Michelle Legge
By Michelle LeggeHead of Crypto Tax Education
Updated Feb 1, 2024
This article has been fact checked and reviewed as per our editorial policy.

DeFi Tax: German Guide

The DeFi market has boomed since 2020 and is now worth more than €100 billion. But as with all profits, the BZSt will want their cut. Although Germany still has some of the most generous crypto tax laws around, there are many instances where you'll need to pay tax on your DeFi investments. We're looking at everything you need to know about DeFi tax in Germany in our guide, including liquidity pool tax, staking tax and more.

Is DeFi crypto taxed in Germany? (DeFi-Steuer)

Yes, short-term DeFi profits are taxed under Income Tax by BZSt, while long-term profits are tax free. While the German tax office has not offered guidance on every type of DeFi transaction, we know that income from staking is definitely taxable in most instances. This provides a safe assumption that other DeFi activities are taxable too. The tax you'll pay (and whether you'll pay it) all depends on how much you earn in a financial year, as well as how long you've held the asset.

TransactionTaxed?Tax Applicable?
Swapping crypto on dexesYes, for short-term gainsIncome Tax
Adding/removing crypto from liquidity poolsYes, for short-term gainsIncome Tax
Earning new tokens liquidity miningYesIncome Tax
Staking rewardsYesIncome Tax
Selling staked tokensYes, if held for less than one yearIncome Tax
Yield farmingDepending on protocol and holding periodIncome Tax
Crypto margin tradingYes, as capital income or private sale transacitonWithholding Tax or Income Tax
Crypto derivativesYes, as capital income or private sale transactionWithholding Tax or Income Tax
Selling NFTs you createdYes, income from artistic activity or commercialIncome Tax and potentially Trade Tax
Selling NFTs you boughtYes, if held for less than one yearIncome tax
Trading NFTsYes, if held for less than one yearIncome Tax
Play to earn rewardsYesWithholding or Income Tax

Let's dive into it in-depth.

What is DeFi?

DeFi stands for Dezentrale Finanzierung (Decentralised Finance). It's an all-encompassing term for the huge ecosystem of financial apps built using blockchain technology - predominantly on the Ethereum blockchain. In brief, DeFi looks to tackle the limitations of traditional financial markets and grant more financial freedom to people globally by removing centralized third parties, regulations, internal policies, and human error.

What is Defi?

How does DeFi work?

So if there’s no centralized third party like a bank or even a crypto exchange, how does it all work, and who’s running the show? Investors make each protocol work by utilizing liquidity pools and smart contracts.

Investors add or stake their assets in these pools in order to earn rewards as a return. The liquidity added to the pool is used to finance the various transactions that the protocol offers, for example, trades, loans, or more. All of the various transactions offered by DeFi protocols are automated by smart contracts - essentially pieces of digital code that set the terms of a transaction and execute said transaction.

DeFi tax in Germany

The BZSt hasn't issued specific guidance on how Germany will tax DeFi transactions, even in their recently updated guidance (2022). This said, the BZSt has issued very clear guidance on how certain crypto transactions are taxed in Germany already - including staking, trading, and more. What Deutschland Kryptowährung Investoren or investors need to do is interpret the current German crypto tax guidance (or get a crypto accountant to do it) and apply the interpretation to their DeFi transactions.

The BZSt is clear that crypto is subject to Income Tax - but only in specific circumstances and it’s all to do with how long you’ve held your crypto, and if you’re viewed as an investor or a business. So let’s cover the basics.

DeFi tax in Germany

DeFi Private Income vs. Capital Income

When you sell, swap, or spend crypto you may need to pay Income Tax on the profit as a result. However, this only applies to short-term investments, so crypto you’ve held less than a year. Germany isn’t interested in taxing long-term gains - that is from assets you’ve held for a year or more - so provided you’ve held your crypto for at least one year, you won’t need to pay tax on any profits as a result when you sell, swap or spend it. The same should go for long-term gains made from DeFi transactions.

Income Tax on DeFi GermanyHowever, if the gains you’ve earned are under the tax exempt limit of €600 per financial year, then you do not need to file a tax return and this would not be taxable. However, if you're over this exempt limit, then you'll need to file a tax return and the entire sum is taxable.

When Income Tax is applicable to your transactions - so for gains made under a year of crypto ownership, you'll pay Income Tax at your regular Income Tax rate - up to 45% plus the 5.5% solidarity surcharge.

When it comes to earning crypto - like through staking or earning new tokens through liquidity mining - it’s a little more complicated. In general, rewards will generally be subject to Income Tax under section 22, no.3 of the German Income Tax Act (EStG). There is another tax-exempt limit of €256 for additional income per financial year, where you do not need to file a tax return for additional income under this amount. However, like above, if you're over this exempt limit, then you'll need to file a tax return and the entire sum is taxable.

Earning crypto in GermanyWe’ll pause here to note that because there is no specific guidance around a variety of DeFi transactions (particularly liquidity mining, margin trading, and derivatives) there is a lot of ambiguity around whether the profits generated should be viewed as capital income or private income. This matters because they have very different tax treatment.

Private income is taxed at the regular Income Tax rate, while capital income enjoys a much lower 25% flat tax rate (but many limitations when it comes to offsetting losses). If you’re unsure and you want to optimize your tax position, you should consult with a crypto accountant who can advise you.

Private Income vs. Capital IncomeWith that brief summary out the way, let’s take a quick look at a variety of DeFi transactions and how they might be taxed.

Read next: Want to know more about German Crypto Tax? Check out our kryptowährung steuer guide.

Buying, selling, and swapping on dexes

The BZSt has clear rules on this. Buying crypto with fiat currency is always tax free, while selling and trading crypto may be taxed depending on how long you’ve held your asset.

If you’ve held your crypto for less than one year, you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profit you make from selling or swapping crypto on both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

If you’ve held your crypto for more than one year, you don’t need to pay Income Tax at all when you sell or swap crypto. It’s important to note though that when you swap crypto for another crypto - your new crypto holding period starts the day you make the swap. So you’ll need to hold it for another year before it benefits from being tax free.

Selling or swapping tokens you've held for less than a year

If you've held your tokens for less than one year, then your transaction when you sell or swap your tokens is taxable. You'll need to pay Income Tax on any profits you make from a sale or swap at your normal Income Tax rate.

INCOME TAX

Selling or swapping tokens you've held for more than a year

Held your tokens for more than one year? Great news - disposing of them by selling or swapping them is tax free. If you make a swap, your holding period for the new token will start the day you make the swap.

TAX FREE

Liquidity pool steuern

Liquidity pools and tax all comes down to two things:

  1. How the specific protocol you’re using works.

  2. How long you’ve held your asset for.

In general, when you add to a liquidity pool - whether that’s a dex liquidity pool or a lending pool - you’ll get tokens in return, also known as LP tokens or SLP tokens depending on the pool.

Your rewards from adding to the pool are then paid out in one of two ways (or both!). Your LP tokens will accrue value, or you may be rewarded with new tokens. This is much easier to understand with an example so we’ll use Compound Finance as an example.

When you add liquidity to Compound Finance, you’ll get cTokens in return representing your asset in the pool. Your cTokens will accrue value based on the underlying asset in the pool. For participating in Compound Finance, you’ll also be rewarded with COMP tokens - a governance token. So you’re earning in two different ways - which presents a couple of different tax implications for German crypto investors - depending on how long you’ve held the asset.

If you’ve held your asset for less than a year, you’ll need to pay tax when you add and remove liquidity. From a tax perspective, this is likely a swap in the eyes of the BZSt. You’re trading one token and receiving another - it doesn’t matter that you’re going to swap it back at a later date. So you’ll need to pay Income Tax both when you add liquidity using an asset you’ve held less than a year, and when you remove liquidity using an asset you’ve held less than a year.

If you’ve held your asset for more than a year - it’s good news, because these transactions are tax free. You won’t need to pay Income Tax when you add liquidity using an asset you’ve held more than a year and you won’t need to pay Income Tax when you remove liquidity using an asset you’ve held more than a year.

What is important to note though is when you remove your asset from the pool - your holding period resets. In the eyes of the BZSt, this is you acquiring a new asset - so you’ll need to hold for another year before you can enjoy the long-term gains tax break again. Similarly, when you receive liquidity pool tokens - these are seen as an acquisition, so if you haven’t held them for a year when you trade them back, you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profit. In other words, be strategic with the assets you add and remove from liquidity pools and when you do it!

When it comes to earning new tokens through liquidity or lending pools - this all depends on how much you’re earning. You’ll need to identify the fair market value of the tokens on the day you received them in EUR and add this up to get a total figure. If you have more than €256 in additional income throughout the financial year - you’ll need to file a tax return and pay Income Tax at your regular Income Tax rate.

Adding liquidity to a liquidity pool

Adding liquidity to a pool? Whether you'll pay tax or not depends on how long you've held the token(s).

If you receive liquidity pool tokens in return and you've held your asset for less than one year - this is likely going to be seen as a swap and you'll need to pay Income Tax on any profit as a result.

If you receive liquidity pool tokens in return and you've held your asset for more than one year - this transaction would be tax free.

POTENTIAL INCOME TAX

Removing liquidity from a liquidity pool

Like above, when you're removing liquidity from a pool - it all depends on how long you've held your liquidity pool tokens.

Your holding period for your liquidity pool tokens starts the day you received them (when you added liquidity). If you've held your liquidity pool tokens for less than one year, you'll pay Income Tax on any profits when you trade your liquidity pool tokens back for your original capital and rewards. If you've held your liquidity pool tokens for more than one year, you'll pay no tax at all.

POTENTIAL INCOME TAX

Earning new tokens through liquidity pool mining

Some DeFi protocols pay out specific tokens as a reward for investing in their protocol. If you're earning new tokens through liquidity pool transactions, then you may need to pay Income Tax depending on how much you've made in additional income throughout the financial year. If you've earned more than €256 in additional income (from crypto and all other additional income) - then you'll need to pay Income Tax. If you've earned less than €256 in additional income (from crypto and all other additional income) then you don't need to file a tax return.

You can calculate how much you've made from new tokens by identifying the fair market value of any tokens on the day you received them in EUR.

INCOME TAX

Crypto staking steuern

There are two kinds of staking in the DeFi world - staking protocols and staking as part of a PoS consensus mechanism. It matters because they may have different tax implications - but we’ll cover both.

If you’re using a non-custodial wallet to stake as part of a PoS consensus mechanism - for example, Yoroi or Daedalus to stake ADA on the Cardano blockchain, then the rules are pretty straightforward. Your staking rewards from PoS staking may be subject to Income Tax depending on how much you earn in additional income throughout the financial year.

If you have more than €256 in additional income throughout the financial year - you’ll need to pay Income Tax at your regular Income Tax rate. If you have less than this, you will not need to file a tax return. To get your total figure, you’ll need to identify the fair market value of your staking rewards in EUR on the day you received them and add up these figures to get your total additional income figure.

When it comes to DeFi staking tax in Germany - it depends on how your specific DeFi protocol works. If you receive tokens in return for your staked asset - for example, if you used Lido to stake ETH, you’d get stETH tokens - this is likely more akin to a crypto to crypto trade. So the tax you’ll pay all depends on whether you’ve held your asset for a year or less. If you’ve held your asset for less than a year, you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profit when you stake your asset. Similarly, when you want to unstake your asset, if you’ve held your staking tokens for less than a year, you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profit as a result of the transaction. Like above, moving your asset in and out of staking protocols in these instances will be seen as an acquisition - so your holding period will reset to zero and you’ll need to wait a year to transact with these assets tax free.

There are, however, staking pools where you’ll be paid out new tokens instead. For example, if you stake your PancakeSwap LP tokens in the PancakeSwap farms - you’ll get CAKE tokens. In these instances, the rules are the same as the staking rules above - it all depends on how much additional income you earn throughout the financial year, in total. If it’s less than €256, you don’t need to file a tax return If it’s more than €256, you’ll need to file a tax return and pay Income Tax on the entire sum. To identify how much you’ve earned, take the fair market value of the tokens you’ve earned throughout the financial year and add these figures up (alongside any other additional income) to get your total additional income for the year.

An important note here - previously the guidance from the BZSt was that tokens used in staking (whether part of a staking pool or a PoS consensus mechanism) used to need a 10-year holding period before they would be tax free. This fortunately isn’t the case any longer as of May 2022. The holding period for staked tokens is now the same as the holding period for other crypto - gains are tax-free after one year.

Yield farming steuern

Like above, the tax you’ll pay on crypto yield farming in Germany all depends on how your specific protocol works and how long you’ve held your asset for. Broadly speaking, there are a few different tax implications here:

  • If you’re adding liquidity to a yield farming protocol and you receive tokens in return, you will pay Income Tax on any profits if you’ve held your asset for less than a year. If you’ve held your asset for more than a year, you do not need to pay Income Tax on profits.

  • If you’re removing liquidity from a yield farming protocol and you trade tokens to do so, you will pay Income Tax on any profits if you’ve held your tokens for less than a year. If you’ve held your tokens for more than a year, you do not need to pay Income Tax on profits.

  • If you’re earning new tokens through a yield farming protocol, you may need to pay Income Tax on new tokens, depending on how much you earn in additional income throughout the financial year. If you earn more than €256 in additional income a year, you'll need to file a tax return and pay tax on all additional income. If you earn less than €256 in additional income a year, you do not need to file a tax return.

