Spain passes new law on controversial claims on cryptocurrencies abroad

The Spanish Parliament has passed a controversial new law that will force Spaniards to declare crypto holdings abroad – as part of an effort to eradicate crypto scams.

Spain Adopts New Law On Controversial Claims Of Foreign Crypto Holders

The new law introducing cryptocurrencies into the Modelo 720 system has many shortcomings, has cleared the last hurdle and received the approval of the Spanish parliament, said the Ministry of Finance.

The Modelo 720 system, previously criticized by some others in the EU, is forcing Spaniards to declare foreign bank accounts and real estate, as well as other assets such as stocks. But cryptocurrencies have now been included in the same system. Spanish legal experts have been trying for more than six years to challenge the legality of the Modelo 720 in European courts – but to no avail.

Failure to report cryptocurrencies held overseas will result in a flat-rate fine of $ 5,900 per violation under the provisions of the new law. This means that fines can accumulate indefinitely if Spanish nationals hold cryptocurrencies on multiple platforms abroad but do not declare them on annual forms that must be submitted to the agency.

In the meantime, an expert has tried to solve the riddle of how the Spanish legal system correctly assesses cryptocurrencies. According to an article published by El Pais and written by the head of the law firm LaBE Abogados, Daniel Burón, June 20, 2019, the Supreme Court ruling in a case involving Bitcoin (BTC) has a serious legal precedent in Spain.

In this case, the incumbent judge ruled that “cryptocurrency is not considered cryptocurrency”.

The court also ruled that “Bitcoin is nothing more than a unit of account from the network of the same name”.

And the judge ruled that the Bitcoin network uses “a verified network of computers” and that “Bitcoin in this way is nothing more than an intangible inheritance”.

Burón added that this last fact is vital in the legal process – and it means that at the time of investment (in the case of a fraud test), Spanish courts will certainly have to set BTC or altcoin prices to calculate the island’s size and loss.

He concluded that the regulatory requirements for cryptocurrencies and payments set out in a 2011 law “do not apply to cryptocurrency miners”.

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