Solana stakingNative staking
How is SOL staking taxed in Germany?
In short
Staking SOL with a validator isn't a disposal: the SOL sit in your own stake account, locked but not transferred. Each reward Solana credits you, roughly every two days, is income under § 22 Nr. 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG), at its euro value on the day it's credited. If your income of this kind stays under €256 for the year in total, you pay no tax on it.
When a reward is credited, you acquire the new SOL. Sell or swap them within a year and the gain on them is taxable under § 23 EStG; after that it's tax-free. The one-year holding period on the SOL you staked just keeps running, and staking doesn't extend it. Withdrawing from the stake account isn't an acquisition.
- As of:
- 21 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, § 22 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is native staking on Solana?
With native staking, your wallet creates a stake account, pays SOL into it and delegates it to a validator, one of the computers that produce blocks on Solana. The account belongs to you: only you can withdraw the SOL, and the validator can't move them. Your stake counts for the validator when Solana picks who produces the next blocks.
At the end of each epoch, roughly every two days, Solana credits a reward to your stake account. You don't have to do anything, and no transaction shows up in your wallet. The reward stays staked and grows along with the rest. Many validators also pass on part of the tips traders pay for a fast spot in the block, and those land in the stake account too. To withdraw, you deactivate the stake and take the SOL back to your wallet once the epoch has ended.
- The wallet Phantom, Solflare or another one You pick a validator and an amount, and the wallet creates the stake account for you.
- The program Stake1…1111 Solana's own stake program runs your stake account, delegates it and returns the SOL when you withdraw.
- The validator one of many, your choice It produces blocks with the weight of your stake; part of its rewards goes to you, minus its commission.
For tax, all that counts is what happens to your SOL: staked isn't disposed of, every reward is income, and only a sale or swap is a disposal. That holds on every chain: How staking is taxed in Germany.
Solana staking at a glance
- Type
- Native staking on Solana
Staking SOL on the blockchain
A real delegation from a public wallet, the way TaxMaxi reads it. Next to each item the wallet gives up, you see what it means for tax.
- −5.00228288 SOL Stakedinto your own stake account, not a disposal, acquisition date and cost stay
- −0.000005 SOL Network feethe SOL paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
Programs called
- Stake programStake1…1111one of Solana's own programs: creates the stake account and delegates it to the validator
In one transaction the wallet created a new stake account, put just under 5.0023 SOL into it and delegated it to a validator. The 0.00228288 SOL on top of the 5 SOL is the balance every stake account needs to exist, and it comes back when you withdraw.
The rewards aren't in any transaction: Solana credits them to the stake account every epoch. So TaxMaxi looks them up epoch by epoch for each of your stake accounts, with the balance after each credit, and counts each one on its day, at that day's SOL price.
An example in euros
You buy 10 SOL in February 2025, stake them two days later, withdraw everything in March 2026 and sell it in April. The example shows three credits in place of every epoch, and the euro values are assumed. This is how TaxMaxi works out the rewards and the sale:
- 1 February 2025Bought 10 SOL for €1,500.00
- 3 February 2025Staked: 10 SOL into your stake account, not a disposal
- 1 May 2025Reward credited: 0.2 SOL, worth €28.00
- 1 November 2025Reward credited: 0.3 SOL, worth €48.00
- 1 February 2026Reward credited: 0.1 SOL, worth €12.00
- 2 March 2026Withdrawn: 10.6 SOL back from the stake account, not a new acquisition
- 1 April 2026Sold 10.6 SOL for €1,696.00
- Reward 0.2 SOL from 1 May 2025
- €28.00
- Reward 0.3 SOL from 1 November 2025
- €48.00
- Income 2025 under the exemption limit of €256
- €76.00
Staking rewards 2025
- Reward 0.1 SOL from 1 February 2026
- €12.00
- Income 2026 under the exemption limit of €256
- €12.00
Staking rewards 2026
- 10 SOL from 1 February 2025 after 424 days, tax-free
- +€100.00
- 0.2 SOL reward from 1 May 2025 after 335 days, taxable
- +€4.00
- 0.3 SOL reward from 1 November 2025 after 151 days, taxable
- +€0.00
- 0.1 SOL reward from 1 February 2026 after 59 days, taxable
- +€4.00
- Gain taxable
- +€8.00
Sale on 1 April 2026: 10.6 SOL
Each year's rewards stay under the exemption limit of €256 for income like this. If, together with interest from lending and other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, they're your only income of this kind in the year, you pay no tax on them. From €256 the whole amount is taxable, at your personal tax rate. The taxable gain of €8.00 in 2026 is under the exemption limit of €1,000 for private sales: if it's your only one in the year, you pay no tax on it. The gain of €100.00 on the SOL held for more than a year is tax-free.
The 10 SOL were in the stake account most of the time and kept their purchase date of 1 February 2025: at the sale they had been held for more than a year, so the gain on them is tax-free. Staking doesn't extend the period.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
Whether staking costs tax is set in two places in the Income Tax Act (EStG): rewards are income from other services under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, and a later sale or swap of the SOL 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
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.
See the BMF letter, paragraph 13
-
2
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.
- 3
-
4
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
-
5
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.
- 6
- 7
-
8
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 SOL staking taxable?
Staking itself isn't: your SOL are locked but not transferred (the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025, paragraph 13), so nothing is disposed of. The rewards are taxable: they're income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, at their market price when you receive them (paragraph 48). You only pay tax on them once your income of this kind reaches €256 for the year in total. If you sell the rewards later, that counts under § 23 EStG like any other sale.
When does a reward I don't withdraw count?
On the day it's credited. Solana credits it to your stake account, which belongs to you, without you having to do anything, and the BMF letter names this case explicitly (paragraph 13). Even rewards you haven't claimed yet count by the end of the year at the latest (paragraph 48a). So withdrawing later is no longer income: you're taking your own SOL back.
Do I have to report every staking reward separately?
You have to calculate each one separately, but you don't have to enter each one. Every reward goes in at its market price when received, and the BMF letter allows a daily price for that (paragraphs 43, 48 and 91). Your tax return then shows the total of your income of this kind for the year. You should be able to show the tax office how you got there if it asks. TaxMaxi calculates each epoch at the day's price and sums them up in the report per stake account and month.
What is the exemption limit (Freigrenze) for staking?
€256 a year, for all income from other services under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG combined, so staking rewards, interest from lending and the like (paragraph 45). It's an exemption limit, not an allowance (Freibetrag): stay under it and all of it is tax-free; reach €256 and the whole amount is taxable, not just the part above it. The €1,000 for gains from private sales is a separate limit. It applies to selling the SOL, not to the rewards.
Does staking extend the holding period?
No. For the SOL you stake, the one-year holding period keeps running from the purchase, including while they sit in the stake account, and after more than a year a sale is tax-free. The BMF letter rules out an extension to ten years for currency and payment tokens (paragraph 63). Each reward does have its own one-year holding period, though, from the day it's credited.
How is it different from liquid staking?
With liquid staking you give up SOL and receive a token such as mSOL or JitoSOL. That's a swap, and the SOL count as disposed of. Nothing gets credited to you there: the token just gains value, and that only counts as a gain when you swap back. With native staking you keep your SOL, and every reward is income. How TaxMaxi reads liquid staking is on the pages for Marinade and Jito.
How do I get a tax report for my staking?
Add your wallet address in TaxMaxi. During the sync, TaxMaxi finds your stake accounts in the wallet's history and looks up the rewards for each one epoch by epoch, including the tips your validator passes on. For each tax year you get a report as a PDF: your staking income, summed up per stake account and month, and every sale with its gain. The first transactions are free.
What doesn't TaxMaxi read in staking yet?
A stake account that was split or merged with another one, one that another wallet topped up, and one you hand to Marinade or a stake pool. TaxMaxi puts those transactions in front of you in the review, and you say what happened.
More Solana protocols
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.