If you hold your crypto for less than a year before selling, swapping, or spending it, any profit is subject to Income Tax.

The tax rate is the same as your regular Income Tax rate, up to 45%, plus a potential 5.5% Solidarity Tax.

If you hold your crypto for more than a year, any profit from selling, swapping, or spending it is tax-free.

Income from mining or staking is taxable at your regular Income Tax rate.

You only need to file a tax return if your additional income exceeds €256 per year.

If your annual net gain from crypto transactions is less than €600, you do not need to file a tax return.

If you incur a loss from selling, swapping, or spending crypto within a year, you won’t pay tax on it.

Track these losses as they can be offset against profits to reduce your tax bill.

If you have no profits to offset, you can carry forward losses to future years if reported in your tax return.

The cost basis is the purchase price plus any transaction fees.

For crypto acquired through airdrops or forks, use the fair market value on the receipt date as the cost basis.

Use the FIFO (First In, First Out) method for calculating taxes if units cannot be specifically identified.

A ‘wallet-by-wallet’ analysis is required for determining the sequence of sold units.

You may claim lost or stolen crypto as a loss with the BZSt by providing evidence such as:

Trading one cryptocurrency for another is taxable if the profit exceeds €600 within the same year of acquisition.

Moving crypto between different exchanges, wallets, or accounts is not a taxable event.

However, spending cryptocyurrency to pay the transfer fee is a taxable event.

Rewards from staking, liquidity mining, or yield farming are subject to Income Tax if above the €256 threshold.

Tax is due when withdrawing capital from liquidity pools if the original capital or liquidity pool tokens were held for less than a year.

Selling, swapping, or buying NFTs with crypto held for less than a year incurs Income Tax.

Income from minting and selling NFTs as an artist may be considered artistic or commercial income and subject to additional taxes.

Mining rewards are considered additional income and taxed based on the fair market value on receipt.

Expenses can be deducted, and taxes are due on profits if mined coins are disposed of within a year.

Staking rewards are taxed based on their market value at receipt and subject to Income Tax on profits if disposed of within a year.

New tokens received in ICOs or IEOs are taxed if disposed of within a year, based on the initial crypto's value at the ICO/IEO date.

Treated the same as trading crypto, taxable if the crypto was held for less than a year before the purchase.

Profits from margin trades are capital income if no crypto is delivered; otherwise, they are private sales transactions.

Profits from derivatives depend on whether the investor acquires the underlying crypto asset.

Gifts are tax-free up to €20,000 for friends and €500,000 for spouses, with higher values taxed under “Schenkungssteuer”.

The tax rates for gifts range from 7% to 50%, depending on the recipient.

No Income Tax on receipt of crypto from hard forks, but gains from selling within a year are taxable if over €600.

The German tax year runs from January 1 to December 31.

The tax return deadline is July 31, extended to September 30, 2024, for the 2023 tax return.

Use Elster, the BZSt's online platform, to file your taxes.

Report crypto on the Annex SO (Other Income) and main form ESt 1 A.