Selling off Crypto for Real Estate - Discussion

[ralfkuefer]

Hello,
Wanted to spark a discussion here before going with this to any Tax Advisors.

I have a German Passport but currently reside on Malta, with Crypto mooning I was looking to get rid of some of my coins and buy property on Malta, around $500k - 1M

What would be the correct way to tackle this from 0 to 100?
1. Buy personally or through a company and then rent it out to yourself/someone?
1.1. If buying via company what jurisdiction would be best?
2. Where to open a crypto friendly bank account for such transaction?
3. How to prove the ownership of coins? They are lying in cold storage since 2015 or so 😛
4. Any tax problems arising on Malta?
5. Anything else that could happen that more experienced guys might be aware off?

 

[Silvio]

I heard that in Malta (and in other countries) many people own real estate through a company to avoid the 5% stamp fee (or whatever it is right now). So instead of buying the real estate directly they use a company, then when they sell the real estate they just sell the shares in the holding company which generates no taxable action and therefore stamp fee doesn't need to be paid. It may be smart to look for people that own their real estate through a company and already look for such a shares deal, and then look into structuring the deal with them. So bottom line - probably smarter to not use a personal name but always buy through a company to avoid that tax. I would NOT use a Maltese company as these are very expensive to maintain, from what I'm hearing BVI was often used.

Need to look with an accountant to figure out if this counts as remittance or not since you probably will be paying this amount to a seller bank account outside of Malta. Can't help you with that, you need to ask a local accountant, but I suspect there is no tax to be paid if the amount remains outside Malta.

Crypto friendly banks do exist (Bank Frick etc) but I don't know how friendly they will be if they know that you are already using them for transit, to cash out and then buy real estate. Maybe will be smarter to open many accounts in East European banks over multiple countries, cash out gradually into multiple banks to remain under the radar and then use it to purchase the real estate. Or maybe you will find someone that is willing to do a deal completely in crypto.

That's all I can help with, the rest of your questions I have no idea