KaminoLending
How is lending on Kamino taxed in Germany?
In short
Lending tokens on Kamino isn't a sale. They keep their acquisition date and their cost basis, and the one-year holding period keeps running. The interest is income from other services under § 22 Nr. 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). Kamino pays nothing out and lets your balance grow instead, so the interest counts on 31 December of each year at the latest, at that day's price, and the rest counts when you withdraw. If your income of this kind stays under €256 in a year, you pay no tax on it.
Borrowing tokens on Kamino against your collateral isn't income. The borrowed tokens count as acquired at their market value, and repaying disposes of the tokens you repay with. If your collateral is liquidated, that's a sale under § 23 EStG, at the value of the debt it paid off.
- As of:
- 17 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, § 22 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is Kamino?
Kamino is a lending app on Solana. In Kamino Lend you lend tokens like USDC or SOL into a market where others borrow against collateral, and the interest they pay is yours. What you've lent can also be the collateral for a loan of your own. The Kamino Vaults lend your tokens for you across several Kamino Lend markets, and in the Farms you get extra rewards for a position, often in KMNO, Kamino's own token.
Kamino keeps your deposit in an account on the blockchain that belongs only to you, called the obligation. It holds receipt tokens whose price rises with the interest: the same number of receipt tokens later gets you back more USDC than you put in.
- The app app.kamino.finance You pick what to lend or borrow and confirm in your wallet.
- The program KLend2…gmjD Kamino Lend takes the tokens, records them in your obligation and lends them on.
- Vaults and Farms Kamino Vaults and Kamino Farms The Vaults spread your tokens across the markets, and the Farms pay rewards for a position.
For tax, only what happens to your tokens counts: lent isn't sold, interest is income, a loan is an acquisition and repaying it is a disposal. The same goes for all lending, on any chain: How lending is taxed in Germany.
Kamino at a glance
- Type
- Lending on Solana
- Token
- KMNOa crypto asset like any other
A Kamino deposit on the blockchain
A real deposit into Kamino Lend from a public wallet, the way TaxMaxi reads it. Next to each item the wallet gives up, you see what it means for tax.
- −2,500 USDC Lentnot a disposal, acquisition date and cost stay
- −0.04081344 SOL Rent depositedfor your position's accounts, comes back when it closes, not a swap
- −0.00000501 SOL Network feethe SOL paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
Programs called
- Kamino LendKLend2…gmjDtakes the tokens and keeps them in your position
- Kamino FarmsFarmsP…91Hrkeeps the rewards for your position
Nothing comes back to the wallet: the receipt tokens for the 2,500 USDC go straight into the wallet's obligation. They're your claim on those same USDC and not a second token, so they get no item of their own. The rent is the balance every new account on Solana needs, here for the obligation and the accounts next to it.
An example in euros
The same deposit, carried forward: 2,500 USDC bought in June 2024, lent on Kamino Lend on 5 July 2024, and withdrawn with the interest on 31 December 2025. The amounts are this wallet's, rounded, and the euro values are assumed for the example. This is how TaxMaxi works out the interest:
- 1 June 2024Bought 2,500 USDC for €2,330.00
- 5 July 2024Lent: 2,500 USDC, not a disposal
- 31 December 2024Year end: 110.88 USDC interest accrued, worth €106.50
- 31 December 2025Withdrawn: 2,740.625717 USDC, of which 2,610.88 USDC back, not a new acquisition
- 31 December 2025Interest on withdrawal: 129.745717 USDC, worth €110.50
- Interest 110.88 USDC at year end, at the price of 31 December 2024
- €106.50
- Income 2024 under the exemption limit of €256
- €106.50
Interest 2024
- Interest 129.745717 USDC on withdrawal on 31 December 2025
- €110.50
- Income 2025 under the exemption limit of €256
- €110.50
Interest 2025
Each year's interest stays under the exemption limit of €256 for income like this. If, together with staking rewards and other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, it's your only income of this kind in the year, you pay no tax on it. From €256 the whole amount is taxable, at your personal tax rate.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
Whether lending costs tax is set in two places in the Income Tax Act (EStG): interest is income from other services under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, and a sale, a repayment or a liquidation is a private sale under § 23 EStG. 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
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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2
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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3
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.
See the BMF letter, paragraph 45
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4
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.
- 5
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6
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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7
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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8
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.
-
9
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.
Common questions
Do I have to pay tax on interest I haven't withdrawn?
Yes, at the end of the year at the latest. Kamino doesn't pay interest out, it raises the price of your receipt tokens. The finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 counts lending income when you receive it (paragraph 65), and tokens you haven't collected yet at the end of the year at the latest (paragraph 48a). So for every 31 December, TaxMaxi reads what your balance was worth and counts the growth as that year's income, at that day's price. When you withdraw, only what has been added since then counts.
Is lending itself taxable?
No. When you lend, you let someone use your tokens for a fee (paragraph 26), and you don't sell them. The lent tokens keep their acquisition date and the one-year holding period keeps running. If you sell them after withdrawing, more than a year after you bought them, the gain is tax-free, even if they were lent out most of that time.
What happens for tax when I take out a loan on Kamino?
The borrowed tokens are yours to use: you can spend or swap them. When you borrow, they count as acquired at their market value, and they aren't income. When you repay, you dispose of the tokens you repay with. On a loan in USDC that produces hardly any gain or loss, and on a volatile token it can produce one. Whatever you repay beyond the loan is interest: a private cost that isn't deducted anywhere. The BMF letter says nothing explicit about loans, so TaxMaxi follows what it says about acquisitions and swaps.
What applies in a liquidation?
If your loan grows too large for your collateral, a liquidator takes part of the collateral and pays off part of your debt in return. For tax, you sell the tokens that were taken, and the proceeds are the value of the debt paid off. The premium the liquidator keeps is your loss. If you bought the tokens less than a year ago, the gain or loss counts. A liquidation doesn't appear in your wallet, only in the history of your obligation, and TaxMaxi reads it there.
How are rewards from the Farms taxed?
As income on the day you collect them, at their value that day. What a farm still owed you at the end of a year can't be looked up for past years, so it counts when you collect it. Tokens you stake in a farm stay yours: you don't sell them, and they keep their acquisition date.
When does TaxMaxi ask me about Kamino?
With a loop, meaning Multiply or a flash loan, where lending, borrowing and swapping happen in one transaction. And when you withdraw something whose deposit TaxMaxi hasn't seen, because it came before your wallet's start or from another wallet. The date and amount of what you lent are missing then, and only you know them, so TaxMaxi puts the transaction in front of you in the review.
More Solana protocols
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.