The decree of January 13, 2022, of the Ministry of Economy and Finance – concerning the methods and deadline (by May 18, 2022) by which professional providers of services relating to the use of virtual currency (cryptocurrency) and professional providers of digital wallet services are required to communicate their operations on the national territory, as well as the forms of cooperation between the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the police and finance forces – has been published in the Official Gazette.
The provisions of the Ministerial Decree of January 13, 2022 will have the effect of encouraging the filing of the RW framework by the holders of cryptocurrencies, given the possibility for the police forces – more specifically, for the “Guardia di Finanza”, the Financial Police – to verify their compliance with the expected tax monitoring obligations by cross-referencing the data relating to their tax returns with the data acquired by the OAM (the Italian Body of financial agents and credit brokers).
It is worthwhile to recall the position of the Italian Tax Authority in response to Ruling no. 788/2021: “For all the virtual currencies held by the petitioner, i.e., also for those of which he/she directly holds the private key, there is the obligation of fiscal monitoring pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 167/1990 and, consequently, the petitioner is required to complete the RW framework of the Income Form PF 2021”.
With this decree, issued pursuant to art. 17-bis, paragraph 8-ter, Legislative Decree no. 141 of August 13, 2010, the following have been established: