Crypto Holding Period: Tenfold Tax Without a Receipt

The consultation window has closed and the cabinet is next. Associations and specialists had until October 6, 2026 to send the federal finance ministry their comments on the draft bill to reform the taxation of certain crypto assets held privately. The draft of September 30 would abolish the one-year holding period for every crypto asset acquired after December 31, 2026. On Monday, October 12, the Bundestag's petitions committee holds a public debate on petition 201716, which calls for the holding period to be kept; on Wednesday, October 14, the cabinet is to adopt the draft. That still does not make it law: the Bundesrat and the Bundestag decide after that.

The comments now in the public domain all point the same way. The deadline was too short, the timetable unworkable for banks and exchanges, and one rule in the draft hits precisely those investors whose purchase data the selling platform does not hold. Matthias Steger, a tax adviser based in Potsdam, worked the numbers through in his submission to the ministry: in his example the tax withheld exceeds the tax actually owed "by a factor of ten".

Crypto Tax Consultation Closed on October 6: Six Days for a New Tax

The ministry sent the draft to the associations under a cover letter dated September 30, 2026 and published it on its website the same day. According to that letter, quoted by crypto trade media, the deadline for comments ran to October 6, with the cabinet reading scheduled for October 14. Six calendar days lay between dispatch and deadline, among them a weekend whose Saturday was German Unity Day.