Can you buy a house with bitcoin in Spain?

Can you buy a house with bitcoin in Spain?

Eleven years ago, a user of the Bitcointalk forum decided to order two family-sized pizzas and pay for them with cryptocurrency, which was not widespread at that time. The price of 10,000 units of bitcoin was about $41 in 2010. Today, the same amount of bitcoin costs $400 million, and we could buy almost twenty million of the same family-sized pizzas.

2020 has been the year of the cryptocurrency boom, and 2021 seems to follow the growth path of this popular virtual currency. And although the idea of paying for material goods with bitcoins is not very deeply rooted in society. More and more small investors are betting on it.

This growth has not yet been followed by legislative changes that raise doubts about the legality or illegality of paying with cryptocurrencies. In this regard, the Spanish government proposed the "gradual elimination of cash payments with a view to their final disappearance" in June last year in order to combat tax evasion and fraud. This could accelerate the digitization of transactions, although there are currently loopholes in the legislation. Therefore, you need to know what you can and can't do when it comes to cryptocurrency payments, in order to be able to say: "I bought an apartment for four bitcoins."

Is it possible to pay for a house with bitcoins?

Yes, if we convert them to euros. Buying goods with bitcoins is completely legal in the European Union, which also does not charge VAT for currency exchange. So it is enough to agree on this in advance with the buyer to be able to make a payment in cryptocurrency. If you have enough cryptocurrency to pay for a house, all you have to do is to convert it to the currency of that country where you want to buy an apartment, and complete all the formalities with the Tax agency.

What are the steps to follow?

It is necessary to take into account the fact that when paying in bitcoins, you need to know the exact moment at which you are making a transfer in euros, because cryptocurrencies are very unstable assets and can change in price every day. And the price must always be in euros in sales transactions.

Thus, the purchase and sale procedure is exactly the same as the usual one, with the only difference that the value of the cryptocurrency is converted into euros so that the property can be legally transferred to the property.

Who benefits from this?

Given the instability of the bitcoin market, the seller assumes the risk in the event of a fall in the price of bitcoin as a result of the transaction. Typically, the sellers who accept these transactions are large investors in cryptocurrencies, so they always come out ahead and win. On the other hand, since bitcoin is also used by criminal organizations to establish secure and secret payments, the buyer may have to clarify the legal origin of their wealth.

Share
Subscribe to newsletter
Subscribe