Portugal Crypto Tax 2026: IRS — What Residents Must Report and When

Educational material; for edge cases and larger amounts, it’s worth involving a tax specialist in Portugal.

In 2026, three things drive most outcomes: the type of transaction, the holding period (the 365-day threshold), and how “regular” your activity looks. That combination determines which IRS “bucket” your income falls into—Category G, B, or E—and what you report in Modelo 3.

Who Needs to Report Crypto in Portugal?

If you are a Portuguese tax resident, you file IRS under the rules of CIRS (Código do IRS) and report income/capital gains for the tax year—including those linked to crypto transactions.

Tax residency itself is determined by separate criteria (days of presence, “center of vital interests,” etc.). Once you are a resident, the tax rules apply to your activity during the year.

The Key 2026 Question: Category G, B, or E?

In Portugal, what matters is not the word “crypto,” but the nature of the income. In practice, most cases follow one of three paths.

Category G — capital gains (mais-valias) from disposal of crypto-assets

This typically covers situations where crypto is sold for fiat or used to pay for goods/services. In substance, you disposed of an asset and received fiat or consumption—tax authorities treat this as a disposal (alienação).

The 365-day rule is the main filter: if the asset was held 365 days or longer, the profit from that sale may qualify for an exemption (isento), subject to the conditions set out in CIRS (often referenced as art. 10.º, n.º 19).

For Category G, the 28% special rate (taxa especial) is commonly discussed, and in some cases you can opt for englobamento (including the income in your overall taxable income under progressive rates). Which option is better depends on your other income and your broader situation.

Category B — professional / business activity

If your crypto activity looks like a regular activity (e.g., mining/validation as a line of work, service models, consistent activity with business-like features), it more often falls under Category B.

Public tax overviews (including Big 4 / consulting notes) mention coefficients under the simplified regime (regime simplificado), such as 0.15 for certain crypto income and 0.95 for mining—whether these apply depends on the specific setup and regime.

Under Category B, the taxable base may be calculated via a coefficient rather than “net profit” in the classic accounting sense.

Category E — investment income (rendimentos de capitais)

Staking/interest/rewards can be harder to classify: the tax treatment depends on how the product is structured and what exactly you are receiving. In practice you’ll see interpretations under E or B, and for grey areas it’s safer to rely on the platform’s documentation and a written view from an adviser.

Crypto-to-Crypto: When Tax Doesn’t Arise Immediately

If you exchange one crypto-asset for another, capital gains tax typically does not arise at the moment of the swap. Instead, the acquisition cost is carried over to the new asset (a carry-over of the cost basis). Overviews often cite CIRS (art. 10.º, n.º 20) and the caveats around valores mobiliários.

What this means in practice:

an ETH → USDC swap often does not create immediate tax;

USDC → EUR (or paying for purchases with a stablecoin) can become a Category G event, because fiat/consumption appears.

A common mistake is mixing these two treatments and tracking everything as if it were the same.

NFTs: A Separate Risk Area

The regime may not treat unique, non-fungible assets (NFTs) in the same way as “standard” tokens. For NFTs, facts often matter more: one-off sales vs systematic trading, links to professional activity, and the monetization model.

If NFTs represent a meaningful share of your activity, plan for closer scrutiny of the classification.

What to Report in IRS (Modelo 3) 

Category G: reported in Modelo 3, typically via capital gains annexes (people often mention Anexo G).

Category B: reported via annexes for professional income (often Anexo B or Anexo C, depending on the regime).

Category E: reported under the rules for investment/capital income (the annex and approach depend on how the income is classified).

IRS filing is usually in spring to early summer (often quoted as 1 April to 30 June). Transactions in 2026 are typically reported in the return filed in 2027, unless the calendar changes.

Record-Keeping Workflow

If you want IRS season to be routine rather than a reconstruction project, a simple workflow helps.

Step 1. Split transactions by type

• cashing out to fiat (EUR/GBP/USD);
• paying for goods/services with crypto;
• crypto-to-crypto;
• staking/rewards;
• mining/validation (if applicable).

Step 2. Track holding periods for potential Category G events

The 365-day threshold is critical. If you don’t record acquisition dates, it becomes hard to prove the holding period later.

Step 3. Collect documents

• exchange trade exports (CSV/statement);
• TX hashes / explorer links for major movements;
• bank statements for on/off-ramps;
• platform reports, if generated automatically.

If you use multiple exchanges and wallets, keep a single journal: date, asset, amount, price, fee, and transaction type. It saves hours once you open Modelo 3 and try to locate that one EUR cash-out.

Conclusion

If you’re building a passive portfolio strategy, two habits usually matter most in Portugal: keeping clean records (dates and history) and staying aware of the holding period. That’s why it helps to use infrastructure where exports and confirmations are easy to obtain.

Within the Hexn ecosystem, you can structure this as a clear operational loop: custody, conversion, and payouts with a transaction history that’s easier to assemble for IRS reporting.
The sooner your exports and confirmations are organized, the fewer surprises you’ll face when filing Modelo 3.