Buy Aave
in Switzerland

Yes. According to the established tax legislation defined by The Swiss Federal Tax Service (SFTA), cryptocurrencies are assets. This means that they are subject to Swiss wealth, income and capital gains taxes and must be declared in annual tax returns. The mentioned tax legislation treats crypto assets similar to stocks, bonds and real estate in Switzerland. According to the mentioned document above, if you are a private crypto investor, your crypto profits will be completely exempt from Capital Gains Tax. This is as long as you fulfill these five criteria:

1.     transaction volumes should not exceed five times the original capital
2.     holding period of crypto assets should be six months or more
3.     capital gains should be less than 50% of overall taxable income
4.     minimal usage of third-party financing (buy assets with your money)
5.     derivatives only used as a hedging tool

Note that as stated by the tax legislation document, if you violate two or more criteria, chances are that you may not be considered a private investor but a self-employed trader instead. If you are not sure that you will be considered a private investor or a self-employed trader, we recommend consulting a tax professional in Switzerland or the SFTA directly.

According to the tax legislation document, private investors don’t have to pay tax on their trading profits, but you might still need to pay Income Tax on cryptocurrency. Having your salary from a job being paid in a cryptocurrency, getting paid in crypto in exchange for services if you are a freelancer, or receiving crypto from activities such as mining will be considered income by the FTA.