JitoLiquid staking
How is liquid staking with Jito taxed in Germany?
In short
On Jito you hand over SOL and get JitoSOL, a token that gains a little value against SOL every epoch. For tax this is a swap: you dispose of the SOL and acquire the JitoSOL. If you later swap the JitoSOL back into SOL or into another token, that's another swap.
Nothing is credited to you while you hold JitoSOL, so the growth isn't income. It shows up only when you swap, as a gain on the JitoSOL. That gain is taxable under § 23 of the Income Tax Act (EStG) if you held the JitoSOL for no more than a year, unless your gains from all private sales that year add up to less than €1,000. After more than a year it's tax-free.
- As of:
- 16 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Jito?
Jito is a liquid staking protocol on Solana. You pay SOL into Jito's stake pool and get JitoSOL. The pool stakes the SOL with validators that run Jito's software. Their rewards stay in the pool: the ordinary staking rewards, plus the tips traders pay for a fast place in the block. That's why one JitoSOL is worth more SOL with every epoch, which is about every two days.
Jito's pool has no program of its own. It runs on Solana's stake pool program, which many other pools use too, and the pool account in the transaction tells you which pool it is. Most people get back into SOL through a swap on an exchange like Jupiter or Orca. Going straight through the pool is less common.
- The app jito.network You choose how much SOL to deposit and confirm in your wallet.
- The program SPoo1K…kuHy The stake pool program takes the SOL for Jito's pool and issues JitoSOL.
- The validators many, all running Jito's software The SOL is staked with them, and their rewards make the JitoSOL grow in value.
For tax, only the swap counts: SOL leaves your wallet and JitoSOL arrives. It makes no difference whether you swap through jito.network, a wallet app or an exchange.
Jito at a glance
- Type
- Liquid staking on Solana
- Token
- JitoSOLa crypto asset like any other
SOL for JitoSOL on the blockchain
A real deposit into Jito's pool from a public wallet, as TaxMaxi reads it. Beside each item the wallet gives up or receives, you can see what it means for tax.
- −0.019566555 SOL Disposalat the euro value of what was received
- +0.014975156 JitoSOL Acquisitionstarts the one-year period
- −0.000014777 SOL Network feedeductible expenses (Werbungskosten) of the swap
Programs called
- SPL Stake PoolSPoo1K…kuHythe stake pool that takes the SOL and issues its token
Just under 0.02 SOL brought in just under 0.015 JitoSOL. One JitoSOL was worth a little over 1.30 SOL that day, because it holds the rewards collected since the pool started. That's why you get fewer JitoSOL than the SOL you deposit, and more SOL when you swap back.
An example in euros
You buy SOL, deposit it with Jito a month later, and swap the JitoSOL back into SOL after more than a year. Here's how TaxMaxi works out the two swaps:
- 1 February 2024Bought 5 SOL for €500.00
- 1 March 2024Swap: 5 SOL given up
- 1 March 2024Received: 4.5 JitoSOL, worth €600.00
- 1 June 2025Swap: 4.5 JitoSOL given up
- 1 June 2025Received: 5.45 SOL, worth €763.00
- Proceeds value of the JitoSOL received
- €600.00
- Cost basis 5 SOL from 1 February 2024
- − €500.00
- Gain after 29 days, taxable
- +€100.00
Swap on 1 March 2024: SOL given up
- Proceeds value of the SOL received
- €763.00
- Cost basis 4.5 JitoSOL from 1 March 2024
- − €600.00
- Gain after 457 days, tax-free
- +€163.00
Swap on 1 June 2025: JitoSOL given up
Nothing is taxable in 2025: the gain of €163.00 is tax-free because the token you gave up was held for more than a year. It doesn't count toward the exemption limit either.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
Whether a swap costs tax is set by the Income Tax Act (EStG), above all § 23 EStG on private sales. How tax offices apply this to crypto is set out in the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025, which binds them.
The letter is divided into numbered paragraphs (Randnummern). Each principle below says where to find it; a click opens the letter at that spot.
- 1
-
2
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. For tokens you acquire from 2027, a finance ministry draft would drop the holding period: What is set to change from 2027.
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
-
7
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.
See the BMF letter, paragraph 53
Common questions
Is depositing SOL with Jito taxable?
Yes, it's a swap: you dispose of the SOL. If you held it for more than a year, the gain on it is tax-free. Otherwise it counts in the year of the deposit. For the JitoSOL, the one-year holding period starts fresh on the day of the swap.
Do I have to report the growth of my JitoSOL as income every year?
No. Staking rewards are income when extra tokens are credited to you (paragraph 48 of the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025). With JitoSOL nothing is credited: you hold the same amount, and only its value in SOL goes up. So the growth counts only when you swap the JitoSOL, as part of the gain. The BMF letter doesn't name liquid staking tokens explicitly. TaxMaxi follows what it says about swaps and about staking.
I bought JitoSOL on an exchange, not from Jito. Does that change anything?
No. Whether you deposit SOL into Jito's pool or buy JitoSOL on Jupiter or Orca, you give up one token and receive JitoSOL, and both are swaps. The same goes for the way back.
What doesn't TaxMaxi read at Jito yet?
A stake account that you deposit into Jito's pool, or withdraw from it as a stake account. TaxMaxi puts those transactions in front of you in the review, and you say what happened.
What if I held the JitoSOL for more than a year?
Then the gain on the swap is tax-free, however much the JitoSOL grew in that time. For the token you receive, the one-year holding period starts again.
More Solana protocols
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.