Contribution to liber amicorum: Value-Added Tax Issues Related to Stablecoins

In September 2026, Professor Dr Joachim Englisch contributed an article on Value-added tax issues related to stablecoins to the liber amicorum for Professor Dr Hans Nieskens. In it, Professor Englisch examines the technical background and the value-added tax treatment of the issuance and secondary acquisition of these tokens, which are backed by real assets and thus linked to their performance. At the level of taxable transactions, a distinction must be made between potential transactions by the issuer or seller, on the one hand, and those by validators or cryptocurrency exchanges, on the other. As a result, only a few transactions are subject to taxation; however, there is regularly a gap in enforcement on the anonymous, digital market. Relating to decentralized transactions, this enforcement gap is exacerbated by the lack of tailored value-added tax simplification tools, such as the deemed supply commission. Professor Englisch therefore recommends involving platform operators in the collection of value-added tax, following the model of DAC 8. The liber amicorum was presented to Prof. Dr. Hans Nieskens on 17th September, 2026.