Calculating Crypto Tax in Germany: Formula, Worked Example and 2026 Tax Table

Paying tax in the UK? Our UK crypto tax guide covers Capital Gains Tax at 18% or 24%, the £3,000 allowance and how to report to HMRC.

Updated on 24 October 2026: tax table recalculated exactly under the 2026 tariff, solidarity surcharge with the 2026 threshold of 20,350 euros, a new worked example with 2026 Bitcoin prices and the status of the planned reform.

You calculate German crypto tax in three steps: sale price minus acquisition cost minus fees gives the gain. If the purchase was less than a year ago and your total gain from private sales reaches 1,000 euros for the year, it is added to your other income. The tax is then the difference between your income tax with and without the crypto gain, plus solidarity surcharge.

How much that is depends heavily on your other income: with 40,000 euros of taxable income, 10,000 euros of crypto gains cost 3,339 euros; with 80,000 euros it is 4,699.80 euros, or 47 percent. These rules apply unchanged for 2025 and 2026. The draft bill of 30 September 2026 would only cover purchases from 2027, and the cabinet did not adopt it on 14 October 2026.

Calculate with your own figures: the free CryptoTicker crypto tax calculator reads the CSV export from Coinbase, Bitpanda, Kraken, Binance or Trade Republic, matches every sale with the purchases used up under FIFO and shows the holding period, the taxable gain and the exemption limit for each year. It needs no account, and your data stays in your browser.

The formula: how to calculate crypto tax

The gain from a private sale is defined in section 23(3) of the German Income Tax Act:

Sale price minus acquisition cost minus expenses = gain or loss

• Sale price: the proceeds in euros. For a coin-to-coin swap, the market value of the coins received at the time of the swap; when paying, the value of the goods.
• Acquisition cost: the purchase price including the purchase fee. For staking rewards, the market value on the day of receipt.
• Expenses: sales fees and network fees that can be allocated to the individual sale. A hardware wallet or a subscription to a tax tool does not count.

A gain only becomes taxable when two conditions come together: no more than one year passed between purchase and sale, and the total gain from all private sales in the year is at least 1,000 euros. The tax itself is not a fixed rate but the amount by which the crypto gain increases your income tax under section 32a of the Income Tax Act.

Worked example with 2026 Bitcoin prices: FIFO, average and holding period

The example shows why the order of purchases decides the tax. You buy 0.1 Bitcoin twice and later sell 0.1 Bitcoin. The prices are daily prices in euros from CoinMarketCap; fees are left out for clarity.

Which purchase counts as sold is governed by the BMF letter of 6 March 2025: for the holding period, the coins bought first count as sold first (first in, first out), per wallet. For the amount of the gain, the letter prescribes the average cost method and, for simplicity, also allows FIFO. The result differs considerably:

With FIFO, there is a loss of 1,025.45 euros, which you report in your tax return and can offset against other gains from private sales. With the average cost method, a gain of 571.58 euros remains, below the exemption limit as long as you have no other gains in the year. Anyone who applies the cheap July purchase instead would pay tax on 2,168.62 euros; with 50,000 euros of other income, that would be 769 euros of tax for a method the BMF does not provide for.

The holding period runs separately for each purchase. Purchase A can be sold tax-free from 16 January 2027, purchase B from 2 July 2027. Our article on FIFO across several exchanges and wallets shows how this works with several accounts.

German crypto tax table 2026: what remains of 10,000 euros of gains

The table shows the additional tax on 10,000 euros of crypto gains within the one-year period, depending on your other taxable income. It uses the 2026 basic tariff for single taxpayers with solidarity surcharge, without church tax. Unlike many tables online, it does not simply multiply the marginal rate by the gain but calculates the income tax with and without the gain, because a large gain pushes you through several steps of the progression.

Two points stand out. First, the solidarity surcharge: under section 3 of the Solidarity Surcharge Act, it only applies once income tax in 2026 exceeds 20,350 euros, which for single taxpayers means from around 75,000 euros of taxable income. In the first four rows of the table it does not arise at all. Calculators that add a flat 5.5 percent overstate the tax.

Second, the phase-in zone. Above the threshold, the surcharge does not jump straight to 5.5 percent but grows in at 11.9 percent of the excess. Anyone with 80,000 euros of income who makes 10,000 euros of crypto gains lands exactly in this zone: the gain raises income tax by 4,200 euros and the surcharge by 499.80 euros. At 47.0 percent, the burden there is almost as high as at the top rate. Church tax of eight or nine percent of income tax may be added.

The 1,000 euro exemption limit: the most expensive euro

Gains from private sales remain tax-free if the total gain for the year is less than 1,000 euros. It is an exemption limit, not an allowance: at 999 euros you pay nothing, at 1,000 euros you pay tax on the entire amount. With 50,000 euros of other income, that one euro costs 353 euros of tax. The limit applies to all private sales together, including gold, and for married couples separately for each person.

What you need for the calculation

For every position sold, you need four details. If one is missing, the calculation becomes an estimate:

• Acquisition date with time, because the period runs to the day.
• Acquisition cost in euros including the purchase fee.
• Sale date and sale price, also in euros.
• The wallet or exchange, because the order of consumption applies per wallet.

A coin-to-coin swap has no euro price. You then use the market value at the time of the swap, for both sides of the transaction. The BMF allows a daily price from an exchange or a price portal for this, as long as you use it consistently.

Where simple calculators become inaccurate

As long as you bought once and sold once, the calculation is simple. As soon as you have bought several times, the order of consumption decides which coins count as sold, and thus the tax, as the example above shows.

FIFO often works in your favour because it uses up the oldest and often already tax-free positions first. It can only be applied correctly with a complete history per wallet, though. How this plays out with a savings plan is shown in our article on Bitcoin, savings plans and tax in Germany.

When a calculator is enough and when you need tax software

A calculator is enough if you have few purchases, all on the same exchange, and trade only against euros. The CryptoTicker tax calculator then delivers the totals for Anlage SO in a few minutes.

Specialised software pays off as soon as one of these points applies:

• You trade on several exchanges or move coins between wallets.
• You swap coin for coin, because every transaction then needs two market values.
• You have a savings plan with many individual instalments.
• You receive staking or lending income that must be valued at the time of receipt.

Which programs can do this and what they cost is in our crypto tax software comparison. Where the results go in the tax return is shown in our guide to the German crypto tax return.

What would change in the calculation from 2027

Under the draft bill of the Federal Ministry of Finance of 30 September 2026, crypto assets bought after 31 December 2026 would be taxed as capital assets: 25 percent flat tax plus solidarity surcharge on the gain, regardless of the holding period. For these purchases, the table above would shrink to a single figure, 26.375 percent before church tax. From 1 January 2028, exchanges would withhold the tax directly. If the exchange does not know the acquisition cost, the draft provides for 50 percent of the sale proceeds as a substitute basis.

For everything you buy by the end of 2026, the calculation would stay as described here. Nothing has been passed; the cabinet did not adopt the draft on 14 October 2026. We track the current status in our overview of the crypto holding period reform, and the legal situation as a whole in our guide to crypto tax in Germany.

As of 24 October 2026. All examples are simplified, calculated for single taxpayers under the 2026 basic tariff and without church tax. This article is not tax advice.