Poland: crypto taxes when leaving Germany

• Disposal: Every disposal for consideration is taxable, including paying for goods, services, or other property rights with crypto assets. Flat 19 %, regardless of holding period. Anyone trading as part of a registered commercial activity is instead taxed as business income.
• Exchange: Crypto for crypto is expressly tax-neutral.
• VAT, tax on civil-law transactions: Selling and exchanging virtual currencies is VAT-exempt (Hedqvist) and, since 1 July 2020, permanently exempt from the tax on civil-law transactions (otherwise 1 %).
• Mining, staking: Income isn't taxed on receipt, only when converted into fiat money or used for payment; for staking, however, the legal position is contested (see the next point).
• Staking, airdrops, hard forks, liquidity mining: Contested. In individual rulings, the tax administration argues that the mere receipt of the tokens must be taxed at market value as income from property rights; the administrative courts have repeatedly disagreed and consider taxation only on disposal for consideration to be correct. Acquisition cost is the already-taxed receipt value under the administrative view, zero under the courts'. Anyone regularly generating such income should consider a paid, binding individual ruling.
• Calculating gains, losses: No FIFO, LIFO, or average price. For each tax year, all proceeds and all documented acquisition costs are summed separately; the difference is the gain. A loss can be carried forward indefinitely and offset against future crypto gains. What matters is being able to fully document all acquisition costs.
• Declaration: Form PIT-38, filing deadline 30 April of the following year.

Year of departure

• The 2003 treaty applies (same tie-breaker rules as with Austria and Portugal). German unlimited tax liability ends only once residence and habitual abode are actually given up. In Poland, unlimited tax liability arises for anyone who shifts their center of vital interests there or stays in the country for more than 183 days in a tax year.
• If the German home is already given up at the time of sale, the gain isn't domestic income under § 49 EStG; the tie-breaker matters only if both homes still exist in parallel.
• Loss position held for more than a year at departure: selling in Germany no longer brings any tax benefit; sold in Poland, the loss can be offset against other Polish crypto gains from the same year.

First year after leaving

• 19 % on every realized gain, regardless of holding period; old and new holdings aren't distinguished. The original acquisition date still counts, doesn't matter for Polish taxation, and matters only for a possible later return to Germany.

More than ten years

• Nothing changes for income tax purposes (as things stand).
• No general wealth tax. Inheritances and gifts: spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, and siblings (tax class 0) are completely exempt if reported to the relevant tax office in time; other relatives pay tiered rates.
• No inheritance tax treaty: for German nationals, German extended unlimited inheritance tax liability applies if the deceased or donor was fully taxable in Germany within the last five years before the inheritance; after more than ten years, this window is closed.

Moving on to a third country

• Poland has had an exit tax modeled on the ATAD since 2019. It generally applies if a person was resident in Poland for at least five of the last ten years and relocates assets abroad with a total value of at least PLN 4 million: 19 % on the hidden reserves (3 % if the original acquisition cost can no longer be established).
• Under the current administrative view, it doesn't cover privately held crypto assets, regardless of value (individual ruling of the Krajowa Informacja Skarbowa of 22 December 2022). Unlike in Austria and Portugal, where moving on can trigger a deemed disposal of crypto holdings, moving on doesn't trigger an exit tax for private individuals under this ruling.
• Limits: an administrative ruling, not an express statutory rule; the legal position could change. Crypto assets held in a trade or business are subject to the general exit-tax rules.

Returning to Germany

• Since, under the administrative view, the Polish exit tax doesn't cover privately held crypto assets, moving back from Poland generally creates no Polish tax on unrealized crypto gains.
• In Germany, unlimited tax liability returns on re-establishing a residence or habitual abode. The original acquisition date counts: with a total holding period of more than a year, regardless of how much was spent in Poland, a sale is tax-free under § 23 EStG.