Three vintages, three rules
Gains realised through 31 December 2024 still live under the old €2,000 threshold. Gains realised in 2025 — declared in 2026 — are taxed at 26 percent from the first cent. Gains realised from 1 January 2026 move to 33 percent: the increase, written into the 2025 budget law, was confirmed — not cancelled — by the 2026 budget law. Reading your statements starts with when you sold: the disposal date picks the rate, and across a year-end, seven percentage points are a difference you plan, not one you suffer.
The exception that proves it: euro EMTs
The 2026 budget law carved out a single concession: e-money tokens denominated in euro and compliant with MiCAR stay at 26 percent. The correct reading is narrow: USDT and USDC — dollar-pegged — are not euro EMTs and follow the 33 percent, and even converting a non-euro token into a euro EMT is itself an operation taxed at 33. Treating a dollar stablecoin as if it enjoyed the reduced rate is this year's new mistake — and the easiest one to cross-check against exchange data.
France defers the tax until you exit into euros; Italy raises it while you stay inside. The same neutral swaps, opposite philosophies: Paris waits for the cash, Rome only waits for the date.
What counts and what does not
A swap between cryptoassets with the same characteristics and functions — BTC for ETH, one altcoin for another — creates no taxable matter. What counts: disposal into euros or another currency, spending on goods and services, and moving into e-money tokens. Staking and holding proceeds are taxed on receipt, at the day's value, under the same substitute tax. Losses offset gains, and the excess carries forward to the fourth following tax year — provided it is declared in the return for the year it arose: an undeclared loss is a lost loss.
The administered regime: the new alternative
At authorised Italian intermediaries you can opt into the administered regime: the exchange acts as withholding agent, applies and remits, and for those holdings both the RT schedule and RW monitoring disappear. It is the simplicity route at the price of delegation — and it does not cover what remains on foreign platforms or in self-custody, where the self-declaring regime continues in full.
What to do
- Separate the vintages. Through 2024, the 2025 year, from 2026: every disposal reads under its own year's rule — threshold, 26, 33.
- Classify assets before operations. Euro EMTs at 26, everything else at 33 — and conversions into euro EMTs are disposals, not parking.
- Declare losses in the year they arise. The four-year carryforward exists only for those who record it.
- Document every acquisition cost. Without proof, the cost is zero and the gain is the entire proceeds — the schedule's most expensive rule.
This page explains computational rules. It is not advice on your operations, and reading it creates no professional relationship.