Spending crypto tax

In Germany, whether you’re spending crypto on goods and services, interest fees, or even gas fees - they all have different tax implications. As ever, it depends on how long you’ve held the asset as to whether your transaction will be subject to tax.

If you’ve held your crypto for less than a year, you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profits you make from disposing of your asset. This means you need to take your original purchase price (plus any fees) and subtract it from the fair market value of your crypto on the day you spent it.

If you’ve held your crypto for more than a year, spending it is a non-taxable transaction and you won’t need to pay tax on your profits.

An important note here is that gas fees may be able to be added to your cost basis (how much your crypto costs you to acquire) depending on the transaction you’re undertaking. Transfers are unlikely to be able to be added to your cost basis, but transaction fees (like trading, buying, or selling fees) are often allowable.

Crypto margin trading and derivatives tax

Though they're often lumped in the same breath, margin trading, derivatives, and futures all have different tax treatment... and it gets complicated fast. It's important to note the BZSt has not released guidance on the tax implications of crypto margin trading, crypto derivatives, and crypto futures yet - however, they have guidance on these products in traditional markets... so let's dive in.

Margin trading? Profits from margin trades can only be classified as capital income if no crypto is delivered but the difference is settled. Meanwhile, if crypto is delivered, this would be viewed as a private sales transaction instead. These two have different tax treatments:

  • Capital income is taxed at a flat 25% rate (known as a withholding tax).

  • Private sales transactions are taxed at your regular Income Tax rate if the income is from an asset held for less than one year. More than one year and your profits are tax free.

It's also important to note for capital income that you can only deduct up to €801 per year in income-related expenses (for example trading fees) and the one-year holding period does not apply.

Meanwhile, for derivatives, the tax paid depends on the specific product. Similar to margin trades - it depends on whether the investor ends up acquiring the underlying crypto asset. If your product does not result in you acquiring crypto and instead you end up with the settlement of the difference, the profits will be viewed as capital income and taxed at a flat 25% rate.

Meanwhile, if you end up acquiring crypto at the point you close your position, this will be viewed as a private sales transaction and profits will be subject to the Income Tax rate.

It's important to note that for all of these transactions - you'll only be liable for tax at the point you close your position.

Another important thing to consider is there was a change in the law in 2021 that means for many futures transactions (and potentially some other derivatives products and margin trades) that losses can no longer be offset against income from capital assets without restriction. To elaborate, losses from futures transactions may only be offset against profits from futures transactions and income from options transactions - and there is a €20,000 loss offset limit.

We recommend you speak to a crypto accountant to help you navigate your tax burden when dealing with crypto margin trades, derivatives, or futures.

A banner inviting crypto investors to access the german crypto tax advisors directory, presented by Koinly, a crypto tax calculator

NFTs tax

NFTs are largely treated the same as other cryptocurrencies from a tax perspective in Germany - although there are a few exceptions to this rule and it all depends on whether you’re creating the NFTs in question.

If you’re creating NFTs - like an artist with a paintbrush - income from this activity is going to be considered income from an artistic activity or commercial income. It all depends on your individual circumstances. If you have income from an artistic activity, you'll pay Income Tax at your regular Income Tax rate. If you have commercial income, you'll also need to pay Trade Tax in addition to Income Tax. If you're selling NFTs at scale, since the BMF has released no guidance on this yet, we recommend you consult with a crypto accountant.

Meanwhile, if you're buying, selling, and trading NFTs not as a creator - it's likely these transactions will be treated much the same as other crypto transactions. They'll generally be classed as private sales transactions and therefore tax will be based on your holding period. If you've held your NFT for less than one year, you'll pay tax on any profit as a result of a sale or swap. If you've held your NFT for more than one year, you won't pay Income Tax.

When buying NFTs - as you buy using cryptocurrency - these transactions may also be taxed, if you've held the crypto you're using to buy with for less than one year. In other words, be strategic with the crypto you use to purchase NFTs to avoid paying tax in Germany!

Play to earn tax

Unsurprisingly, the BZSt hasn’t released any guidance on the tax implications of various DeFi play-to-earn activities. But we can broadly interpret the tax implications using the guidance we’ve already covered above.

If you’re earning new tokens as a result of playing a DeFi game - for example, earning SLP tokens on Axie Infinity - you may need to pay Income Tax. It’ll all depend on how much you’ve earned in additional income. More than €256 in additional income (from crypto and all other additional income) in a financial year and you'll need to file a tax return and pay Income Tax. You can calculate this by identifying the fair market value of any tokens in EUR on the day you receive them. Less than €256 in a financial year and you do not need to file a tax return and this additional income would be within the tax-exempt limit.

