FINLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jon Hautamäki, Max Atallah and Mikael Huhtala, Nordic Law
expanding the scope to cover a wide range of cryp- to-assets and related activities. The guidance applies to both individual and corporate taxation of crypto- assets. Under MiCA, crypto-assets can generally be classified into three categories for tax purposes: • e-money tokens (EMTs) and asset-referenced tokens (ARTs), which are taxed similarly to official currencies, especially when their value is designed to remain stable; and • other crypto-assets, such as bitcoin and ethereum, which are taxed based on realised capital gains and losses. The 2025 guidance also clarifies the taxation of stak- ing rewards, locked assets and pooled crypto-asset arrangements. Rewards from staking are taxed as capital income when they become available to the taxpayer. Exchanges of crypto-assets within pools or staking arrangements are treated as separate realisa- tion events. Taxpayers can deduct expenses incurred by acquiring, holding and realising crypto-assets, including fees for tracking services or blockchain net- work transaction fees, provided they relate to generat- ing taxable income. For companies, crypto-assets are treated as business assets, with profits from crypto- asset transactions taxable as business income. VAT implications for MiCA-compliant ICOs A notable recent development highlights the increas- ing complexity of crypto taxation in Finland. In a preliminary ruling issued by the Finnish Tax Admin- istration, the issuance of a “meme coin” in a MiCA- compliant Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was deemed to constitute the taxable supply of a service for consider- ation, falling under the scope of value added tax (VAT) pursuant to Sections 1 and 18 of the Value Added Tax Act. The ruling held that such transfers do not qualify as VAT-exempt financial services under Sections 41 or 42 of the Act. This interpretation has significant implications: funds raised through MiCA-compliant ICOs may be subject to Finland’s standard VAT rate of 25.5%. In practice, issuers must account for potential VAT liability when structuring token offerings. This shift introduces a
substantial compliance consideration for crypto start- ups and issuers operating under MiCA. Reporting obligations Looking ahead, domestic and foreign crypto-asset exchanges will be subject to mandatory reporting obligations, requiring them to submit detailed cus- tomer transaction data to the Finnish Tax Administra- tion. This aligns with broader EU and OECD efforts to improve transparency and prevent tax evasion in the digital asset sector. Taxpayers must maintain thorough records and report taxable events accurately to com- ply with Finnish law. Decentralised Autonomous Organisations in Finland Even though MiCA regulates crypto-assets and CASPs, it notably excludes decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols and decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) from its scope, leaving these structures in a regulatory grey zone both at the EU level and within individual member states, including Finland. Finland currently lacks specific legislation governing DAOs. Within the Finnish legal framework, DAOs are regarded as digital smart contracts that facilitate col- lective decision-making among participants based on rules embedded in code. However, they are not rec- ognised as legal entities, corporations or subjects of rights and obligations under Finnish law. Only legal subjects, natural persons or legal entities can hold rights, enter into contracts or bear legal responsibility in Finland. This means that DAOs, in and of themselves, cannot own property, enter into binding legal agreements or be held accountable. Instead, any legal responsibilities or liabilities arising from DAO-related operations are likely to fall on the individuals behind them. This is particularly relevant in cases where a participant holds a controlling majority of tokens and actively influences governance deci- sions: such a person could potentially be deemed lia- ble under Finnish legal doctrine for the DAO’s actions. The applicability of Finnish legislation on DeFi depends crucially on whether a DeFi application or protocol is genuinely decentralised or merely nominally decen-
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