The tax on civil law in the event of trading in virtual currencies has long been described as absurd. The following months of abolition maintained a state of uncertainty about the accounts. Shield 2.0. finally solved the case, from 1 July 2020 exempting the sale and exchange of cryptocurrency from civil-law activities without a time limit.
This record was found under Article 28. Act dated 16 April 2020 specific support instruments for the spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2, the following:
"In the Act dated 9 September 2000 on tax on civil law acts (Journal of Laws of 2019, items 1519, 1901) under Article 9 rod point 1 the following is added: point 1a the following civil law acts are exempt from taxation: ‘1a) sale and conversion of virtual currencies within the meaning of Article 2(2)(26) Act dated 1 March 2018 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1115 as amended[7]) );” (Cf. dziennikustaw.gov.pl/D2020000069501.pdf)
The Ministry justifies the new law as follows:
The specification of transactions trading in virtual currency makes its parties remain anonymous, which makes it impossible to establish the tax status of the seller, which is the determining factor for charging the transaction in question with a civil-law tax.
In the case of transactions covered by the currency, the virtual question of the place of exercise of the property law, which is relevant to the provisions of the Act because of the territorial scope of its operation, is also ambiguous.
The tax is, in principle, subject to civil law activities, the subject of which is property rights exercised in the territory of the Republic of Poland, and it is not obvious where, in the case of the trading of virtual currency, a civil law activity occurs.
Given that tax legislation cannot constitute a specific trap for the taxpayer and that, in the case of tax on civil law transactions in the trading of virtual currency, there may be consequences which are difficult to accept in the light of constitutional rules, it is proposed to introduce exemptions from that tax.
The circulation of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies may be an opportunity to reduce the scope of the post-covid crisis, and in fact in some countries it has already proved useful in such a role (e.g. in Venezuela, where so-called hyperbitcoinisation is indicated as a possible economic rescue). Tax exemptions in this respect are therefore a very good decision by the government.