Crypto tax in Portugal (2026): 365 days, and the swap that is not a disposal
Portugal is the outlier, and not for the reason people repeat. A gain on crypto held 365 days or more is excluded from tax — and so, symmetrically, is the loss. More unusual still: swapping crypto for crypto is not a taxable moment at all.
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| Tax rate | A flat 28% on Category G gains, with an option to aggregate with other income at progressive rates instead.1 |
| The rule that decides it | Art. 10.º n.º 19 CIRS: gains and losses on crypto-assets held for 365 days or more are excluded from taxation. The exclusion is symmetric — a long-held loss cannot be used either.2 |
| Crypto for crypto | Not a taxable event. Art. 10.º n.º 20: where the consideration is itself crypto, there is no taxation at that moment; the acquisition value of what you gave up carries into what you received. Tax waits for a disposal into fiat or goods.2 |
| The gain | Realisation value less acquisition value including necessary expenses, with FIFO applied per institution.2 |
| Declaring | Modelo 3 de IRS. Taxable disposals go in Anexo G, Quadro 18; holdings of 365 days or more go in Anexo G1, Quadro 7. The 2025 return is delivered between 1 April and 30 June 2026, with settlement by 31 August 2026.3 |
| Who knows | Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226 — transposition due 31 December 2025, obligations apply from 1 January 2026, and the first exchange of information covering 2026 takes place by 30 September 2027. Portugal is on the OECD CARF list for 2027 exchanges. Separately, art. 124.º-A CIRS makes custodians and platform operators file a crypto operations declaration by the end of February each year.4 |
Tax authority: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT) — https://www.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt
Why your records — not the rules — are the real problem
Losses carry forward five years within Category G — except on holdings of 365 days or more, where the loss is excluded along with the gain. Losses are also disallowed where the counterparty sits in a clearly more favourable tax regime.
Because a swap rolls the basis forward rather than realising it, a Portuguese resident's entire trading history collapses into the acquisition value of the very first purchase — which is a beautiful rule and a brutal record-keeping problem. You need the chain, not the last trade.
That is the gap ClearBasis closes: we rebuild the complete acquisition history from exchange files and on-chain records, match every transfer between your own wallets so moving coins is never taxed as selling, and attach evidence to every number.
RGIT art. 116: a fine of €150 to €3,750 for a missing or late declaration.
What you can use today, in Portugal
The free scan shows your true gains against proceeds-only in about three minutes. The Global Basis Report (from $99) is the full evidence-linked ledger — acquisition costs, disposal gains, local-currency values with cited FX — the document you or your accountant declare from.
Run my free scanComing for Portugal
Declaration formatting for Portugal — your report's totals mapped to the local return's fields, reviewed by a local tax professional before we ship it, and this page published in pt · en · fr. Run and save a free scan to join the list: you will be emailed the day it opens, and demand decides how fast.
Start with the free scanQuestions people in Portugal actually ask
Is Portugal still tax-free for crypto?
Not since 2023, and it never was in the way the headlines said. A disposal inside 365 days is taxed at 28%. What survives is the long-holding exclusion and the crypto-for-crypto rollover, and both are real.
Does the 365 days run from when I moved to Portugal?
No — from when you acquired the asset. Which means proving an acquisition date from before you arrived, often from an exchange in another country, sometimes one that has since closed.
What about mining and staking?
Issuance, mining and transaction validation fall into Category B as business income rather than Category G, and passive returns can land in Category E at 28%. The 365-day exclusion is a Category G rule and does not reach them.
The primary sources listed below are monitored for change. Confirmed factual updates publish with a new version stamp; substantive rule changes are verified by a professional before this page changes. Where a claim carries an unverified badge above, it means the authority's own site refused us access to the document that would settle it — we would rather show you the gap than paper over it.
1. AT — Criptoativos: conceito fiscal e tributação · 2. AT — Modelo 3, Anexo G (Quadro 18) and Anexo G1 (Quadro 7) · 3. AT — IRS: principais prazos em 2026 · 4. DAC8. Retrieved 28 August 2026. This guide is information, not tax advice; rules change — the page is versioned (pt-2026.1), re-reviewed annually, and the English master is canonical. For binding answers, consult the authority named above or a licensed local tax advisor. Every country we cover → · How Portugal compares with thirteen others →