Bitcoin as Loan Collateral: When No Tax Arises in Austria
Owning Bitcoin, needing liquidity, and yet not wanting to sell the coins: crypto loans promise exactly that model. The investor pledges Bitcoin as collateral and receives euros or stablecoins as a loan in return. For tax purposes, the decisive question is what actually happens to the Bitcoin.
A mere pledge, in which the investor remains the beneficial owner and the coins are neither sold nor exchanged for another asset, does not in principle trigger a taxable realisation event.
Tax on Bitcoin generally arises on a realisation
Austrian crypto tax law captures in particular the following events:
- a sale for euros,
- an exchange for foreign currencies,
- an exchange for other assets,
- use as payment for services.
An exchange of one crypto asset for another, by contrast, remains tax-neutral in principle. Where Bitcoin is merely pledged as security or technically locked, and beneficial ownership does not pass to anyone else, such a sale or exchange is in principle absent.
The loan paid out is not automatically Bitcoin proceeds
An example:
- Bitcoin value: €50,000 <...
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