The clock
Cryptoassets are other economic assets; their sale is a private sales transaction under § 23 EStG. If more than one year lies between acquisition and disposal, the gain is tax-free — entirely, with no ceiling. The period runs to the day: buy on 15 March, the clock starts on 16 March, and a tax-free sale is possible from 16 March of the following year at the earliest. Selling on the anniversary itself is still inside the period. Within the year, the personal income tax rate applies — zero to 45 percent, by total income.
What stops the clock surprises people: every swap is a disposal. BTC for ETH realises the BTC gain — and sets a fresh one-year clock on the ETH received. Paying with crypto, the same. Only transfers between your own wallets are neutral. Heavy rotation means many young clocks and little tax-free stock — the holding period rewards patience and taxes churn.
The thresholds: a cliff, not a floor
Gains from private sales stay tax-free up to €1,000 per year; other income such as staking rewards up to €256. Both are cliff-edge thresholds, not allowances: a single euro over makes not the excess but the entire amount taxable. A €1,001 gain means €1,001 taxed. Realising near the edge, know which side you land on — the most expensive euro in German tax law is the thousand-and-first.
Austria next door taxes every new holding at 27.5% — no clock, but neutral swaps. Germany offers the tax-free exit — but every swap ticks anew. Two German-speaking systems, two opposite clockworks.
FIFO, per wallet
The BMF guidance starts with individual identification. Where that is not possible, FIFO may be used as a simplifying assumption for valuation, applied wallet by wallet and kept consistently until the relevant token position in that wallet has been fully disposed of. That makes wallet architecture tax planning: mix old holdings and fresh buys in one wallet and FIFO sells the old, often tax-free coins first — which can be favourable or exactly the opposite, depending on the position. Separate wallets for separate vintages keep the choice open; a mixed wallet makes it automatically.
The footnotes that made history
The old fear that staking or lending stretched the period to ten years is settled — by statute since the 2022 annual tax act, confirmed in the BMF letter of 6 March 2025: twelve months stand, even for coins staked in the meantime. Open remains the classification of active validators and masternode operators — case by case, with advice. And the period itself is politically debated; no consensus to abolish it exists, but long-term planners plan with a rule legislatures can change. We keep the line on watch.
What to do
- Know every clock. Per wallet, per coin, per acquisition: FIFO order and expiry dates belong in tooling, not memory.
- Check the double effect before every swap. Does it realise a gain inside the year? And is restarting the clock worth it for the target asset?
- Respect the edges. Near €1,000 (or €256), one euro decides the taxability of the whole — realise with the threshold in view.
- Document even tax-free sales. Tax-freedom must be provable on demand — acquisition date, price, wallet. The DAC8 era asks for records, not recollections.
This page explains computational rules. It is not advice on your transactions, and reading it creates no professional relationship.