Portugal has been talked about as the dream of any cryptocurrencies trader or holder. The country doesn't have any tax system on cryptocurrencies and everyone is free to trade, buy and sell without having to pay anything to the state.
This situation is about to change, as more countries tax crypto, Portugal will follow and tax crypto gains. This situation was explained by the Portuguese government and although the laws aren't done and it can take sometime before things are put in place, Portugal will tax cryptocurrencies.
The crypto tax heaven status Portugal holds will eventually end, crypto users hope that the laws at least will be fair, there's still no information about how this will develop and the only thing that users can do is wait.
Why this may not be a good idea for Portugal?
Portugal is one of the weakest economies on Europe and on the European Union and it has already a history of over taxing everything. Crypto being untaxed actually could have been a major consideration for crypto companies to work from Portugal and do its business in Portugal. Although the state would not receive any taxes from people buying and selling, they would receive an enormous amount of business, attention and investors, jobs would be created and the unemployed rate would drop. More people working also means more people paying their taxes. The benefit of receiving a new and rising industry with open arms are many and Portugal actually had the opportunity to receive all the credit for treating crypto has a currency and not has an asset.
Many coutries already benefit for not taxing some industries or not taxing them so hard, this is the example of online casinos, the majority operate from a country that doesn't has hard laws on gambling. The potential of cryptocurrencies is many times higher than online gambling, it can be stablished has a currency on the long term.
If cryptocurrencies reach the desired objective of becoming a major player on the world economy, the ones who adopted it sooner and made everything in their power to be crypto friendly are the ones who will collect the most benefits. Portugal had the opportunity of becoming a major player in the cryptocurrencies world and it seams that they want to let it go. Lets see how this develops and if Portugal will be easy on crypto or hard.
Many countries are making laws for crypto and although some major players on the central banks keep repeating the narrative that crypto is worth nothing, crypto continues to prove them wrong every time. It has been a little more than a decade since Bitcoin was launched and it already made the news as an alternative to many economic aspects. A decade is nothing in terms of investing and adoption and Bitcoin and crypto in general has already conquered so much.
Best Regards,
Cryptopeach