Crypto taxes in Germany
In short
If you swap, sell or pay with a token within a year of acquiring it, the gain is taxable, unless all such gains of the year together stay under €1,000. After a year it's tax-free.
Rewards from staking and lending are income, tax-free as long as they stay under €256 in the year. How tax offices apply this is set out in the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025.
- As of:
By topic
Every DeFi topic-
Bridges
The same token sent to your own wallet on another chain isn't a sale, and a different token is a swap.
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Lending
Lending isn't a sale. The interest is income, at the end of each year at the latest.
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Liquidity Pools
TaxMaxi reads a deposit as a swap into your position, which is disputed; fees are income when you collect them.
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Staking
Staking isn't a sale, and every reward is income on the day it's credited to you.
By blockchain
All chains
The principles
TaxMaxi calculates by these principles, each with the numbered paragraphs (Randnummern) of the BMF letter it rests on. A click on a number opens the letter at that spot.
Swapping, selling, paying
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A swap is a disposal
A swap disposes of the token you give up and acquires the one you receive. A gain is taxable if there's no more than one year between the acquisition and the swap.
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One-year holding period
The year runs from the day of acquisition to the swap, and each swap starts it again for the token you receive. There's no extension to ten years.
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First bought, first swapped
If you bought the same token at different times, the one you bought first counts as swapped first, calculated per wallet.
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The proceeds
The proceeds are the market value in euros of what you received, at the time of the swap.
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The cost basis
What you receive costs you the market value of what you gave for it. That's your cost basis when you swap the new token later.
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Fees
A swap's network fee counts as deductible expenses (Werbungskosten) and reduces the gain, but only on a taxable swap.
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The exemption limit (Freigrenze)
If the sum of all your gains from private sales in the year stays under €1,000 (up to 2023: €600), it's tax-free. Above that, all of it is taxable, not only the part over the limit.
Paragraph 53
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Paying with tokens
When you pay with a token, you dispose of it. The proceeds are the agreed price in euros or, if there is none, the token's market value.
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Paid in a separate transaction
If you pay for a token with another token that leaves your wallet in a separate transaction, as in a presale, that's a purchase and not income. What you send is disposed of at its value when sent, and that value is the cost basis of what you receive.
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Taking out a loan
Borrowed tokens are yours to use: you can spend them or swap them. When you take out the loan, they're acquired at their market value, with their own acquisition date. They aren't income.
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Repaying a loan
When you repay a loan, you dispose of the repaid tokens at their market value. With a stablecoin loan that gives hardly any gain or loss; with a volatile token there can be one. What you repay beyond the amount you borrowed is the interest: it's disposed of the same way and is a private cost that isn't deducted anywhere.
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Liquidation
If a liquidator takes your collateral because your loan has grown too large, you dispose of it. The proceeds are the value of the debt the liquidator paid off with it, and the liquidator's premium is your loss. If the acquisition was less than a year ago, the gain or loss counts.
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Liquidity in a pool
When you put tokens into a liquidity pool, we treat that as a swap for your position: they count as disposed of at their market value, and that value is the position's cost basis. When you withdraw liquidity, we treat that as a swap back: the position's share, what was paid in first going first, counts as disposed of at the market value of the tokens that come back, and you acquire those tokens anew, with a new holding period. That's also where impermanent loss shows up. The finance ministry's letter says nothing about liquidity pools. Even whether paying in is a disposal at all is disputed, and with it the new holding period: the other reading sees the position as a mere receipt and the deposit as a loan. We take the cautious reading.
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Other prediction markets
An outcome token of a market on sports, politics or entertainment is a token like any other. Buying, selling and redeeming are swaps under § 23 EStG, taxable within one year. If it only expires worthless, you never disposed of it, so that loss doesn't count.
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Swapped on arrival
If a bridge's route swaps your token into another one on arrival, as routes from Mayan and Wormhole Connect can, that's a swap at the bridge. Because TaxMaxi can't see the other chain, the proceeds are the market value of what you gave up.
Income
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Income
Staking rewards, interest from lending, and airdrops you had to do something for are income at their market value when received. That value is also the token's cost basis.
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The exemption limit (Freigrenze) for income
Income from other services under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG is tax-free if it stays under €256 in the year.
Paragraph 45
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Staking rewards
Rewards from passive staking are income at their market value when they're credited. With native staking on Solana that happens every epoch, about every two days, and each reward counts on its day, in the year it was credited, not only when you withdraw.
