The difficulties faced by Finnish individuals in cryptocurrencies operations

Abstract

Nowadays the status of cryptocurrencies as decentralized digital assets creates an ongoing dilemma for tax systems around the world, not least in the part of Finland aimed at individuals. This thesis aims to examine the tax treatment of all forms of cryptocurrency among individual taxpayers in Finland, analyzing applicable legislation, features of compliance and examining sector-specific use cases.

It was a qualitative method, which means that, information was combined information is from the authoritative sources such as guidelines provided by the Finnish Tax Administration, provisions of the Income Tax Act, and applicable EU regulations. The taxation of capital gains, income from activities such as mining, and recent legislative changes, including the DAC8 directive, were examined comprehensively.

Taxable events were evaluated including trades and exchanges, donations across personal, business and investment settings. It was also revealed that, although an efficient system for reporting income through cryptocurrency has been developed in Finland, the lack of clear regulations and the complexity of reports, especially due to varying values of assets, were pointed out as major obstacles for taxpayers. Proposals for streamlining compliance included loosening online tax reporting tools and clarifying guidance. This new paper clarifies the current landscape of cryptocurrency taxation in Finland and suggests a future research agenda in the context of forwarding European policies in this area and the growing importance of emerging digital assets.