Austrian Bitcoin Tax Report Errors: What Investors Need to Know

The Austrian government's Bitcoin tax report has been found to contain errors, particularly for investors who purchased Bitcoin outside of Austria.

For income from 2025 onwards, investors can request standardized tax reporting from parties obligated to withhold capital gains tax (KESt) in Austria. However, the report should not be accepted without verification, as incorrect acquisition costs, transfers from external wallets, or incomplete tax data can result in an inaccurate representation of the actual tax position.

A critical case arises when Bitcoin was originally purchased outside of Austria, as the crypto service provider may not have access to the actual acquisition costs, original purchase date, earlier crypto-to-crypto swaps, or whether the coins are considered old or new holdings. In such cases, statutory flat-rate valuation rules can apply if necessary data is missing.

In the tax report and underlying exchange data, investors should check for taxable gains, realized losses, capital gains tax withheld, acquisition costs applied, allocation of wallet transfers, treatment of old holdings, and loss offsetting. Discrepancies in these areas can result in too much tax being initially accounted for.

Crypto service providers may be able to correct errors through a reevaluation of the data or an adjustment to the capital gains tax deduction. However, if this is no longer possible, an income tax assessment may become necessary.