How is staking taxed in Germany?
In short
Staking your coins isn't a disposal: they're locked but not transferred, on any chain. What's taxable is the staking rewards. Each one is income under § 22 Nr. 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG), at its euro value on the day it's credited to you. 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 coins. Sell or swap them within a year and the gain is taxable under § 23 EStG; after that it's tax-free. The one-year holding period on the coins you staked just keeps running, and staking doesn't extend it.
- As of:
- Based on:
- § 22 EStG, § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is staking?
Blockchains like Ethereum and Solana pick the computers that create new blocks by their stake: coins locked for them. These computers are called validators. When you stake, you give your coins to a validator as stake, without creating blocks yourself, and you get a share of its rewards. The finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 calls this passive staking (paragraph 13).
How you stake changes what happens for tax. There are four ways:
- Native stakingSOL, ETH, ATOM, DOT
- Your coins stay in an account that belongs to you, locked for a validator. Nothing is disposed of. Each reward is income on the day it's credited to you (paragraph 48).
- Liquid stakingJito, Marinade, Lido, Rocket Pool
- You give your coins to a pool and get its token in return, such as JitoSOL or stETH. TaxMaxi reads this as a swap: the coins are disposed of and the token is acquired (paragraph 54).
- Staking on an exchangeCoinbase, Kraken, Bitpanda
- The exchange stakes for you. The BMF letter calls this platform staking and treats it like native staking: the rewards are income when they're credited to you (paragraph 13).
- Your own validatorrun by yourself
- If you create blocks yourself, you aren't staking passively. The BMF letter calls this forging. It can be a commercial activity, and its own principles apply (paragraphs 34 to 39). For how TaxMaxi reads your own validator on Ethereum, see ETH staking with your own validator.
For tax, all that counts is what happens to your coins: staked isn't disposed of, every reward is income, and only a sale or swap is a disposal.
An example in euros
This one uses SOL, and with ETH or another coin the sums work the same way. 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 single one, 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.
Staking on your chain
Each chain's page shows what staking looks like there, when the rewards arrive and what a liquid staking token does, with a real transaction and the protocols TaxMaxi reads.
-
SolanaBlockchain
How is SOL staking taxed in Germany?
How is liquid staking with Jito taxed in Germany?How is liquid staking with Marinade taxed in Germany?How is liquid staking with Sanctum taxed in Germany? -
EthereumBlockchain
How is ETH staking with your own validator taxed in Germany?
How is staking with Lido taxed in Germany?
More topics: Bridges, Lending, Liquidity Pools. All topics at a glance: DeFi taxes in Germany.
The legal basis
How Staking is taxed is set by the Income Tax Act (§ 22 EStG and § 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. It applies the same on every chain.
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
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.
- 2
-
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
- 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 staking taxable?
Staking itself isn't: your coins are locked but not transferred (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.
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. The €1,000 for gains from private sales is a separate limit.
When do I have to pay tax on staking rewards?
In the year they're credited to you, at that day's price. If you have to claim a reward first, claiming it may count as the day; anything you haven't claimed by New Year's Eve counts at the end of the year at the latest (paragraph 48a). The BMF letter allows the day's price instead of the price to the minute (paragraph 91).
Does staking extend the holding period to ten years?
No. For currency and payment tokens like ETH or SOL, the BMF letter rules out the ten years (paragraph 63). On the staked coins the one-year holding period keeps running from the purchase, even while they're locked; after more than a year a sale is tax-free. Each reward has its own one-year holding period, from the day it's credited. Under a finance ministry draft, the holding period would go from 2027 for newly acquired coins, and rewards would be taxed at 25%, on older coins too: What's set to change from 2027.
Can I deduct staking costs?
Yes, as deductible expenses (Werbungskosten), such as fees you pay for staking. The €256 applies to your income, meaning the rewards after these costs (§ 22 Nr. 3 Satz 2 EStG). Costs above your rewards can only be offset against income of this kind, not against your salary.
Does the exemption limit apply to mining too?
Yes, if you mine privately and it isn't a commercial business. That income then also counts as services under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG and shares the €256 with your staking rewards (paragraph 45). Electricity and hardware are deductible expenses here (paragraph 47). If the mining is set up for the long term and for profit, it can be a commercial business (paragraphs 34 to 39).
Is liquid staking taxable?
Going in is a swap: you give up coins and get a token like JitoSOL or stETH. TaxMaxi reads it this way because you get a different token (paragraph 54). If that's less than a year after you bought the coins, a gain on them is taxable. The BMF letter doesn't mention liquid staking explicitly. For how TaxMaxi reads the tokens, see the pages on Jito and Marinade on Solana and Lido on Ethereum.
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 counts at its price on the day it's credited (paragraphs 43 and 91). Your tax return shows the total of your other 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 reward on its day and sums them up in the report.
How is staking on an exchange taxed?
Like native staking: the rewards are income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG on the day the exchange credits them to you (paragraph 13). For the one-year holding period, the times the exchange records are what count (paragraph 55). Since 2026, exchanges in the EU report their customers' transactions to the tax authorities; you still have to declare the income yourself.
Sources
- § 22 EStG
Other income: staking rewards and the €256 limit in Nr. 3
- § 23 EStG
Private sales: the one-year holding period and the €1,000 limit
- Finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025
How tax offices tax crypto assets, as a PDF from the finance ministry
- Staking on Solana
Solana's own documentation on stake accounts and rewards
- Staking on Ethereum
ethereum.org's documentation on the ways to stake ETH
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.