NHR exempts my crypto.”

NHR (and its 2024+ replacement IFICI) primarily affect foreign-source passive income and PT-source qualifying activity income. For crypto:

• Long-term crypto gains are already exempt under Cat G - NHR/IFICI add nothing
• Short-term crypto gains: NHR didn’t generally exempt these (they’re PT-source if you’re trading from PT)
• Mining under NHR: still Cat B at standard rates - NHR didn’t cover Cat B activities

So NHR mostly doesn’t help crypto holders. The 365-day exemption is the real benefit, and it applies to all PT residents, NHR or not.

How to report on Modelo 3

Crypto disposals go on Anexo G of your annual IRS return (Modelo 3). Each disposal is one line:

• Date of acquisition (for 365-day determination)
• Date of disposal
• Acquisition value in EUR
• Disposal value in EUR
• Gain/loss

For 2025 disposals filed in April-June 2026, you’ll need this data for every disposal that occurred during the calendar year. Most exchanges export an annual transaction CSV - convert it to EUR at the Banco de Portugal rate for the date of each transaction before filing (AT publishes no annual rate for this). If you trade across several exchanges or wallets, a tool like Koinly automates the FIFO matching and EUR conversion and exports an Anexo G-ready summary. Affiliate link — TAXCLARA earns a commission if you subscribe through it, at no extra cost to you; we only link tools we’d use ourselves.

Mining income goes on Anexo B (simplified regime) along with your other Cat B income; Category E rewards are declared as capital income instead. The Modelo 3 prep wizard walks through which Anexos apply to your situation.

Practical checklist

• Track acquisition dates and EUR cost basis for every crypto lot you own
• Export transaction CSVs from every exchange annually (before they close your account, before they go bust)
• For mining, or any crypto activity you run as a business: register as autónomo before you start earning - retroactive registration triggers penalties
• Keep records for at least 4 years (the AT audit window)
• If trading frequency or income concentration is high, consult a contabilista about Cat B reclassification risk
• Use the crypto tax calculator to estimate liability before you file

Related reading

• Crypto tax calculator - estimate your bill for the four common scenarios
• Foreign income on Anexo J - if your crypto exchange is non-PT
• Modelo 3 prep wizard - 9-step checklist for filing
• How to file Modelo 3 - screen-by-screen walkthrough
• NHR vs IFICI vs standard - context for the “NHR exempts crypto” myth