Current German cryptocurrency tax rules: 😄

Tax-Free (Long-Term): If you hold your cryptocurrency for more than one year (365 days) before selling, trading, or spending it, your capital gains are 100% tax-free.

Taxable (Short-Term): If you dispose of crypto held for one year or less, your profits count as private sales transactions (speculative transactions under § 23 EStG) and are taxed at your personal income tax rate (up to 45% plus the solidarity surcharge).

Proposed changes: 😒

In short, the proposals under discussion are bad for crypto as tax must be paid when selling, trading or otherwise spending it - irrespective of how long the crypto was held. On a positive it is speculated that those who bought crypto before 2027 will be exempt from these detrimental tax changes.

My crypto background: 🤔

I have held crypto since 2013, having bought via MtGox (no comment) and other exchanges which simply no longer exist. Later I have bought and sold with current crypto exchanges, e.g. Binance, Kraken, etc. Over the years the crypto has moved back-and-forth between various crypto exchanges and various HW wallets. Generally speaking I have always been a HODLER, although this year I have sold (think panic selling) and bought (think FOMO). Whilst some of this year's trades made a profit, most did not as I ended up buying back at a higher price. In short no tax is due as on balance it is sadly all too clear I have lost rather than made any profit this year.

The problem: 💩

I cannot reconstruct the paper trail going back 13 years. Therefore, I cannot prove when I bought BTC. This was never a problem until the proposed tax changes under discussion.

What can I do? The best (still awful) ideas I currently have are:

A. Send all crypto from the HW wallets to an exchange. Sell all of it and immediately buy it back. Then send it back to a new HW wallet. Later, if required, I can then prove exactly when I bought my crypto.

Downsides are the fees involved and the risk of having all my crypto on an exchange, unless I do it in chunks.

B. Send all crypto to an exchange. Sell it. Transfer the money to my bank. Then transfer the money to an exchange (same one or different) and repurchase the crypto sending to a new wallet.

Downsides are the fees to pay, plus if the transfer to the bank is blocked due to the amount involved (around 350k Euro). Plus transferring the money from the bank back to an exchange - my bank limit is around 3k Euro per day.

C. Do nothing and see if the tax rules in Germany do actually change. I am still uneasy though with the paper trail chaos.

I like to sleep easy at night and have no problem paying tax as required, and whilst the paper trail is a mess, I know I have no taxes to pay - my BTC holdings are down compared to the start of the year. I say this because it is essential that any action I take does not trigger the tax authorities - not because I have anything to hide, but due to my paper trail chaos.

I’m sorry - I've wasted enough of your time. The truth is though I am genuinely interested in how others would approach my predicament. For those who respond – I thank you 👍

I have a few NFTs bought years ago and I’m finally getting around to selling them off. It is actually worth my time to do so, but I have no experience with this and don’t know how it works in Canada. What are some tips you guys have? Where can I dump them? Does UnsellableNFTs still work? I can’t get my MetaMask to connect.

Any advice helps

Hallo zusammen, kurze Frage zur Besteuerung von Bitcoin. Ich habe Bitcoin in meinem Broker gekauft und kann diese in der Zukunft auf mein Self-Custody Wallet übertragen, z. B. Ledger oder? Oder an ein Familienmitglied weitergeben. Wie funktioniert das steuerlich? Wie beweist man dem Finanzamt, dass diese Bitcoins immer noch die gleichen sind die ich gekauft habe? Reichen da die Broker-Kontoauszüge und Steuerdetails? Gerade wegen der 1-Jahres-Steuerregelung in Deutschland.