Crypto Tax in Germany: What Applies in 2026 and What Is Set to Change in 2027

Gains from cryptocurrencies are tax-free in Germany when more than twelve months lie between purchase and sale. Sell earlier and you pay your personal income tax rate of up to 45 percent plus the solidarity surcharge. That still applies today, and it applies to your 2026 tax return as well. A draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Finance aims to change this from 2027, but nothing about it has been adopted.

This guide explains the legal position as it stands now: which events trigger tax at all, how to calculate the holding period correctly, what happens with staking and lending, and what the planned overhaul would mean for you.

The Key Points at a Glance

• Legal basis: held as private assets, crypto assets count as "other economic goods". Their sale is a private disposal under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act.
• Holding period: after a holding period of more than twelve months the gain is tax-free, in full and without an upper limit.
• Within one year: your personal income tax rate applies, not the flat withholding tax of 25 percent.
• Exemption threshold: 1,000 euros of gains per year stay tax-free. One euro above that makes the entire gain taxable.
• Losses: they can only be offset against gains from other private disposals, not against share gains or employment income.
• From 2027: a draft bill provides for the flat withholding tax of 25 percent, for purchases made after December 31, 2026. The procedure is still running.

How Cryptocurrencies Are Taxed in Germany

For tax purposes Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies are not securities. The Federal Fiscal Court confirmed this in its ruling of February 14, 2023 (case number IX R 3/22): crypto assets are economic goods, and their sale out of private assets falls under Section 23 EStG.

From that follows the difference that shapes the whole of German crypto taxation. Shares and funds are subject to the flat withholding tax: a blanket 25 percent plus the solidarity surcharge, regardless of how long you have held them. With cryptocurrencies the holding period decides instead, and the tax rate is your personal one.

The governing administrative instruction is the Federal Ministry of Finance circular of March 6, 2025 on individual questions of the income tax treatment of certain crypto assets. It replaced the earlier circular of May 10, 2022. Anyone who comes across guides online still citing the 2022 version is reading a superseded position.

What Actually Triggers Tax

The most common misconception concerns not the amount of tax but the moment it arises. What becomes taxable is not the gain on paper but its realisation. And more counts as realisation than most people expect.

The second point gets expensive in particular. Swapping one cryptocurrency for another is a sale and a purchase at the same time for tax purposes. Anyone swapping Bitcoin for Ether realises the gain on the Bitcoin, even though not a single euro has moved. For the Ether received, a new twelve-month period starts at the same moment.

The same applies to paying with cryptocurrency. Anyone paying for an object with Bitcoin disposes of that Bitcoin for tax purposes.

Not taxable, by contrast, are the purchase itself, holding, and transfers between your own wallets. Moving funds from an exchange to a hardware wallet is not a disposal, it does not interrupt the holding period and it triggers no tax.

Calculating the Twelve-Month Holding Period Correctly

The period runs to the day from the date of acquisition and attaches to the individual position, not to your portfolio and not to the calendar year. Buy on March 15, 2026 and a sale from March 16, 2027 onwards is tax-free.

With several purchases of the same cryptocurrency it gets more complicated. The circular of March 6, 2025 first requires individual allocation: where you can prove which specific coins you are selling, their acquisition date counts. Where that is not possible, the crypto assets acquired first count as the ones disposed of first for the holding period, the so-called FiFo method. For valuation the average method is to be applied, though for reasons of simplification FiFo may be assumed there as well.

Two points are regularly overlooked in this. First, the assessment applies per wallet, so every address is considered on its own. Second, the method you choose binds you until the holding has been disposed of in full.

The ten-year period once feared no longer exists. For a long time it was unclear whether the holding period extends to ten years where crypto assets are used as a source of income, for instance in staking. The tax administration has expressly rejected this. Staked coins, too, can be disposed of tax-free after twelve months.

How High the Tax Actually Turns Out

Within the twelve-month period the gain is added to your remaining income and charged at your personal tax rate. Anyone already earning well quickly lands in the top tax rate of 42 percent, and at 45 percent from around 278,000 euros of taxable income. On top comes the solidarity surcharge of 5.5 percent on the tax, and church tax where applicable.

The same gain of 100,000 euros shows the spread clearly: after a holding period of twelve months you pay zero euros. Within the period and at the top tax rate it is 47,475 euros. Under the draft bill it would be 26,375 euros, regardless of the holding period.

The 1,000-euro exemption threshold deserves particular attention, because its name misleads. An exemption threshold is not an allowance. On a gain of 999 euros you pay nothing. On 1,001 euros you tax not the single euro above it but the full 1,001 euros. The threshold applies to all private disposals of a year taken together, so to gold or collectibles as well.

Staking, Lending, Mining and Airdrops

Income from staking and lending is not a disposal gain but income from other services under Section 22 number 3 EStG. It is recognised at market value at the moment it accrues and taxed at your personal rate. A separate exemption threshold of 256 euros per year applies to it, which has nothing to do with the 1,000 euros under Section 23.

The market value at the moment of accrual becomes the acquisition cost of the coins received at the same time. If you sell them later, a twelve-month period of their own starts for them from the moment they accrued.

With mining the scale is what matters. Occasional mining falls under Section 22 number 3, while sustained mining directed at profit is a commercial activity, with every consequence from trade tax to the obligation to keep books. For block rewards from running your own hardware the tax administration regularly assumes a commercial activity.

Airdrops are tax-free where you do nothing for them and provide no consideration. Where the provider requires an action, such as filling in a form or advertising on social networks, there is a service and the receipt is taxable.

