The Dutch tax authority is asking about my crypto, who helps me substantiate it?

By R.T. (Tyler) Dijst, blockchain investigator at Paucitas

What Paucitas does

We establish which holdings you had on which date, per wallet and per coin, and reconstruct how those holdings were built up. One example: someone had traded on three exchanges over four years and moved balances to a hardware wallet in between. By taking all the addresses together and fixing a balance as at 1 January, it became visible that the growth came from price movement and not from new deposits.

For readers outside the Netherlands it helps to know the frame: Dutch personal income tax places crypto holdings in Box 3, the wealth box, and takes the value on 1 January as the reference date. A request for information from the Dutch tax authority is usually about exactly those two things.

We establish which holdings you had on which date, per wallet and per coin, and reconstruct how those holdings were built up. One example: someone had traded on three exchanges over four years and moved balances to a hardware wallet in between. By taking all the addresses together and fixing a balance as at 1 January, it became visible that the growth came from price movement and not from new deposits.

What you supply

You supply the letter or the request you received, the exports from your exchanges, the addresses of your wallets and the bank statements of your deposits and withdrawals. The letter itself matters most, because it defines which years and which question are in play.

Bank statements of your deposits and withdrawals belong in the set as well. They tie the on-chain holdings to you personally, and they usually explain the differences between years that the inspector has noticed.

What you receive

You receive a balance specification per reference date, a transaction overview and an account of the method and the price source used. The step that is often underestimated is the treatment of staking and airdrop receipts: those fall outside the ordinary purchase timeline and have to be visible separately.

Three documents settle most requests: a balance specification per reference date, a transaction overview, and an account of the method and the price source. Dutch tax authority questions about crypto are usually about exactly those two things, the value on 1 January and the origin of the holding, and a file that answers both in that order rarely needs a second round.

Staking and airdrop receipts are handled separately in the overview. They fall outside the ordinary purchase timeline, and folding them in is the mistake that most often produces a follow up question.

How to get started

Contact us with the question that was asked and the period it covers. Deadlines set by the inspector are usually short, so an early message helps. Write through the contact page and attach the letter if you can.

Deadlines set by the inspector are usually short, so an early message helps. Attach the letter if you can; it defines which years and which question are in play, and that determines the whole scope.

The tax authority asks for evidence: what do you supply?

If you receive a letter asking for evidence, it is rarely about a single document. What is usually asked: which addresses and accounts did you hold, what was on them on the reference date, how were those holdings built up and where did the money you started with come from.

Paucitas turns that into something checkable: an overview per address and per token with the position on the dates requested, a timeline from first deposit to today, and a transaction hash or export line as the source for every line. Points that cannot be substantiated are named separately, so your adviser can explain them up front rather than be questioned about them later.

Paucitas establishes the facts and records them. The tax assessment and the return itself remain with you or with your tax adviser.