On 8 November, bitcoin fell as low as about 73,761 dollars, its lowest level since August according to CoinDesk. The day before, the Alternative.me Fear & Greed Index stood at 25: “extreme fear”. With the market like this and less than two months left in the year, it is time to look at what happens to your crypto before year end.
The short answer: everything you sell, swap or pay for with crypto up to 31 December goes into your 2026 income tax return (the Renta), and any losses you have already realised can be deducted from your gains. 31 December is also the snapshot that counts for modelo 721. At CryptoImpuestos we have gone through the Spanish Personal Income Tax Act (IRPF) and the criteria of the Spanish tax agency to give you a list of what is worth checking now, without last-minute rushing. This is not an investment guide: what you do with your coins is your decision.
What counts as a gain or a loss in 2026?
In your income tax return (the Renta), a crypto asset generates nothing while you hold it. A rise or fall in its price is not declared. The gain or loss appears when you dispose of it, and that happens in three cases:
- Selling for euros (or another legal-tender currency).
- Swapping one crypto for another, for example ETH for SOL or BTC for USDC. It is an exchange (a “permuta”), and it counts even if you never see a euro. This has been the view of the Directorate-General for Taxation (DGT) since binding ruling V0999-18 of 18 April 2018.
- Paying with crypto for goods or a service. You hand over your coins in return for something, so it is a disposal too.
In each case, what those coins cost you is compared with what they were worth when you disposed of them. To work out which coins you have sold, the global FIFO method is used: the first ones you bought, on any platform, are the first ones out.
What is not a disposal: buying with euros, moving your coins between your own accounts or withdrawing them to your wallet. According to DGT ruling V0648-24, the fee you pay to move crypto between two wallets of your own has no effect on IRPF either. The sales, swaps and payments you make from now until 31 December are allocated to the 2026 tax year, which is declared in the 2027 Renta, between April and the end of June.
Selling at a loss before 31 December: what the law allows
If you have sold at a gain this year and you hold other coins worth less than they cost you, the law allows one thing: if you sell those coins before 31 December, the loss is realised in 2026 and is deducted from the gains of the same year. If you do not sell, the loss does not exist for tax purposes, however much you see it in the app.
A simple example. You have made €3,000 selling BTC and you hold ETH that is worth €1,000 less today than it cost you. If you sell that ETH before year end, your net gain for 2026 would be €2,000. If you do not sell it, you declare the €3,000.
This is what the rules say, not a recommendation. Selling to realise a loss has its own costs, such as fees, and leaves you out of that coin. And if you plan to buy it back soon, read the section on buying back first. You will find the full offsetting order in how to offset crypto losses in your tax return.
The limits: 25% and the following four years
The rules are in Article 49 of Law 35/2006 on IRPF, which governs the savings tax base. It contains two boxes that are first calculated separately:
- Capital gains and losses from disposals: your sales, swaps and payments with crypto go here. They offset each other without limit.
- Savings income from movable capital: interest, dividends and, as a general rule, staking rewards.
If your gains-and-losses box comes out negative, you can deduct that balance from the other box, but only up to 25% of its positive income for that year. Whatever is still not offset carries over to the following four years, in the same order. And it works the same way the other way round: a negative balance of income can reduce up to 25% of capital gains.
An example. You close 2026 with €4,000 of net losses and €2,000 of income from movable capital. You can offset €500 (25% of €2,000). The remaining €3,500 carries over to 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030.
The same article adds a detail few people know: offsetting is done in the maximum amount each year allows. You cannot save your losses for a year when they suit you better. And declare the years in which you only made losses too. If a loss does not appear in the return for the year in which it arose, you cannot simply carry it over to a later year. If you forgot, you can correct that return with a corrective self-assessment (autoliquidación rectificativa), generally as long as four years have not passed since its filing deadline ended.
One clarification: gains and losses that do not come from a disposal go to the general tax base (Article 48 of the same law) and do not enter these boxes.
Be careful about selling and buying straight back
This is the question that comes up most at this time of year. Can you sell at a loss on 20 December and buy the same crypto again a few days later? The honest answer is that the law does not make it clear for crypto.
Article 33.5 of the IRPF Act prevents some losses from being counted when you buy the same thing back shortly afterwards:
- Letter e): losses from disposing of assets that you acquire again within the following year.
- Letter f): losses from selling listed securities if you buy homogeneous securities in the two months before or after.
- Letter g): the same for unlisted securities, with a period of one year before or after.
Crypto assets are not securities, so letters f) and g), which are for securities, do not fit. The Spanish tax agency treats them as homogeneous goods, not as “homogeneous securities”. Letter e), on the other hand, applies to any asset. At CryptoImpuestos we have not found a published DGT ruling applying it to crypto, but nor have we found one ruling it out. The prudent reading is this: if you sell at a loss and buy the same crypto back within the following 12 months, the Spanish tax agency could apply letter e) and defer the loss until you sell those coins.
