Best Bitcoin Exchange for Spain

In the future, the Spanish government wants to oblige investors to mark their crypto plants at home and abroad for tax purposes. A bill to this effect was tabled by the cabinet last week and is now waiting for parliamentary approval. The socialist minority government in Madrid wants to use the initiative to combat tax fraud.

Crypto currencies are very popular in Spain. The socialist minority government, which was newly elected in June, now wants to counter the fact that businesses are often carried out with the backs of the authorities and often serve tax evasion as part of its anti-corruption offensive. Finance Minister María Jesús Montero wants to oblige investors in future to disclose their crypto installations.

According to the new law, owners of Bitcoin & Co. should make all domestic and foreign investments tax-identifiable to the domestic authorities, Montero describes the new draft law to the Madrid newspaper ABC.

This was introduced last week by the cabinet. The draft is now for discussion and processing in the Spanish House of Representatives and could already be passed at the end of the year. However, it is doubtful that the government’s proposal will receive the blessing of parliamentarians. Pedro Sánchez’s party occupies just under a quarter of the seats and thus has little support in the people’s representation.

The economic situation: Madrid wants to catch up with reforms

In addition to the obligation to report, the government also announced last week a tougher course of action against the users of software to conceal taxes. According to the announcement, violations of the obligation to show identity or false reports will be subject to fines of 5,000 euros.

Madrid fears above all the possibility of large-scale tax fraud and corruption, as recently accused of the previous government. The socialist government has taken up the cause of promoting tax justice and relieving families affected by the tense economic situation in the country.

Since the euro crisis, the Spanish economy has been on a steady upward trajectory. Nevertheless, major labour market reforms have been suspended since 2016 under former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who also struggled with the limited capacity of a minority government to act.

Spain, for example, continues to groan under astronomically high youth unemployment rates above 30 percent. The national debt in the budget is 100 percent in line with the gross domestic product. And with a comparable cost of living, Spaniards only have just under half of the income of German employees in their wallets.

Meanwhile, the IMF sees the tense situation with regard to Catalonia’s independence efforts as an economic pitfall that could once again send the Spanish stock markets downhill.

The Spanish legal situation remains a mystery

Spanish crypto investors, however, fish in murky waters. On the one hand, the country’s central bank last praised the potential of digital currencies in August. On the other hand, the bank’s securities supervisors continue to insist on their warnings. Thus, crypto currencies are not legal means of payment. In addition, the dangers of fraud and losses must always be considered. Profits from business with crypto currencies are taxable in Spain at present. Transactions, on the other hand, are exempt from VAT.

Spains economy

Spain’s economy is the twelfth largest in the world. The most important economic sectors are tourism, communications and information technology, the metalworking industry, mechanical engineering, agriculture and petrochemistry. The most important export and import partners are France and Germany.

In the Global Competitiveness Index, which measures a country’s competitiveness, Spain ranks 34th out of 137 countries (2017-18). In the Index for Economic Freedom, Spain ranks 69th out of 180 countries in 2017.

Spanish companies

The typical sectors with large Spanish companies in 2011 were banks, with the leading banks Banco Santander, the second largest financial institution in Europe, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, with a focus on Spain, Portugal and Central and South America. Another typical sector is the construction industry, headed by Grupo ACS and Ferrovial. Large individual companies are the telecommunications group Telefónica, the utilities Iberdrola and Gas Natural, the insurance company Mapfre, the infrastructure company Abertis and the textile company Inditex.

Tourism

Tourism is an important economic factor for Spain. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNO), almost 75 million tourists travelled to Spain in 2016. On average, they spent around EUR 800 and thus left around EUR 60 billion in the country.

Farming

Spain has the largest vine-growing area in the world, with approximately the same amount of red and white wine being produced. Today it is still one of the largest agricultural producers in Western Europe. Eleven percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. The most important agricultural products are wheat, barley, sugar beet, maize, potatoes, rye, oats, rice, grapes, tomatoes and onions. Spain has extensive wine-growing areas and citrus and olive groves.

End of the economic boom, crisis and reforms

With the onset of the international financial crisis in 2007, the above-average economic growth that lasted for around 15 years ended and Spain entered recession in the second quarter of 2008. The Zapatero I (2004-2008) and Zapatero II (2008-2011) Cabinets seemed to have overcome the 2010/11 crisis, but the international financial crisis had exacerbated the country’s accumulated mistakes, such as in the construction and banking sectors, to such an extent that they plunged the country into the next economic crisis (euro crisis). Unemployment, which was only around 8 % in 2007, rose to over 20 % in 2011. The previously moderate national debt of around 40 % (2008) also rose sharply and the annual new government debt became a problem. In 2011, Mariano Rajoy was elected prime minister. In June/July 2012, the Rajoy cabinet agreed to borrow up to 100 billion euros from the EFSF, of which 41.5 billion was drawn down, to support some Spanish banks.

The international Spanish companies compensated for their declining turnover in Spain by expanding abroad. They are reducing their debts and opening up new international sources of finance. On the other hand, the economic situation is catastrophic for the large number of companies operating only nationally, as they lose turnover and financing. The tourism sector has not been completely unaffected by this either: in the crisis years 2008/2009 the number of tourists fell from 59 million (2007) to 52 million, accompanied by a loss of revenue of almost three billion euros per year.

Economic growth resumed in Spain in the third quarter of 2013 and the country left the rescue parachute on 23 January 2014. Interest rates to be paid by the Spanish state fell sharply, although unemployment remains at around 25 %.

Politically, Spain is on the verge of a change in 2015 as new parties establish themselves. The left-wing party Podemos emerged from the protest movement and the left-liberal Catalan Ciudadanos is developing into a party running for election throughout Spain.