The broker that spares you the tax hassle on every trade
Trading stocks and crypto means reporting every single buy and sell. Renta 4 and MyInvestor integrate directly with the Spanish tax authority, but the FIFO rule with two brokers is the trap.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Trading stocks and crypto without the tax headache
Day-to-day trading in futures and cryptocurrencies has two enemies: volatility and taxes. While markets move in real time, the Spanish tax authority (Hacienda) keeps demanding a line for every single trade. The underlying question is whether there is a broker that hands you the results already cleaned up, without leaving the taxpayer to do the paperwork. The short answer in Spain is yes, with caveats: the broker must be Spanish, and you must not spread the same asset across two accounts.
The Spanish broker as a tax shortcut
Intermediaries based in Spain are required to report client transactions to the tax agency. That makes Renta 4 and MyInvestor the two recurring options. Renta 4 reports your trades and makes them appear in the draft of your income tax return; it also lets you buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana and trade in Madrid, the United States, Paris, Xetra and Italy. MyInvestor is recommended for its fees, range of assets and an app that now works reasonably well, although it has no physical branch. The third option, for those who keep their books up to date, is to group all trades together and report them as a single one; for everyone else, let the broker do it.
The same asset in two brokers: the FIFO mess[/SUZE]
The problem appears when the same security is split across two platforms. The FIFO method (first in, first out) means the first shares bought are deemed to be sold first, no matter what they cost. In the case at hand: 10 shares at broker A, 20 at broker B, and 10 are sold from B. For tax purposes, the purchase price that counts is that of the first 10 bought at A, not the one shown by B. Neither broker shares that information with the other, so the data reaching the tax authority may not add up. The difference ranges between 100 and 2,000 euros in gains depending on which side you look at it from, and the adjustment ends up on the taxpayer's side.
Relying on a foreign broker's summary does not solve it either. The question of whether Interactive Brokers provides a statement valid for the Spanish tax authority remains open; what is clear is that the one ultimately responsible for reconciling the figures is the same person who then signs the tax return. The simplest solution is a single Spanish broker. The second is to keep full control of your ins and outs before the tax authority does it for you.
Day-to-day trading in futures and cryptocurrencies has two enemies: volatility and taxes. While markets move in real time, the Spanish tax authority (Hacienda) keeps demanding a line for every single trade. The underlying question is whether there is a broker that hands you the results already cleaned up, without leaving the taxpayer to do the paperwork. The short answer in Spain is yes, with caveats: the broker must be Spanish, and you must not spread the same asset across two accounts.
The Spanish broker as a tax shortcut
Intermediaries based in Spain are required to report client transactions to the tax agency. That makes Renta 4 and MyInvestor the two recurring options. Renta 4 reports your trades and makes them appear in the draft of your income tax return; it also lets you buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana and trade in Madrid, the United States, Paris, Xetra and Italy. MyInvestor is recommended for its fees, range of assets and an app that now works reasonably well, although it has no physical branch. The third option, for those who keep their books up to date, is to group all trades together and report them as a single one; for everyone else, let the broker do it.
The same asset in two brokers: the FIFO mess[/SUZE]
The problem appears when the same security is split across two platforms. The FIFO method (first in, first out) means the first shares bought are deemed to be sold first, no matter what they cost. In the case at hand: 10 shares at broker A, 20 at broker B, and 10 are sold from B. For tax purposes, the purchase price that counts is that of the first 10 bought at A, not the one shown by B. Neither broker shares that information with the other, so the data reaching the tax authority may not add up. The difference ranges between 100 and 2,000 euros in gains depending on which side you look at it from, and the adjustment ends up on the taxpayer's side.
Relying on a foreign broker's summary does not solve it either. The question of whether Interactive Brokers provides a statement valid for the Spanish tax authority remains open; what is clear is that the one ultimately responsible for reconciling the figures is the same person who then signs the tax return. The simplest solution is a single Spanish broker. The second is to keep full control of your ins and outs before the tax authority does it for you.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (10 replies).
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