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Rewards from your own validator
If you run your own validator, you take part in creating blocks. Its rewards are income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG at their market value when they arrive in your wallet: on Ethereum with each Beacon Chain withdrawal, about every week. If you run validators on a sustained basis and at a larger scale, it may be a commercial activity.
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Interest from lending
Interest from lending is income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG at its market value when received, and each interest token gets its own acquisition date. If the interest grows only in the price of your receipt token, it counts at the latest at the end of each year, at the price of 31 December, and the rest when you withdraw the tokens.
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Farm rewards
Rewards a farm pays for your staked tokens are income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG when you collect them, at their market value on that day, and each one gets its own acquisition date. What the farm still owed you at the end of the year can't be looked up for past years, so it counts when you collect it.
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Fees from a pool
Fees and rewards that a position in a liquidity pool pays you are income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG when you collect them, at their market value on that day, and each one gets its own acquisition date. What the position had earned by the end of the year but not yet paid out can't be looked up for past years, so it counts when you collect it.
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Rewards for voting
Rewards a DAO pays for keeping your tokens locked for voting, such as Jupiter's Active Staking Rewards, are income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG on the day you collect them, at their market value on that day, and they get their own acquisition date, even if collecting them locks them again right away. Rewards that were published by the end of the year but not yet collected are in the DAO's own list, which your wallet doesn't show, so they count when you collect them.
What triggers no tax
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Between your own wallets
If you send a token back and forth between your own wallets or accounts, that's not a disposal. It keeps its acquisition date and its cost basis, and the move is documented.
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Between your own wallets on two chains
If a token leaves one of your wallets and arrives in another of your wallets in a separate transaction, over a bridge to another chain or through an exchange, that's one single move and not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, and its holding period keeps running. A token the bridge backs 1:1 on the other chain is the same token. The number the bridge gives the transfer, which both chains show, links the two ends with certainty. If it's missing, TaxMaxi offers a send and an arrival of the same coin, close in time, with the arrival smaller by at most the route's fee, as a pair for you to confirm. What the bridge keeps along the way is part of what was moved.
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Over a bridge to your own wallet
If you send a token over a bridge to your own wallet on another chain and it arrives there as the same token, backed 1:1, that's not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, just in a wallet TaxMaxi can't see, and the report says so. Whether a bridge is a disposal instead is disputed: the DeFi guide of CoinTracking sees every bridge as a disposal with a new acquisition, which realizes the gain since the purchase and restarts the holding period. The finance ministry's letter says nothing about bridges.
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Giving a token away
If you give a token away, that's not a disposal, because you get nothing for it. Whether gift tax applies is a separate question.
Paragraph 54
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Receiving a token as a gift
A token given to you as a gift keeps the acquisition date and cost basis of the person who gave it.
Paragraph 75
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Airdrops
An airdrop you didn't have to do anything for is a gift and not income. If the token has no market price when you receive it, it's valued at €0.
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Staked coins
Coins you stake from your wallet, SOL into a stake account or ETH into a validator of your own, are tied up, not transferred. Nothing is disposed of, and when the stake comes back, that's not an acquisition.
Paragraph 13
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Farm stakes
Tokens you stake in a farm stay your own stake: they sit locked in the farm's account for you and aren't transferred. Nothing is disposed of, they keep their acquisition date and cost basis, and when they come back, that's not an acquisition. A lending receipt in a farm stays your claim on the tokens you lent.
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Locked for voting
Tokens you lock to vote in a DAO, JUP at Jupiter for example, stay yours: they sit locked in an account kept for you and aren't transferred. Locking, adding more and unlocking, including the wait until the tokens come back, aren't disposals: the tokens keep their acquisition date and cost basis, and when they come back, that's not an acquisition. A vote moves nothing and isn't an event for tax.
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Lent tokens
If you lend tokens to a lending protocol, you let it use them and don't dispose of them. They keep their acquisition date and cost basis. The receipt token you get for them is only your claim on those same tokens, not a second token, and what comes back of the lent tokens isn't a new acquisition.
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Limit orders and DCA
Tokens you put into a limit order or a DCA stay yours while they wait, because you can cancel at any time: placing the order isn't a disposal, and they keep their acquisition date and cost basis. Each fill and each round of a DCA is a swap of the filled part at that moment, valued by what came in. A cancellation or the end of a DCA gives the rest back, without a new acquisition.
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Rent for token accounts
When you receive a token for the first time, the swap creates an account for it and puts down a small amount of SOL as rent. That isn't a swap: the SOL stay yours and come back when the account is closed.
