Finnish tax office to ramp up crypto transaction tracking to tackle under-reporting

Taxation officials in Finland are planning to step up the tracking of cryptocurrency transactions in an effort to boost tax reporting rates among investors in the Nordic nation.

Despite a record number of filed crypto tax returns this year, some 100,000 Finnish citizens have failed to declare income from coin trading last year, the country’s tax authority estimated.

Finnish tax service to boost tracking of crypto transactions

The Finnish Tax Administration (Verohallinto) will intensify the tracking of transactions involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), starting from early 2026.

The main motive behind the move is the large number of crypto sales that remain unreported by those who profit from them, the Yle news outlet reported.

That’s despite the record-high number of taxpayers, around 18,000 in total, who declared income from cryptocurrency trading received last year.

Finnish investors made some €225 million in capital gains (more than $260 million) from their activities on the market in 2024.

About €68 million (over $78 million) was paid to the state in the form of income tax, Yle further detailed, quoting official stats. It also noted:

“This year has seen a historically large number of crypto transactions.”

However, only around 10% of all crypto trades get reported to Verohallinto currently, pointed out Juho Hasa, a senior advisor at the agency.

The same reporting rate has been observed for several years now, and Finland is no exception among Nordic countries, the expert remarked.

Crypto holders in Finland near half a million

The Finnish tax authority has also estimated that approximately 450,000 taxpayers in Finland keep one cryptocurrency or another. That’s about 8% of its population of 5.6 million.

The administration does not rely solely on tax declarations to make these calculations, as it’s empowered to request such data from crypto trading platforms and other service providers operating in Finland.

Crypto owners are not required to report their holdings, as there’s currently no law obliging them to do so. However, providing information on the profits made is a must.

Hasa revealed that around 100,000 people have failed to declare income derived from cryptocurrency investments last year.

Tax evaders like these face higher taxation rates, he warned, and even criminal prosecution, in the case of large amounts of unreported gains.

Verohallinto has filed around 200 criminal reports over such cases in the course of the past three years, the official highlighted, with their numbers growing exponentially.

New regulations to facilitate crypto tracking

Things are not going to become any easier for tax-dodging investors as upcoming regulations aim to facilitate authorities in their efforts to identify profits from transactions with digital assets.

Finland prepares to implement CARF, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework introduced by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

It is a set of international rules enabling the collection of information about cryptocurrency holders and facilitating the exchange of tax-related data between the participating 70 nations. It resembles the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) applied to traditional financial assets.

To achieve that, CARF imposes reporting obligations on service providers, making them responsible for gathering and relaying info on crypto activities to tax authorities. This exchange of data is expected to begin in 2027.

Crypto platforms and intermediaries will require users to provide detailed personal information and keep a record of the transactions they have made.

It will not be uncommon in the future for crypto users to see their tax forms filled out in advance with the numbers they need to report, Juho Hasa admitted.

He expects up to 70,000 Finnish taxpayers to be “surprised,” once the CARF framework is implemented, and is convinced of the future increase in reported crypto profits and collected taxes.

Finland’s new rules governing the process will enter into force in January next year, but the change will be felt the following year, when Finns start filing their tax returns for 2026.

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