If you’re trading, buying, and selling NFTs - you may need to pay Income Tax. It all depends on whether you’re creating the assets and how long you’ve held them.

If you’re creating NFT assets at scale to sell - for example, clothes in Decentraland - then this could be considered commercial income and you may be liable for both Income and Trade Tax.

Meanwhile, if you’re buying, trading, or selling NFTs (that you did not create) you’ve held less than one year - you’ll need to pay Income Tax on any profits. If you’ve held your NFTs for more than one year, you do not need to pay Income Tax to Germany’s tax office on your NFT profits.

Try the best German DeFi tax calculator

We get it. All of the above is a lot to consider when doing your German crypto taxes - so make it simple with Koinly.

All you need to do with Koinly is sync the exchanges, wallets, and blockchains you use via API or by uploading a CSV file of your transaction history. We support all the popular DeFi wallets like MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, Keplr, and many more.

Once you’re connected to Koinly, it’ll calculate everything you need for your crypto taxes, including your cost basis for each asset, your short and long-term capital gains and any income. All this information is packaged up in your tax summary and ready to download in your crypto tax report, so you can file with the BZSt with ease, or hand it over to your accountant.

Koinly makes crypto tax simple. Try it free today.

FAQs

More questions about DeFi or taxes? Here are some of the most frequently asked.

What are some examples of DeFi protocols?

There is a DeFi protocol for practically every centralized financial service you can think of. Examples include:

  • Decentralized exchanges or dexes like Uniswap, SushiSwap, and PancakeSwap where you can buy, sell, and trade crypto.

  • Decentralized web wallets like MetaMask and Atomic Wallet that let you store, send, and receive crypto, as well as interact with the DeFi ecosystem across multiple blockchains.

  • Decentralized NFT marketplaces like OpenSea or Rarible where you can buy, sell, and trade NFTs, as well as specific NFT lending protocols like BendDAO where you can loan your NFTs for collateral.

  • Decentralized lending protocols like Compound and Aave where you can both borrow and loan crypto and earn interest for doing so.

  • Decentralized bridge protocols like RenVM and WBTC that let you move tokens from one blockchain to another.

  • Decentralized yield farming protocols like Convex Finance that pay you a reward for staking your liquidity pool tokens or staking pool tokens on their platform.

  • Decentralized yield aggregator protocols like Yearn Finance that help investors find the best yields available automatically.

  • Decentralized derivatives protocols like dYdX or Synthetix that allow investors to gain exposure and leverage to underlying crypto assets.

  • Decentralized options protocols like Opyn or Ribbon Finance that give investors the right to buy an asset at a fixed price in the future.

  • Decentralized insurance protocols like Armor or Nexus Mutual that provide investors with financial protection against their investments.

  • Decentralized payment protocols like Lightning Network or Flexa that let you pay or receive payment in crypto.

  • Decentralized indexes like Set Protocol and Index Coop that let you diversify and balance your crypto portfolio automatically.

  • Decentralized synthetic protocols like Alchemix and Injective that offer tokenized derivatives that mimic the value of other assets.

  • Decentralized play-to-earn gaming protocols like Aavegotchi and Decentraland where you can play and earn crypto as a reward, as well as earn in-game by trading and selling NFTs.

  • Decentralized gambling protocols like Polymarket and BetHash where you can bet on pretty much anything.

How do you make money with DeFI?

As you can see from the wide array of DeFi protocols available, there are plenty of ways for German crypto investors to make money with DeFi, including:

  • Buying, selling, and trading crypto on dexes.

  • Providing liquidity to dexes, lending protocols, and more.

  • Staking your liquidity pool tokens on other protocols, and then even staking these tokens on yet another protocol.

  • Playing DeFi games and earning rewards.

  • Staking directly as part of a PoS consensus mechanism using a non-custodial wallet.

  • Utilizing the huge range of DeFi protocol options available like options, derivatives, synthetics, gambling, and more.

Banner prompting german investors to get the Koinly crypto tax report

Disclaimer
The information on this website is for general information only. It should not be taken as constituting professional advice from Koinly. Koinly is not a financial adviser. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice to check how the website information relates to your unique circumstances. Koinly is not liable for any loss caused, whether due to negligence or otherwise arising from the use of, or reliance on, the information provided directly or indirectly, by use of this website.
loading