Outlets agree Germany is drafting a 25% flat tax on crypto gains for assets bought after Jan 1, 2027, but disagree on whether the tax itself takes effect in 2027 or 2028.
Outlets agree Germany is drafting a 25% flat tax on crypto gains for assets bought after Jan 1, 2027, but disagree on whether the tax itself takes effect in 2027 or 2028.
What all sources agree on
- Germany's Finance Ministry has drafted a proposal to tax crypto gains at a flat 25% rate, ending the current one-year tax-free holding exemption.
- The new regime would apply to crypto assets acquired after January 1, 2027, with assets bought before that date generally expected to be grandfathered under existing rules.
- Automatic withholding of the tax by exchanges and banks is expected to begin in 2028.
- The government projects roughly €160 million in additional revenue in 2028, rising to about €350 million annually by 2031.
- The proposal is a draft still in early government coordination and has not been approved by the cabinet or parliament.
Where the reports disagree
1Whether the 25% tax itself takes effect in 2027 or 2028
Germany proposes a 25% flat tax on crypto gains starting January 1, 2027.
The law would take effect on January 1, 2027, and apply only to crypto bought from that date.
The law would take effect on January 1, 2027 and cover only crypto acquired from that date. Banks and trading platforms would begin withholding the tax automatically in 2028, a year later, to give them time to build the systems that collect it.
It would make the legal change effective for new acquisitions from 2027. Automatic deduction by providers would follow one year later instead of starting on the same date.
The reported proposal would preserve the existing treatment for assets bought before January 1, 2027. Crypto acquired from that date would enter the proposed capital-income regime.
The planned rules would apply to crypto assets acquired after Jan. 1, 2027, while the tax itself would take effect in 2028.
The German Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly issued a draft proposal to transition cryptocurrency trading profits to the standard 25% flat-rate tax starting in 2028.
The Ministry of Finance in Germany has drafted a bill to impose a 25% tax on crypto gains starting in 2028.
What would settle it: The published departmental draft bill text (seen by Handelsblatt/Die Welt) or the government's official bill once submitted to the Bundestag.
2Whether grandfathering of pre-2027 holdings is settled or still undecided
The draft also proposes grandfathering protections, meaning that digital assets bought before this deadline may be treated under the old taxation rules.
Whether assets bought before that date would retain their existing tax treatment has not been settled and will need to be decided as the proposal moves through the legislative process.
What would settle it: The published departmental draft bill text or the Finance Ministry's official statement on transitional rules.
What to make of it
Treat the 25% flat rate, the Jan 1, 2027 acquisition cutoff, and the draft's unfinished status as established; do not treat either the 2027 or 2028 effective date for the tax itself, or the certainty of grandfathering, as settled until the Finance Ministry publishes the actual bill text.
Treat the 25% flat rate, the Jan 1, 2027 acquisition cutoff, and the draft's unfinished status as established; do not treat either the 2027 or 2028 effective date for the tax itself, or the certainty of grandfathering, as settled until the Finance Ministry publishes the actual bill text.
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