Sec. 20 EStG Article · Legal position 09/2026

Draft bill on a flat tax for crypto: what is being reported

On 8 and 9 September 2026, WELT and Der Spiegel independently reported on a draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Finance that would tax crypto gains regardless of how long they were held. The draft has not been officially published. This article separates what has been reported from what remains open — with full sourcing.

The essentials
  • Reported: a shift from section 23 EStG to investment income under section 20 EStG, with a 25% flat tax.
  • Only crypto assets acquired after 31 December 2026 would be affected — existing holdings would stay tax-free under the current rules.
  • The new rules would take effect on 1 January 2027; automatic withholding by crypto service providers only from 1 January 2028.
  • First reported by WELT on 8 September 2026, corroborated the same day by Der Spiegel, which says it has independently seen the draft.
  • Note: the Federal Ministry of Finance has not officially published the draft. Cabinet approval, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat are all still pending.

How the draft became known

Two independent newsrooms, each claiming their own look at the draft, is a considerably stronger signal than a single source — which is why the provenance is part of the story here, not a footnote.

WELT 08 Sep 2026

The first report

Karsten Seibel reported exclusively for WELT, citing his own access to the draft: a tax on new crypto gains from 2028, taxation akin to shares, and comprehensive protection for existing holdings. The full text sits behind the WELTplus paywall.

Spiegel 08 Sep 2026

Independent corroboration

Der Spiegel reported the same day, explicitly crediting WELT's original story but also citing its own access to the draft — including a direct quote from the draft's explanatory memorandum and further detail on loss offsetting, the saver's allowance and the revenue estimate.

Others 08–09 Sep 2026

Widespread follow-up coverage

Reuters, the wider dpa wire environment, Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche, ZEIT ONLINE, Deutschlandfunk, Golem and numerous crypto trade outlets followed, explicitly crediting WELT or Spiegel. BTC-ECHO specifically asked the ministry for confirmation; no response had arrived at time of publication.

What the ministry itself says

Nothing, publicly. Neither the Federal Ministry of Finance's press releases nor its own full-text search for "crypto assets" show any trace of this draft — the results there concern only the ministry's circular of 6 March 2025 and the Crypto-Asset Tax Transparency Act implementing DAC 8. Crypto assets do not appear in the Bundestag's own record of the general budget debate on 8 September 2026 either.

What the draft reportedly contains

The points below are corroborated across multiple independent reports. Where the wording differs between outlets, that is noted.

Reported content of the draft, as at 9 September 2026
PointReported content
Assets covered "Exchange crypto assets" such as Bitcoin and Ether. Tokenised securities already fall under section 20 EStG today. NFTs, security tokens and certain stablecoins backed by real value would reportedly stay exempt.
System change Away from section 23 EStG (private disposal transactions), toward section 20 EStG (investment income) — described in the draft, per reports, as "holding-period-independent taxation."
Tax rate 25% flat tax plus the solidarity surcharge (26.375% combined) and church tax where applicable, replacing the personal rate of up to 45% that currently applies within the one-year period.
Allowance and loss offsetting The saver's lump-sum allowance of €1,000 would reportedly apply to crypto too, replacing the current exemption threshold. Losses would be offsettable against gains from other investment income. Below a 25% personal marginal rate, a more-favourable-treatment comparison would reportedly remain available.
Cutoff date The new rules would apply only to crypto assets acquired or received after 31 December 2026. Existing holdings would reportedly continue under the current rules, including the one-year exemption, unchanged.
Effective date 1 January 2027 for the new rules themselves; automatic withholding by crypto service providers only from 1 January 2028, as a technical transition period.
Ongoing income Lending and staking income would reportedly also count as investment income, provided it is received after 31 December 2026.
Expected revenue Around €160 million in 2028, rising to around €350 million by 2031.
Procedural status Draft bill in inter-ministerial coordination within the federal government, including the Chancellery. Cabinet approval, consultation with the states and industry associations, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat are all still pending.
The one sourced direct quote from the explanatory memorandum

"Crypto assets increasingly represent a possible form of private capital investment and are acquired and disposed of via a growing market." Alongside that, from within the ministry: "It is unjust for hard-earned income and investment returns to be taxed while gains from speculating in crypto assets remain largely tax-free."

"From 2027" or "from 2028"? Both are accurate

Part of the confusion in coverage comes from the fact that both years belong to the same draft, just to different moments within it: the new rules are reported to take effect on 1 January 2027 and would apply from that date to newly acquired crypto assets. Automatic withholding at source by crypto service providers, by contrast, would only follow from 1 January 2028 — a technical transition period during which assessment happens through the tax return. For the same reason, the fiscal effect is only booked from 2028 onward.

What happens to existing holdings

According to the reports available, the protection for existing holdings is not capped at today's value but comprehensive: crypto assets acquired by 31 December 2026 would reportedly continue to be treated under the current rules permanently — meaning disposal gains after the twelve-month holding period would stay tax-free regardless of amount, including for increases in value that only occur after 2027.

That matters in practice: selling as a precaution to "lock in the old rules" would, on this pattern, be not just unnecessary but counterproductive — it would end that protection rather than secure it. Our main article on the holding period covers this point in depth. The German assessment for existing holdings

What the protection depends on, per the reports, is proof of the acquisition date. Anyone unable to fully document when a given holding was acquired may not be able to rely on that protection in case of doubt — regardless of how the final draft turns out.

