Taiwan Takes Crypto-Asset and Stablecoin Sales Outside the Scope of Business Tax

Summary 

• Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance Order No. 11504611390 of 3 September 2026 confirms that sales by businesses of virtual assets and stablecoins defined in Article 3(1) and (6) of the Virtual Asset Services Act are not subject to business tax, Taiwan’s VAT-type tax. 
• The rationale is that such assets serve as payment or investment instruments rather than items of consumption; Taiwan treats the transfers as outside scope, rather than relying on an exempt financial-service category. 
• Fees and commissions charged by virtual asset service providers remain taxable, and NFTs, which are not virtual assets under the Act, remain subject to business tax when sold or exchanged for goods or services. 

Extended article 

The clarification follows the promulgation of the Virtual Asset Services Act on 22 July 2026, which defines a virtual asset as digitally stored, exchanged or transferred value using cryptography, distributed ledger or similar technology for payment or investment purposes, and a stablecoin as a virtual asset linked to one or more fiat currencies. Assets within those definitions, including Bitcoin, Ether and qualifying stablecoins, fall outside business tax when sold by a business. 

The tax authorities reiterated the position on 14 October 2026, emphasising the distinction between the underlying asset and the services surrounding it. Exchange services, trading commissions and related platform fees remain taxable supplies. NFTs are excluded from the statutory virtual-asset definition, so NFT sales, and exchanges of NFTs for goods or services, remain within business tax. 

Taiwan’s approach is broadly consistent with the international trend of treating crypto-assets used as payment or investment instruments as non-consumption items, as seen in the EU following the Hedqvist judgment and in jurisdictions such as Indonesia, the UAE and Thailand. Businesses dealing in virtual assets should separate asset transfers from fee income in their tax coding and review any past under-reporting on taxable fees, as voluntary disclosure with interest before an investigation can avoid penalties under Article 48-1 of the Tax Collection Act. 

Source 

• Celsum: Taiwan MOF Order No. 11504611390 on Virtual Assets and Stablecoins 
• vatcalc: Taiwan Takes Cryptocurrencies and Stablecoins Outside VAT 
• Regfollower: Taiwan Exempts Virtual Asset Sales from Business Tax 
• VATabout: Taiwan VAT Rules for Virtual Assets and Stablecoins 
• VATupdate: Taiwan Clarifies VAT Exemption for Virtual Assets, Stablecoins and NFT Taxation 

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