Crypto holding period: the Bundestag rejects abolition by 445 votes to 132: what investors need to know

On Thursday, 8 October 2026, the Bundestag rejected the Greens' bill to abolish the crypto holding period. In a recorded vote, 445 members voted against and 132 in favour, with no abstentions. The existing rule therefore continues to apply: anyone holding Bitcoin, Ether or other crypto assets for more than a year sells them tax-free. The holding period is not saved by this vote, however. The measure that actually decides its future sits as a draft bill at the Federal Ministry of Finance and has yet to reach parliament.

On the same morning, the Bundestag also rejected a motion from the Left party that sought to tax crypto gains as investment income and to allow trading bans on certain coins at EU level. Late in the evening, parliament then passed a law under which German tax authorities exchange data on crypto transactions automatically with other states. What the speakers said, why the SPD position in particular matters for investors, and what you should do now follows below.

Vote on the crypto holding period: how the parliamentary groups voted

The vote concerned the “Bill to close a fairness gap in the taxation of crypto assets” (Drucksache 21/5752) at second reading. The Greens had called for a recorded vote, so it is documented for every parliamentary group who voted which way. A total of 577 voting cards were cast. Because the bill fell at second reading, the rules of procedure dispense with a third reading, and the procedure is thereby closed.

The result follows party lines: the conservatives, the SPD and the AfD against as a bloc, the Greens and the Left in favour as a bloc. The figures come from the voting result on bundestag.de and from the plenary minutes of the 99th sitting. Back in May, the finance committee had already recommended rejection with the same majorities.

What the Greens' bill 21/5752 proposed for the holding period

At the heart of the bill of 5 May 2026 was a single sentence in section 23 of the Income Tax Act: the one-year period for private disposals would no longer apply to crypto assets. Crypto gains would thereby have become taxable regardless of the holding period, and at the personal income tax rate rather than the flat-rate withholding tax. It was to apply to crypto assets bought after 31 December 2025. The Greens reckoned with additional revenue of “at least around 5 billion euros”.

For investors that would have been the strictest of the variants under discussion: at high incomes, gains could have been taxed at up to 45 percent plus the solidarity surcharge, while losses would have remained offsettable only against gains from private disposals. How the holding period works today with recurring purchases and the order of sales is explained in our piece on Bitcoin savings plans, the holding period and the exemption threshold.

Video from the Bundestag: Olav Gutting (CDU/CSU) on the crypto holding period

The debate began at 10:15 and ran as part of a larger tax package from the Greens that also covered inheritance tax, property transfer tax and real estate. Olav Gutting answered for the conservatives from 10:21; the holding period comes up in the second half of his speech.

Speech by Olav Gutting (CDU/CSU) on 8 October 2026, 99th sitting, agenda item 8. Source: German Bundestag. The full debate is available in the Bundestag media centre.

Gutting defended the holding period as a basic decision of tax law rather than a special arrangement for crypto. Private crypto assets, he argued, are treated like other private economic goods: whoever speculates short term pays tax on the gain, whoever holds long term can in principle sell tax-free once the period has elapsed. Anyone who finds that unfair would have to put the question “openly and systematically for comparable cases” and not only for an asset class that happens to be “more politically visible” at the moment. For greater transparency he pointed to the new reporting obligations for crypto exchanges under the EU directive DAC 8.

Key statements from the debate: SPD for the withholding tax, conservatives with an open flank

Parsa Marvi (SPD) delivered the sentence investors should note. The SPD, he said, “expressly shares the aim of bringing more tax fairness to crypto assets” and does not find it “fair that gains from cryptocurrencies are tax-free today after a holding period of one year”. He rejected the Greens' route all the same: the existing flat-rate withholding tax is efficient, so subjecting crypto gains to it is the right course. He expressly welcomed the Finance Ministry's draft bill and said the SPD was willing to bring the project to a conclusion with the coalition in the Bundestag.

Lukas Krieger and Fritz Güntzler (both CDU/CSU) warned that a special rule for crypto would create new inequalities against foreign currencies, precious metals and securities. Güntzler recalled that shares and futures contracts once counted as speculative transactions too and later moved to investment income. “Now we are discussing doing something similar for crypto assets. It is also being discussed within the coalition,” he said. That is not a clear commitment to the holding period.

Isabelle Vandre (Die Linke) likewise called for an end to the holding period, but by a different route: crypto assets should move into section 20 of the Income Tax Act so that the exchanges remit the tax directly, coupled with exit taxation. By her account, only 3 percent of crypto users declare their gains correctly in their tax return. Max Lucks (Greens) countered that section 23 is the right place, and that the only pointless element is the tax exemption once the speculative period has elapsed.

