Crypto Tax in Germany 2026: The Complete Guide

Bitcoin on Binance. Staking on Kraken. A few ETH on your Ledger. And now the Finanzamt shows up — this time with real data from the exchange, thanks to DAC8. 2026 is the year German crypto tax gets serious, including for people who haven’t been reporting. This guide covers what you actually need to know.

In short: Crypto gains in Germany are tax-free if you held the coins longer than one year. If you held shorter, a €1,000 annual exemption applies — but it’s an all-or-nothing threshold: at €1,001 in gains, the full amount becomes taxable. Coin-to-coin swaps count as sales. Staking income is separate (€256 allowance). From 2026, your exchange reports everything directly to the Finanzamt.

The core rules in one minute

Germany treats crypto as an “other asset” (anderes Wirtschaftsgut) under §23 EStG — not as a capital investment. That’s a crucial distinction: crypto gains are not subject to the flat 25% Abgeltungsteuer (capital gains tax). They’re taxed at your personal income tax rate, up to 45% + Solidaritätszuschlag + Kirchensteuer if applicable.

Three numbers to remember:

• 365 days — the holding period that makes crypto sales tax-free.
• €1,000 exemption — short-term gains below this are tax-free, but at €1,001 everything becomes taxable.
• €256 staking allowance — the exemption for “other income” from staking, lending, and airdrops.

The 1-year rule: Germany’s crypto advantage

Hold crypto for more than 365 days before selling and the gain is completely tax-free in Germany. No cap — whether it’s €500 or €50,000. This is unusually generous internationally (the US, by contrast, taxes all crypto gains regardless of holding period).

What counts is the purchase date and the sale date. Example:

• Bought on June 15, 2024
• Sold on June 16, 2025 → tax-free (over 365 days)
• Sold on June 14, 2025 → taxable (only 364 days)

The exchange timestamp rules — not weekdays. Under FIFO (see below), the oldest coins are sold first automatically.

Note: There used to be an extended 10-year holding period for staked coins. That was removed by the BMF circular of 2022 and confirmed by case law. Staking no longer extends the 1-year rule — the original 1-year rule applies as before.

The €1,000 threshold: friend and trap

If you held less than one year, the €1,000 Freigrenze kicks in. It has two quirks most people get wrong:

Exemption threshold, not tax-free allowance

A Freigrenze is an all-or-nothing threshold:

• Gain up to and including €1,000 → completely tax-free
• Gain from €1,001 → the full amount is taxable (not just the €1 over)

So at €999, you pay nothing. At €1,001, you pay tax on the full €1,001. One euro across the line can cost up to €450 in tax.

Raised from €600 to €1,000

Since 2024, the threshold is €1,000 per year (previously €600). The 2025 tax return, filed in 2026, uses the higher number.

Tip: If you’re close to the threshold at year-end, consider pushing gains into the next calendar year or closing a small losing trade to land under €1,000. One minute of planning can save several hundred euros.

Every coin swap is a sale

This is the most commonly missed point. Many traders believe: “I never saw a euro, I just moved between coins.” Tax-wise, that’s wrong.

Every trade between two cryptocurrencies counts as a sale of the first coin and a purchase of the second:

• ETH → USDT → ETH? Two separate sales, each potentially taxable.
• BTC → ETH (Binance swap)? Sale of BTC, with FIFO cost basis.
• USDC → DAI (stablecoin-to-stablecoin)? A sale event — usually near-zero gain, but still reportable.
• ETH into a DeFi token on Uniswap? A sale of ETH.

Example: You buy ETH for €2,000. ETH rises to €3,000 and you swap all of it to USDT to “park” it during volatility. You have €1,000 of realized gain — even though no euros hit your bank account. If the purchase was under a year ago: fully taxable.

FIFO: How Germany calculates cost basis

Germany mandates First-In-First-Out. The oldest coins are sold first — automatically, no choice.

Two critical details:

1. FIFO applies per coin, across all wallets — all your BTC on Binance, Kraken, Ledger, and MetaMask are treated as one pool.
2. Wallet transfers are not sales — moving BTC from Binance to your Ledger keeps the original purchase date and cost basis intact.

At more than 10–20 transactions per year, manual FIFO is effectively impossible. The three common tools:

• CoinTracking — about €130/year, strong German tax focus, produces ready-to-submit Anlage SO reports.
• Blockpit — about €80–€200/year, DAC8-ready, Austrian provider.
• Accointing — about €90–€150/year, simpler UI.

Tool costs are deductible as Werbungskosten or business expenses.

Staking, lending, airdrops: separate rules

Income from staking, lending, and airdrops is not a capital-disposal event. It’s other income (sonstige Einkünfte) under §22 Nr. 3 EStG.