Paragraph 54
Leveraged positions and forward transactions (Termingeschäfte)
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Leveraged positions
A perp or another position with leverage is a forward transaction (Termingeschäft). Its result is part of capital income under § 20 EStG: what came back, minus what you paid in, in euros on the day of closing, and it counts in the year you close. There's no holding period here and no €1,000 exemption limit (Freigrenze).
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Fees in the result
Fees for opening and closing, the borrow fee and funding are part of the position's result. They're taken from your collateral, so less comes back, and they don't count a second time.
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Losses from positions
A loss from leveraged positions is only offset against other capital income, such as interest or dividends, and otherwise carried forward to the next year. It isn't offset against gains from private sales under § 23 EStG. Since 2024 there's no longer an upper limit on such losses.
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Collateral
Tokens you pay into a position as collateral stay yours. That's not a disposal, and they keep their acquisition date and cost basis. If more tokens come back, the extra ones are acquired at their value on that day. If fewer come back, the missing ones paid for the loss and are disposed of at their value on that day.
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Liquidated position
If your position is liquidated, the rest of your collateral is lost. That's a loss under § 20 EStG on that day, even if everything is gone, and the collateral counts as disposed of at its value on that day.
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Prediction markets on a price
An outcome token of a market on a price, an interest rate, an index, a commodity or the weather is a forward transaction (Termingeschäft). If you redeem or sell it, that's capital income under § 20 EStG: what came back, minus what you paid for it, in euros on that day. If it expires worthless, everything you paid is a loss. What you give for it, SOL or a stablecoin, you swap under § 23 EStG as usual.
When data is missing
Common questions
Is crypto tax-free after one year?
Yes. If more than a year lies between buying and selling or swapping, the gain is tax-free, however high it is. The holding period runs separately for each purchase and starts again after every swap (paragraph 55). Staking or lending don't extend it to ten years (paragraph 63).
Are crypto gains under €1,000 tax-free?
Yes, if all your gains from private sales in a year together stay under €1,000, after deducting the year's losses. It's an exemption limit (Freigrenze), not an allowance (Freibetrag): from €1,000 on, the whole gain is taxable, not only the part above it. Up to 2023 the limit was €600 (paragraph 53).
Is swapping one crypto asset for another taxable?
Yes. For tax, a swap is a sale of one token and a purchase of the other, even between two crypto assets with no euros in between (paragraph 54). The gain is the value of what you receive minus what the token you gave up cost you. Within a year of buying, it's taxable, subject to the €1,000 limit.
How are staking rewards taxed?
As other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, at their euro value on the day they're credited to you (paragraph 48). Together with other income of this kind, such as from lending, they're tax-free under €256 a year. How staking is taxed on each chain is on the page Staking and taxes, and for SOL on the page about staking SOL.
Can I offset crypto losses against gains?
Yes, against gains from other private sales, such as from crypto, gold or a flat within the holding period. What isn't offset in one year you can carry back to the year before or forward to later years; for that you have to report the losses in your tax return. You can't offset them against wages or capital income (§ 23 Abs. 3 EStG).
How does the tax office find out about crypto gains?
Since 2026, crypto exchanges and other providers in the EU report their customers' transactions to the tax authorities (the EU directive DAC8). Nobody reports what you do in your own wallet, but it's public on the blockchain, and the exchange you use to deposit and withdraw euros knows your addresses. You state your gains and income in your tax return yourself.
Will crypto tax change in 2027?
Maybe. In September 2026 the finance ministry put forward a draft: crypto assets bought from 2027 on would be taxed as capital income at 25%, with no one-year holding period. What was bought up to the end of 2026 would stay under the one-year holding period. None of this has been passed yet. For the tax years up to 2026, what's on this page applies. What the draft says in detail, with three cases in euros, is in the post Crypto tax from 2027.
The BMF letter
On 6 March 2025 the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) set out how tax offices tax crypto assets. Of the letter's 110 paragraphs, TaxMaxi applies 34. The others explain terms or cover what TaxMaxi doesn't read yet, such as mining.
Read the letter, in the German the ministry wrote it inSources
- § 23 of the Income Tax Act (EStG)
Private sales: the one-year holding period, the €1,000 limit and losses
- § 22 EStG
Other income: staking, lending and the €256 limit in Nr. 3
- BMF letter of 6 March 2025
How tax offices tax crypto assets, as a PDF from the finance ministry
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.