What remains open

A draft that newsrooms have seen but that has not been officially published inevitably leaves gaps. These are the ones we noticed while researching this.

  • The draft's official title, file reference and drafting-status annotation are not known.
  • The exact statutory wording of the new rules is not public — the content reproduced here comes from press reporting, not the text of the norm itself.
  • Industry consultation does not appear to have taken place yet; no statement from Bitkom, the Blockchain Bundesverband or the Bitcoin Bundesverband existed as at 9 September 2026.
  • Political resistance is already visible, from opposite directions: parts of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group consider singling out crypto assets from gold and foreign currency a break in the system, while the Die Linke parliamentary group considers the projected €350 million in additional revenue far too low.
  • Whether and how the draft still changes before reaching cabinet remains open.

Our assessment

The draft has not changed our underlying position, which we hold publicly — through the tax working group of the Blockchain Bundesverband, as finance director of the Bitcoin Bundesverband, and as an expert witness before the Finance Committee of the Bundestag: singling out crypto assets for different treatment than gold, commodities or foreign currency needs a justification that goes beyond the wish for additional revenue. We set out the full constitutional reasoning, including the risk of a structural enforcement deficit if the implementation period is too short, in our main article. The equal-treatment question, in German

What is notable about the draft now being reported is that it addresses precisely the point we had flagged there as unresolved: loss offsetting. Placing crypto gains under section 20 EStG, with offsetting against other investment income, would be a more workable solution than the earlier approach from the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, which would have removed the holding period within section 23 EStG without solving that problem. That changes nothing about the underlying constitutional question — but it makes this draft more carefully constructed than its predecessors.

What to do now

As long as no law has been promulgated, nothing changes legally. Even so, some preparation is worth doing already.

  • Document acquisition dates and holding periods per tranche completely — proof of this is what would decide the grandfathering protection, should it arrive as reported
  • Do not sell "just in case" to rescue holdings into the old rules — on the reports available, that would be pointless or even counterproductive
  • Hold off on larger structural decisions — contributing crypto to a company's assets, transferring it to a corporate structure — until you have taken advice, rather than acting in anticipation of a law that has not been promulgated
  • Keep an eye on this article and our main piece on the holding period — we update both as the procedural status changes
Discuss your situation Main article, in German

Questions and answers

Is the draft bill official?
No. Neither the press releases nor the full-text search of the Federal Ministry of Finance list such a draft as at the time of writing. What exists are consistent reports from two independent newsrooms — WELT and Der Spiegel — who each say they have seen the draft text, plus numerous wire and follow-up reports building on those two.
Does my tax liability change already?
No. Neither a draft bill nor its becoming public changes the law in force. Section 23 of the Income Tax Act, with its one-year holding period, remains the governing rule until a law is promulgated. Before that can happen, inter-ministerial coordination within the federal government still has to conclude, followed by a cabinet decision, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
Are my existing crypto holdings affected?
Not according to the reports available. The new rules would apply only to crypto assets acquired or received after 31 December 2026. Existing holdings would continue under the current rules, including tax exemption after twelve months.
Why do some outlets say 2027 and others 2028?
Both refer to the same draft, but to different moments within it: the new rules themselves are reported to take effect on 1 January 2027, while the automatic withholding by crypto service providers would only follow from 1 January 2028. That is the transition period for the technical implementation, not a contradiction between reports.
Should I sell now, or buy now, in anticipation?
Nothing in what has been reported suggests a reason to. Existing holdings would remain tax-free under the old rules regardless; selling would only end that protection. Anyone buying after the cutoff would fall under the new rules regardless of timing — bringing a purchase forward would not avoid that. See our main article on the holding period for more on the sell-now question.
What if the draft changes before it becomes law?
That is not just possible but, at this stage, more the rule than the exception. A ministerial draft goes through coordination with other ministries, consultation with the states and industry associations, then a cabinet decision and the parliamentary process. The tax rate, the cutoff date or the exemptions could all still change at any of these stages.
Responsible for content: Matthias Steger, German certified tax advisor (Steuerberater), expert witness before the Finance Committee of the German Bundestag on the DAC 8 directive.
Legal position: 9 September 2026, 19:30 CEST. This article is based on our own review of sources publicly available on that date.
Primary reports with independent access to the draft: WELT, "Krypto: Ende der Steuerfreiheit – Das plant die Regierung für Bitcoin, Ethereum und Co.", Karsten Seibel, 8 September 2026 (WELTplus); Der Spiegel, "Neue Abgabe: Bundesfinanzminister Klingbeil legt Entwurf für Kryptosteuer von 25 Prozent vor", Gerald Traufetter, 8 September 2026.
Further sources: Reuters/Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche, ZEIT ONLINE, Deutschlandfunk, Golem.de, dts news agency, CryptoTicker, Blocktrainer, BTC-ECHO, CHIP/FOCUS online, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Morgenpost, press statement of the Die Linke parliamentary group of 9 September 2026; our own review of the Federal Ministry of Finance's press releases and full-text search, and of the Bundestag's record of the general budget debate of 8 September 2026.
All statements about the draft's content reflect the state of press reporting, not the wording of an officially published text. Individual details may still change. The assessment of constitutionality reflects our own legal view. This article is not advice on an individual case. Where this English text and the German version differ, the German version governs.
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Sec. 23 EStGThe one-year holding period DAC 8Reporting duties from 2026 BackgroundOur proceedings and the hearing