Losses: The Pot That Stands on Its Own

Losses from crypto sales within the one-year period can only be offset against gains from other private disposals of the same year. Offsetting against employment income, rental income or share gains is ruled out. What remains can be carried back one year or carried forward into the following years without limit.

That is a genuine disadvantage compared with shares, where losses land in the investment income pot. It has a flip side, though: anyone realising crypto losses can use them to neutralise gains from other private disposals, from the sale of gold within the one-year period for example.

The loss determination matters. Losses you do not declare in Annex SO of your tax return are lost for the future. The tax office only determines them where they are declared.

What Is Set to Change From 2027

On September 8, 2026 the Federal Ministry of Finance sent a draft bill into interdepartmental coordination. It provides for crypto assets to be treated in future as investment income under Section 20 EStG: 25 percent flat withholding tax plus the solidarity surcharge, regardless of the holding period.

Four points of the draft are decisive for investors:

• The cut-off date lies in the future. Only crypto assets acquired after December 31, 2026 would be covered. What you buy up to then would remain, as the draft stands, under today's rules with the one-year period. The details are in our article on grandfathering and the cut-off date.
• Losses would become offsettable. The draft permits offsetting against shares and other securities, and the isolated pot of Section 23 would fall away.
• The exemption threshold would become an allowance. The saver's lump sum, which applies to all investment income taken together, would take the place of the 1,000-euro threshold.
• The tax deduction would come later. The law is to enter into force on January 1, 2027, with automatic deduction by service providers only from January 1, 2028.

None of this has been adopted. Ahead of the draft lie the hearing of the associations, the cabinet decision, three readings in the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. At every stage the tax rate and the cut-off date can still be changed. Which two models stood against each other in the debate, and why they differ by 21,100 euros on a gain of 100,000 euros, is something we broke down in our comparison of the two tax models. What the project is meant to bring in for the state is set out in our analysis of the 160 million euros in the federal budget.

What You Should Document Now

Regardless of how the reform turns out, your documentation decides your tax burden. From January 1, 2026 all centralised crypto service providers report to the tax administration under DAC8. So the tax office knows about your exchange accounts, retroactively as well through control notifications.

You need four pieces of information for every position, and permanently:

1. Date and time of acquisition. The period runs to the day, and where several purchases fall on one day the time helps.
2. Acquisition cost in euros, including fees.
3. The wallet or exchange the position sits on, because the assessment is made per wallet.
4. Every transfer between your own addresses, so that a move is not counted as a sale.

Once the tax is to be withheld at source from 2028, this becomes more important still: an exchange can only settle correctly where it knows your acquisition data. For holdings you deliver in from outside, it does not know them. The draft therefore provides for a flat assessment base where the acquisition cannot be established. That works out to your disadvantage.

Anyone with many transactions will not get far with a spreadsheet. A look at specialised tools is worth it: crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers compared.

The same rules apply to Bitcoin, but there are cases that only arise there: a savings plan with twelve separate periods, the differing taxation of ETPs and the question of commercial activity in mining. We have written those cases up separately in our article on Bitcoin and taxes in Germany.

Two questions follow on directly here. How to work out your gain in concrete terms, with a formula, a worked example and a tax table, is covered in our article on calculating crypto tax. Where in the tax return gains, losses and staking income are entered is clarified in our article on crypto in the tax return.

Frequently Asked Questions on Crypto Tax

How high is the tax on cryptocurrencies in Germany?

After a holding period of more than twelve months, zero percent. Within the period your personal income tax rate of 14 to 45 percent applies, plus the solidarity surcharge.

When are crypto gains tax-free?

When more than one year lies between acquisition and sale, or when your total gain from private disposals in the year stays below 1,000 euros.

Do I have to declare crypto in my tax return?

Taxable events belong in Annex SO. Sales after the one-year period has expired do not have to be declared. Losses should be declared, otherwise they are lost for the future.

Is swapping Bitcoin for Ether taxable?

Yes. The swap counts as a disposal of the coin given up. Where its purchase goes back less than twelve months, the gain is taxable.

Is the holding period extended to ten years for staking?

No. That worry stems from an earlier discussion and has been cleared up by the tax administration. Twelve months remains the rule.

What happens to my coins if the reform comes?

As the draft stands, nothing: it only covers acquisitions after December 31, 2026. That becomes legally binding only once a law has been adopted.

Does all of this apply in Austria too?

No. Austria abolished the holding period back in 2022 and taxes crypto gains at 27.5 percent capital gains tax, regardless of the holding period.

Sources

• Federal Fiscal Court, ruling of February 14, 2023, case number IX R 3/22, on the economic-good character of crypto assets
• Federal Ministry of Finance circular of March 6, 2025, individual questions on the income tax treatment of certain crypto assets, reference IV C 1 - S 2256/00042/064/043
• Section 23 and Section 22 number 3 of the German Income Tax Act
• German Bundestag, introduction of the 2027 federal budget on September 8, 2026: bundestag.de
• Bundestag printed paper 21/5752 on the rejected bill: dserver.bundestag.de
• Details of the draft bill following the reporting of September 8, 2026. The full text has not been officially published so far.
• An entrepreneur's perspective: From 11.4 billion to 160 million

For individual cryptocurrencies there are additional guides covering their particular features: Ethereum and taxes as well as XRP and taxes.

(As of September 9, 2026. This article is not tax advice and not investment advice. It does not replace advice on your individual case from a tax adviser, and the legal position can change.)