Crypto Holding Period: Dec 31, 2026 Cut-Off in Draft

If you bought your crypto assets before December 31, 2026, or buy them by that date, then on the current state of the draft nothing changes for them: hold for a year, then sell tax-free. Only crypto assets acquired or received after December 31, 2026 would fall under the new treatment as investment income. That is what a draft bill from Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance dated mid-August says, first reported by WELT on September 8, 2026 and reproduced with an explicit source citation by the specialist outlet Blocktrainer. None of it has been passed into law, and those two halves together describe your position: a dated cut-off in a paper that still has the whole legislative route ahead of it.

This article sets out what the draft means for an ongoing savings plan, for staggered purchases and for coins from staking and lending, which records you should secure now, and why our own report from yesterday appears at first glance to say the opposite.

Crypto Holding Period, Grandfathering and Cut-Off Date: German Tax Law in 2026

As long as no law is in force, today's rules continue to apply unchanged. Gains from the sale of cryptocurrencies held privately are taxable under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act (EStG) if less than a year lies between acquisition and sale. Hold for more than a year and you sell tax-free. This one-year holding period applies to Bitcoin just as it does to any other coin held privately.