What the law does say is that, in these cases, the loss does not disappear: it is deferred until you sell the coins you bought back. Even so, the risk is real: if you count on that loss in 2026 and the Spanish tax agency takes the view that you could not count it, your return changes. If you plan to sell and buy back, check your case with a professional before doing it.
Staking and rewards: also 2026 income
Not everything that is taxed is a sale. The staking rewards you receive during the year are 2026 income even if you do not sell them. As a general rule, the DGT treats them as income from movable capital, at the value they had when you received them.
This matters twice over when you close the year:
- You have to add up all the rewards received from January to December, on each platform.
- Those rewards are in the box from which capital losses can deduct up to 25%, as we saw above.
And when you sell those coins, their acquisition cost is the value at which they were already taxed. The details are in how staking rewards are taxed.
Your balance on 31 December and modelo 721
31 December does not only close the income tax year. It is also the date that matters for modelo 721, the information return on crypto held with custodians abroad.
What counts:
- You hold crypto on foreign exchanges or custodians.
- The combined value of those balances exceeds €50,000 on 31 December. It is not an average balance: it is the snapshot on that day.
- If so, you file it from 1 January to 31 March 2027.
Wallets where you control the keys do not count. And if you already filed it in a previous year, you only have to file again if the combined value has risen by more than €20,000 since your last return or if you no longer hold coins you had already declared.
What decides whether an account counts is whether the entity holding your coins is Spanish or has an establishment in Spain, not whether the exchange is allowed to operate here. We explain it, with the list of exchanges, in the complete guide to modelo 721.
Get your history ready now, not in May
All of the above depends on one thing: having the complete history of every exchange and every wallet you have used, from your first purchase. Without it there is no global FIFO, you do not know which losses you have realised and you cannot check your balance on 31 December.
Downloading it now has two advantages. If a file is missing, you have time to request it. And if a platform changes or closes, it does not catch you in the middle of the tax season. That is what has happened with Binance, which has not operated normally in Spain since 1 July 2026 and will close the affected accounts on 31 December; we explain its situation in what is happening with Binance.
You will find the steps in how to download your Binance history and how to download your Revolut history. The files from each platform are enough: the calculation is done afterwards.
Summary: what to check before 31 December
| What to check | Why it matters | Where the rule is |
|---|---|---|
| Sales, swaps and crypto payments in 2026 | They create a gain or loss in your 2026 return | IRPF Act; DGT V0999-18 for swaps |
| Unrealised losses | They only count if you realise them before 31/12 | IRPF Act |
| Losses you cannot offset | Up to 25% of the other box and four years of carry-forward | Art. 49 IRPF Act |
| Selling and buying back | If you buy back within 12 months, the tax agency could defer the loss | Art. 33.5 IRPF Act |
| Staking rewards | Income from movable capital for the year | DGT criterion |
| Balance with foreign custodians on 31/12 | Over €50,000: modelo 721 by 31/03/2027 | Modelo 721 |
| History from each platform | Without it there is no global FIFO | — |
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to declare anything if my crypto has fallen but I haven’t sold?
Not for the fall. As long as you do not sell, swap or pay with it, there is no gain or loss to declare. Staking rewards you have received are a different matter: they are income for the year.
If I swap BTC for USDC before year end, does it count for 2026?
Yes. Swapping one crypto for another, including a stablecoin, is an exchange. It creates a gain or a loss on the date of the swap, even if you do not move anything into euros.
Is it worth selling at a loss to pay less?
That depends on your situation and is your decision. What the law allows is to deduct realised losses from the gains of the same year and, if there is any left over, to use them within the limits of Article 49 over the following four years.
Can I sell and buy back the same crypto the next day?
You can, but there is no published criterion. The one-year buy-back rule in the IRPF Act applies to any asset, and the Spanish tax agency could apply it: in that case, the loss would not count in 2026 and would be deferred until you sell the coins you bought back. Check your case first.
I have more than €50,000 on a Ledger. Do I have to file modelo 721?
Not for what you hold on your Ledger. Wallets where you control the keys do not count for modelo 721. Only what is held on foreign exchanges or custodians counts.
Close the year with clear numbers
If you have traded on several platforms, made swaps or have staking, the hard part is putting it all together. Send us your history and we will produce the document with all your exchanges and wallets using the global FIFO method the Spanish tax agency requires.
Sources: Law 35/2006 on IRPF, consolidated text (BOE), Arts. 33.5, 48 and 49 · CoinDesk: Bitcoin drops, then pops as Nvidia cheating scandal and failed Iran talks trigger volatility (08/11/2026) · Alternative.me: Crypto Fear & Greed Index
Víctor Lázaro
Marketing Director, Cryptoimpuestos.es
