Crypto in Your Tax Return: Where Gains, Losses and Staking Go

Crypto belongs in your tax return as soon as you have sold, swapped or spent it within twelve months and your gain is above 1,000 euros. Staking and lending income has to be declared as well. Anyone who held for more than a year before selling enters nothing at all. Losses are worth declaring in every case, because otherwise they are gone.

The rest of this article answers the question most people get stuck on: exactly where each transaction belongs.

When you have to declare crypto and when you do not

The obligation attaches to the transaction, not to the account. These four cases trigger a filing duty:

• A sale within twelve months with a total gain above 1,000 euros across all private disposal transactions of the year.
• A swap of one cryptocurrency for another inside that window, even when no euro changed hands.
• Staking, lending or mining income above the annual exemption threshold of 256 euros.
• Losses, if you want to offset them against future gains.

Nothing has to be declared for a purchase, for simply holding, for transfers between your own wallets, or for sales after a holding period of more than twelve months. These transactions are not relevant for tax, and the tax office expects no entry for them.

The basics of which transaction is taxable in the first place are set out in detail in our guide to crypto tax in Germany.

Which transaction goes into which annex

Annex SO is the main place. It is headed «other income» and contains two separate sections, both of which can apply to crypto.

The section on private disposal transactions covers sales, swaps and payments made in cryptocurrency, provided the position was younger than twelve months. For each transaction you enter the acquisition date, the disposal date, the disposal proceeds and the acquisition cost. Losses go into the same section, with a negative sign.

The section on services covers staking income, lending interest, airdrops received in return for something, and occasional mining. What counts is the market value at the moment the income arrives.

Annex KAP only concerns you with certain products. Anyone holding bitcoin through an ETP or ETN without a delivery claim may be earning investment income, which belongs there. The classification depends on how the product is structured and has not been settled conclusively. More on this in our article on bitcoin and tax.

One warning about line numbers: they change from year to year. Anyone following a guide with fixed line numbers from an earlier year will enter the figures in the wrong field. The section headings are reliable, and in ELSTER the input mask walks you through the fields anyway.

Through the tax return in four steps

Step 1: export your transactions. Pull the complete export from every exchange and every wallet, not just the annual summary. You need every single transaction with date, time, quantity and price. Exchanges delete histories after a while or shut down altogether, which makes this the most important step.

Step 2: sort the transactions. Separate sales and swaps from staking, lending and airdrops. Both groups end up in Annex SO, but in different sections and with a different calculation.

Step 3: work out holding periods and gains. For every position sold, check whether more than twelve months passed between acquisition and sale. Where the same currency was bought several times, the consumption order from the Federal Ministry of Finance letter of 6 March 2025 applies: individual identification first, and where that is not possible, the coins acquired first count as the ones sold first.

Step 4: make the entries. Transfer the totals into Annex SO. You do not have to submit an itemised list, but you must be able to produce one on request. Many tax offices ask for it where larger amounts are involved.

Losses: the part most people forget

Losses from crypto sales inside the one-year window reduce your tax, but only if you declare them. The tax office establishes a loss carryforward only when it appears in the return. Anyone who skips a loss-making year because no tax is due anyway gives away the offset against future gains.

These losses can be offset only against gains from other private disposal transactions in the same year. Offsetting them against employment income or share gains is ruled out. Whatever is left over goes back one year or forward indefinitely.

Losses are entered in the same place as gains, in the private disposal transactions section of Annex SO.

What happens if you declare nothing

Since 1 January 2026 all centralised crypto service providers have been reporting to the tax authorities under the EU directive DAC8. The tax office knows about your exchange accounts without you saying a word.

Anyone who fails to declare taxable transactions risks tax evasion under section 370 of the German Fiscal Code. The limitation period there is ten years. A voluntary disclosure is possible, but it is tied to strict conditions: it has to be complete and it has to come in time, meaning before the offence is discovered.

The more honest route is the complete return. Anyone who can no longer assemble full records should disclose that and estimate, instead of leaving transactions out.

Deadlines

The tax return for 2026 is due by 31 July 2027 if you file it yourself. With a tax adviser the deadline runs until the end of February 2028. Anyone who is not obliged to file but declares voluntarily has four years.

For crypto investors the filing obligation is reached quickly: anyone with secondary income above 410 euros has to submit a return. Gains from private disposal transactions count towards that.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to declare crypto in my tax return?

Yes, if you have sold, swapped or paid within twelve months and your total gain from private disposal transactions is above 1,000 euros. Staking and lending income above 256 euros belongs in there as well.

Where do I enter crypto gains?

In Annex SO, in the private disposal transactions section. Staking and lending belong in the services section of the same annex.

Where do I enter crypto losses?

In the same place as gains, in the private disposal transactions section of Annex SO. Without an entry the tax office establishes no loss carryforward.

Do I have to declare crypto if I held for more than a year?

No. Once the twelve-month period has passed the gain is tax free and does not have to be declared.

Do I have to list every single transaction?

The totals are enough in the return itself. But you have to be able to produce the itemised list if the tax office asks for it.

What about coins on an exchange that has gone insolvent?

A default is not a disposal. The tax authorities recognise total losses only under narrow conditions, and advice on the individual case pays off here.

Do I need a tax tool?

With a handful of transactions a spreadsheet is enough. With savings plans, swaps or several exchanges it quickly becomes hard to follow: crypto tax tools compared.

Sources

• Federal Ministry of Finance letter of 6 March 2025, individual questions on the income tax treatment of certain crypto assets, file reference IV C 1 - S 2256/00042/064/043
• Section 23 and section 22 number 3 of the German Income Tax Act
• Section 370 of the German Fiscal Code on tax evasion, section 371 on voluntary disclosure
• Directive (EU) 2023/2226 (DAC8) on the reporting obligation of crypto service providers since 1 January 2026

The submission process from preparation through to filing is described in our article on filing a crypto tax return, and a step-by-step guide to making the entries is set out in our crypto tax instructions.

(As of 9 September 2026. This article is not tax advice and does not replace advice on your individual case. Line numbers and deadlines can change.)