Bitcoin & crypto: tax changes in 2025

Bitcoin, Ethereum & Co.: New tax rules for crypto traders in 2025

On March 6, 2025, the Federal Ministry of Finance published new tax guidelines for cryptocurrencies. This update replaces the previous guidelines from May 10, 2022 and brings significant changes. Investors and traders of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies as well as users of staking methods are particularly affected. In this article, you can find out what the changes are and what you should pay attention to now.

Obligation to cooperate tightened:
Anyone who uses cryptocurrencies on international exchanges or decentralized trading platforms must provide the tax office with evidence of all transactions independently. This includes, for example, purchases, sales, exchanges or even the mere holding of crypto assets. This evidence is provided via so-called transaction overviews, which can be downloaded directly from the platforms.

Important:
If this data is lost, for example due to technical defects, the tax office may doubt your information and, in case of doubt, make its own (unfavorable) estimates. So keep all documents regularly and securely!

Taxation of staking income:
With staking, you make your cryptocurrencies available to a blockchain to support its security and receive rewards in return. These rewards must be taxed.

What’s new:
The valuation now takes place at the time of “claiming”, i.e. when you actively call up your income. It used to be unclear whether income that was not claimed remained tax-free. This is no longer the case. Rewards are considered taxable by the end of the year at the latest, even if you have not yet transferred them to your wallet.

Tax reports from tools & exchanges:
Many crypto exchanges and external tools offer automatically generated tax overviews. The BMF generally recognizes these reports. But only if they are correct, complete and comprehensible.

You should also provide an overview of the selected settings (e.g. for price determination or the consumption sequence procedure such as FIFO)

Uniform price determination:
In order to tax your crypto profits correctly, you need reliable price values. The BMF accepts different variants: Daily average rate, daily time rate or daily closing rate. It is important that you decide on a variant and use it consistently and from the same source.

For entrepreneurs and business assets

If you hold cryptocurrencies as part of your business, additional obligations apply:

You must not only store paper documents securely, but also digital documents.
If you use software or tools to calculate your profits, you must create what is known as procedural documentation. This describes in detail how you organize your bookkeeping, which programs you use and how you ensure that your data is processed completely and correctly.

Our tip:

• Document all your transactions regularly and completely.
• Only use recognized tools and check their information critically.
• Store your data securely and for the long term – ideally locally and in the cloud.
• If you are unsure: Seek tax advice – especially if you are involved in commercial or larger private crypto activities.

That way, you’ll be well prepared for the new requirements and protect yourself from unpleasant surprises when it comes to tax.

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