The Left's motion 21/5824 rejected: section 20, exit tax and trading bans

The motion “Regulate crypto assets strictly and tax them fairly” went considerably further than the Greens' bill. Among other things it called for crypto assets to be brought into section 20 from the promulgation of a law, for an examination of a wealth-growth tax on the Dutch model for decentralised transactions, for identity requirements for self-custodied wallets at regulated service providers, and for an EU supervisor with the power to impose trading bans on coins causing high environmental damage, for instance through proof of work. The Bundestag followed the finance committee's recommendation and rejected the motion by a show of hands, with the votes of CDU/CSU, AfD and SPD against the Greens and the Left.

CARF reporting framework adopted: which crypto data the tax office receives from abroad

A decision taken late in the evening has more effect for many investors. The Bundestag approved the law on the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on automatic exchange of information under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (Drucksache 21/7195), the OECD framework on which the EU directive DAC 8 also builds. CDU/CSU, SPD, the Greens and the Left voted in favour, the AfD against. The contracting states collect tax-relevant data on crypto trading and exchange it: users' names, addresses, countries of residence, tax identification numbers and dates of birth, plus the type of crypto asset, gross amounts, quantities and the number of transactions. Anyone holding coins on an exchange outside the EU should therefore not assume the tax office will remain unaware of it.

What changes for investors after the vote: holding period and exemption threshold still apply

In the short term, nothing changes. Gains from the sale of crypto assets held privately are taxable under section 23 of the Income Tax Act if no more than one year lies between purchase and sale. After that, the gain is tax-free. Within the period, a gain stays tax-free as long as all private disposal gains in a calendar year together remain below the exemption threshold of 1,000 euros. Once it is exceeded, the entire amount is taxable, not only the part above it.

Thursday's vote takes only one of several variants off the table, namely the deletion of the period with taxation at the personal rate from 2026 purchases onwards. For holdings you own today, that was the riskiest variant, because it would have reached back into the current year.

The Finance Ministry's draft bill: the 31 December 2026 cut-off decides

The future of the holding period will be decided by the draft bill on reforming the taxation of certain privately held crypto assets of 30 September 2026. It moves so-called exchange crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ether into section 20 of the Income Tax Act, that is, to investment income, for which the separate tax rate of 25 percent plus the solidarity surcharge and, where applicable, church tax applies. That is to take effect for the first time from 1 January 2027, and only for crypto assets acquired after 31 December 2026. From 2028, platforms are to withhold the tax directly.

For existing holdings, the draft means this: whatever sits in a securities account or a wallet by the end of 2026 keeps the one-year holding period. The tricky part is the fallback rule for cases in which the platform does not know the purchase date and purchase price. It is then to assume a purchase after the cut-off and to base the tax withholding on 50 percent of the sale proceeds. What that means in euros is worked through in our piece on the substitute assessment in the crypto tax draft. The ministry estimates the additional revenue at 70 million euros for 2027 and, from 2029, at 350 million euros a year, a fraction of the 5 billion euros the Greens had reckoned with.

Next steps on crypto tax: petitions committee, cabinet, Bundesrat

On Monday 12 October, the Bundestag's petitions committee holds a public hearing from 12:00 on petition 201716, which calls for the holding period to be kept. The procedure and the livestream are set out in our piece on the petitions committee on 12 October. According to the timetable so far, the federal cabinet is to take up the draft bill on 14 October. If it adopts it, the draft becomes a government bill, on which the Bundesrat comments first. According to the draft, the law also needs the consent of the state chamber at the end. The Bundestag then debates it in three readings, and only with promulgation in the Federal Law Gazette does the legal position change. After Thursday's debate it is clear where the majority for it would have to come from: from the SPD, which openly supports the move to the withholding tax, and from a conservative group that, in Güntzler's words, is itself discussing it.

What you should do now: secure purchase records and sort holdings by purchase date

Whatever the law ends up looking like, one thing decides your tax bill in every variant: the evidence of when and at what price you bought. That helps you today with the holding period and tomorrow against a blanket substitute assessment.

• Export the complete transaction history of every exchange and every broker while the accounts still exist. Why that is urgent is set out in our piece on the tax records export at the exchanges.
• Sort your holdings by purchase date. Whatever you buy up to 31 December 2026 would keep the holding period under the draft; everything after that would not.
• Keep a complete record of transfers between wallets and exchanges, so purchase dates can still be documented after the coins have moved. A crypto tax tool does that automatically and calculates the periods per position.
• Do not sell in haste. The Bundestag tightened nothing on Thursday, and a sale inside the one-year period costs tax today that patience can avoid.

How to prepare the documents for the tax office in order is explained in our guide to the crypto tax return in seven steps. With larger holdings or gains, your own case belongs with a tax adviser.