Denmark Supreme Court rules that Bitcoin gains are taxable

Denmark’s Supreme Court has ruled that gains made from Bitcoin (BTC) sales are taxable.

The apex court arrived at this ruling in two cases presented before it, giving judgment on March 30.

Case(s) in point

In the first case, the holder purchased their BTC holdings and received some as a gift between 2011 – 2015. The holder would later sell these assets at a profit in 2017 and 2018.

In the other case, the BTC was acquired through mining activities between 2011 and 2013 and sold at a profit in 2018.

In both cases, the court ruled that the profits from the Bitcoin sales were not tax-free.

According to a translated statement from the Supreme Court, investments in the flagship digital assets are speculative and are subject to the country’s Tax act. The court also ruled that the BTC received as gifts or through mining “constituted turnover in their non-business enterprises.”

The gains made from these enterprises “trigger tax liability.”

The court did not rule on how much tax the gains were subjected to.

Meanwhile, Denmark is not the only country introducing the crypto gain tax in its jurisdiction. The Italian Senate approved a 26% tax on capital gains on crypto-asset trading of over 2,000 euros. A German court also ruled that a private crypto investor must pay tax on his crypto gains.