Investors looking to secure some of their long-term crypto gains might experience difficulties when transferring their earnings to a Belgian bank account.
According to recent media reports, tax advisors and lawyers see more and more often that banks simply block their clients’ account or ask for more information about the origin of the funds. Not only active traders but also private investors, who have often only experimented with investing in digital currencies over the years, face similar problems.
Banks confirm that clients who want to take their profits and transfer funds from a foreign crypto exchange to their bank account, will be subject to a further investigation. Banks and other financial institutions need to comply with increasingly more strict AML regulations. They want to avoid at all costs being fined for accepting funds of which the origin is unclear. Since there is hardly any supervision on crypto currencies, banks consider them typically as highly risky.
Even if you can demonstrate that you paid your taxes or meet the conditions for a tax exemption, banks are not eager to accept your money. As crypto investing often includes multiple transactions over time, it will not be easy to document the money’s entire trajectory when asked for. Furthermore, the transfer will be done from a foreign account, that is often unknown to your Belgian bank, what may add to the suspicion.
The largest Belgian banks emphasize that customers who transfer money from a crypto platform abroad to their bank account will in any case be checked. At the same time, they retain the right to refuse a customer’s transfer order if they suspect its origin might be illegal.
With this in mind, it is crucial to keep a proper overview of your transactions so you will be prepared in case of a thorough questioning by your Belgian banker.