Cripto-valute e (non) sanzionabilità del contribuente: le criticità del crypto condono

The Budget Law for 2023 has, for the first time, regulated crypto-assets for tax purposes, providing a specific tax case in the category of miscellaneous income and including them among foreign financial assets subject to tax monitoring. At the same time, an amnesty was introduced for cryptocurrencies held by December 31, 2021. The legislative choice raises several perplexities on the theoretical as well as the practical level, mainly because the potentially amnestible behavior cannot be considered punishable violations of tax regulations. In fact, prior to the entry into force of the Budget Law, the issues of the taxability of income from cryptocurrencies and the obligation (and the content of this obligation) of monitoring were controversial, to say the least: in the face of the silence of the law and the absence of jurisprudential precedents, administrative practice has developed defined solutions only very recently and without the support of doctrine. It is therefore possible to consider that, prior to 2023, there was a situation of objective regulatory uncertainty, such that administrative penalties could not be applied. The crypto amnesty, rather than sanctioning (and taxing) past violations in a reduced way, thus takes on the dimension of an obolus that taxpayers may decide to pay in order to obtain ascertainable peace of mind in the face of IRS challenges directed at the past. The quantum to be paid, however, can be part