• Taxed on receipt — the EUR value of the coins at the moment you received them.
• €256 annual allowance. Above that, the full amount is taxable.
• Later sales are separate §23 events: holding period starts on the receipt date, cost basis = EUR value at receipt.

Worked example

Anna stakes ETH and receives a total of 0.3 ETH as rewards through 2025. Average ETH price at payout: €2,500.

• Staking income 2025: 0.3 × €2,500 = €750
• Above the €256 allowance → fully taxable (not just the part above €256).
• At a 30% marginal tax rate → about €225 tax on the staking income.

If Anna sells the 0.3 ETH in December 2025 for €900, she has a separate disposal gain of 900 − 750 = €150 — and since the holding period is under one year, that’s also taxable under §23.

Preserving losses: the Verlustvortrag mechanism

Crypto losses can only offset other private-disposal gains — not salary, not interest income. Whatever’s left becomes a Verlustvortrag (loss carryforward) into future years.

Critical: the loss disappears if you don’t file Anlage SO. Even in a pure loss year, you must file to establish the carryforward. The Finanzamt issues a separate loss-assessment notice (Verlustfeststellungsbescheid).

This can be worth a lot later: if you had a €4,000 loss in 2024 and realize a €3,500 gain in 2026, the gain is fully offset by the carried-forward loss — no tax owed.

Anlage SO: where everything goes

All crypto numbers go into Anlage SO (other income) on the income tax return:

• Part 1 — private disposals under §23 EStG. Usually entered as a summary line with purchase date, sale date, cost basis, sale price, gain.
• Part 2 — other income under §22 Nr. 3 EStG. Staking, lending, and airdrops land here.
• Separate loss-carryforward request — don’t skip this if you want to preserve losses.

If you’re using CoinTracking, Blockpit, or Accointing, the figures for both parts come pre-formatted from the report.

DAC8: why 2026 is different

From 2026, the EU-wide DAC8 Directive is in force. It requires every EU-regulated crypto asset service provider (CASP) to annually report:

• your identity (name, address, tax ID),
• your balances at year-end,
• all transactions during the year

to national tax authorities. The Bundeszentralamt für Steuern then cross-checks this against your tax return.

What this means in practice:

1. Non-reporting stands out. If DAC8 shows 50 swaps on your account and your Anlage SO has 10, the Finanzamt asks questions.
2. Past years can be flagged too. Data from 2024 and 2025 can be retroactively filed. Anyone who hasn’t reported for years should clean up in 2026.
3. Non-EU exchanges aren’t covered. Offshore exchanges and some decentralized protocols sit outside DAC8, but your personal reporting obligation still applies.

Tip: If you had unreported gains in prior years, a voluntary self-disclosure (Selbstanzeige, §371 AO) filed before the Finanzamt asks questions is the only way to avoid criminal exposure. For larger amounts, work with a Steuerberater specializing in crypto.

Common mistakes that get expensive

1. Unreported coin-to-coin swaps. Classic: “I never cashed out to euros.” — tax-irrelevant, it’s still a disposal.
2. Freigrenze confused with Freibetrag. €1,001 gains = tax on the full €1,001, not on €1.
3. Loss year never filed. No Anlage SO = no Verlustvortrag, period.
4. Wrong FIFO math. Using the wrong cost basis produces wrong gains — which DAC8 will catch.
5. Forgetting staking income. €256 is easy to exceed; check staking logs before filing.
6. Not deducting tool costs. CoinTracking, Blockpit, and Accointing subscriptions are all deductible. See also: Complete list of tax deductions in Germany.

How Restio helps

Crypto tax isn’t something a generic chatbot or calculator handles reliably. Too many edge cases, too many rule changes. Restio is built for it:

• Instant answers — “Is my ETH → USDT swap taxable?”, “What does DAC8 mean for my Binance account?”, “When does my stake actually become long-term?” — ask in German or English, get an answer in seconds.
• Purchase decision check — before a large trade, run it through Restio: it calculates the tax impact including the €1,000 threshold and FIFO effect.
• Deadline guardian — alerts when you’re approaching the €1,000 limit or when Anlage SO / loss-carryforward deadlines are coming up.
• Tool export integration — take your CoinTracking or Blockpit report, upload it, and get a clean summary you can share with your Steuerberater or use directly in ELSTER.

Getting crypto tax right is no longer optional in Germany. With DAC8, it’s visible. With the €1,000 and €256 thresholds, it’s quantifiable. With a proper tool plus Restio as a second opinion, it’s an hour’s work — not a Steuerberater-sized bill.