DAC8

What it means

DAC8 is the eighth amendment to the EU directive on administrative cooperation in taxation, extending automatic exchange of information to crypto-assets. Crypto-asset service providers, meaning exchanges, brokers and wallet providers, must from 2026 collect data on their clients and transactions and report it to the tax authorities.

They report the client’s identity and tax residence and aggregated data on exchanges of crypto-assets for money, for other crypto-assets and on transfers. The first reports, for 2026, are filed in 2027. The directive builds on the MiCA regulation, which governs the licensing of these providers.

DAC8 complements existing systems: CRS covers bank accounts and investments and DAC7 covers sales through digital platforms. With DAC8 the crypto gap closes, and the tax authorities will have a similar view of crypto trading as they do of bank interest.

How it works in practice

For individuals in Slovakia, income from selling a virtual currency is taxed as other income, with the acquisition cost of the crypto sold as the deductible expense. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another is not treated as income; tax arises only on conversion to euros or payment for goods and services.

Anyone trading crypto-assets should keep records of purchases and sales with dates and prices, ideally exported from the exchanges. Without them, the acquisition cost is hard to prove in an audit and tax is then computed on the whole sale amount. DAC8 data will let the tax authorities target such audits.

Companies that hold crypto-assets or accept payments in cryptocurrency account for them under Slovak accounting procedures and tax them within the ordinary tax base. DAC8 affects them mainly in that their provider will report their transactions too.

What to watch out for

The biggest risk is undeclared gains from previous years. Providers keep client data, and once the tax authorities receive DAC8 data they may look at earlier periods as long as the assessment time limit has not expired. A voluntary amended return costs less than a reassessment after an audit.

Watch foreign exchanges outside the EU too. They are not directly covered by DAC8, but many countries are joining the equivalent OECD framework and exchange data as well. The assumption that trading through a foreign platform will stay invisible is less and less realistic.