Crypto & foreign brokers: The tax your broker doesn't withhold.

With German brokers, tax is withheld automatically – with crypto and foreign brokers it isn't. There, you have to declare your gains yourself. Overlook it and you risk trouble with the tax office. This guide explains when tax applies in Germany, how the holding period works and how to stay on top of it. As of: July 2026.

Why some brokers don't withhold tax

When you sell a stock at a profit with a German broker like Trade Republic, Scalable or comdirect, something convenient happens behind the scenes: the broker withholds the capital gains tax immediately and forwards it to the tax office. For you, the matter is settled – nothing more to do.

That's exactly what's missing in two cases: with cryptocurrencies and with foreign brokers. A crypto exchange like Coinbase, Kraken or Bitpanda doesn't withhold German tax. A foreign broker like Interactive Brokers or Trading 212 doesn't either. In both cases the gain lands in full on your account – and the responsibility to tax it correctly is entirely yours. You have to declare it yourself in your tax return.

How crypto is taxed in Germany

For tax purposes, cryptocurrencies don't count as a capital investment like stocks, but as a "other asset" (sonstiges Wirtschaftsgut). This puts them under Section 23 EStG – so-called private sale transactions. That has three practical consequences you should know.

1. The one-year holding period

The key point: if you hold a cryptocurrency for more than twelve months and then sell, the gain is completely tax-free – no matter how large. The period starts the day after purchase. If you sell within the first year, however, the gain is taxable.

Watch out for a common misconception: a swap also counts as a sale. Swapping Bitcoin for Ethereum triggers a taxable sale of the Bitcoin – and starts a new holding period for the Ethereum. So it doesn't have to be a conversion back to euros.

2. Your personal tax rate – not the flat 25% as with stocks

If tax applies (i.e. a sale within the holding period), the flat 25% withholding tax used for stocks does not apply. Instead the gain is taxed at your personal income tax rate – between 0% and 45% depending on your total income. For most investors with regular income this rate is noticeably above 25%. It's one of the biggest differences from stock taxation and is often underestimated.

3. The €1,000 exemption limit

There is an exemption limit: if your total gains from private sale transactions in the year stay below €1,000, they're tax-free. But note the German concept of a Freigrenze (exemption limit) – it's not an allowance (Freibetrag). The difference matters: exceed the limit by even one euro and the entire gain becomes taxable, not just the part above €1,000. So with a €1,001 gain, you tax the full €1,001.

Foreign brokers: same principle, different section

For stocks and ETFs through a foreign broker, the normal capital gains tax still applies (Section 20 EStG, 25% plus solidarity surcharge) – it's just that no one withholds it automatically for you. You have to declare the realised gains yourself in the Anlage KAP of your tax return. So the difference from crypto isn't the rate, but that the duty to declare falls on you instead of the broker.

If you trade with several brokers, there's also the matter of loss offsetting: no single broker automatically offsets losses at one against gains at another for you. That, too, runs through your tax return – and requires you to have consolidated all your transactions cleanly.

Why this matters more in 2026: DAC8

Until recently, self-declaration was a grey area for many that no one really checked. That's changing fundamentally. Since 1 January 2026 the EU directive DAC8 applies: crypto exchanges and service providers are required to record their users' transaction data and report it automatically to the tax authorities. So the tax office will receive your crypto gains regardless of whether you declare them.

In practice: the days when crypto gains could be "forgotten" are over. A complete and correct tax return is no longer optional but the only safe route.

How to stay on top of it

The real challenge with self-declaration is rarely the tax law – it's the documentation. For every taxable sale you need: acquisition date, acquisition cost, sale date, sale proceeds and the resulting holding period. Across dozens of trades over several exchanges and wallets this quickly gets messy – especially since Germany uses the FIFO method (the coins bought first count as sold first), which complicates the matching further.

This is exactly where Rendito comes in. The app consolidates your transactions from different sources, calculates the holding periods automatically using FIFO, and creates a tax report that distinguishes between tax-free (held over a year) and taxable sales. For crypto it uses your personal tax rate, for foreign stock portfolios the capital gains tax – and you can export the report as a PDF for your tax return or your tax advisor.

This article is for general information and does not constitute tax, legal or investment advice. It describes German tax law as of July 2026, which may change. For a binding assessment of your specific situation, consult a licensed tax advisor. Despite careful research, no guarantee is given for accuracy or completeness.