Voluntary disclosure
If years are undeclared, German law still offers a way back — but only while the tax office has not yet found out, and only if the disclosure is complete. Both conditions are getting harder to meet as reporting data starts to arrive.
- Exemption from punishment under section 371 AO requires completeness, timeliness and payment.
- Complete means all unexpired years and at least the last ten calendar years.
- A partial disclosure fails entirely — and directs attention to exactly the right place.
- Above €25,000 per act a surcharge of 10, 15 or 20 per cent applies under section 398a.
- Note: do not contact the tax office yourself first. It can close the door before you begin.
When it is the right step
Not every gap in a return is evasion, and not every case needs a formal disclosure.
Nothing was ever declared
Trading ran for years, no crypto figures ever appeared in a return. This is the classic case and almost always calls for a disclosure covering the full period.
Only fiat withdrawals were declared
Very common, and rarely deliberate. Under German law every swap between coins is a disposal. Someone who declared only euro withdrawals has an incomplete return, whatever they intended.
Staking or lending was left out
Rewards are income from services at the moment of receipt, separate from any later sale. Where they were omitted, the correction usually reaches several years at once.
A simple correction may be enough
Where there was neither intent nor recklessness, a correction under section 153 of the Fiscal Code can be the right route instead. Which applies is a judgement to make before anything is filed, not after.
A phone call asking how to fix things, an email mentioning crypto, an informal note — any of these can amount to discovery and bar the exemption. There is no way back from that point.
Speak to an adviser before you speak to the authority. Confidentiality under section 57 of the German Tax Advisory Act applies from the first conversation, and the order of steps can then be planned.
What completeness requires
This is where crypto cases differ from a foreign bank account, and where the time actually goes.
A disclosure must correct all criminally unexpired tax offences of the same type in full, and at least the last ten calendar years. For a bank account that means requesting statements. For crypto it means rebuilding a history that may never have existed in usable form.
Exports from every exchange ever used, including closed accounts and insolvent platforms. Every address you controlled, so that transfers between your own wallets are not booked as sales. A price for every inflow at the moment of receipt. A disposal sequence, chosen and applied consistently. And the derivation of each figure, so that the tax office can follow it.
Where a platform has disappeared, this is rebuilt from the blockchain and from bank statements showing payments in and out. It is doable. It is not quick.
Why an incomplete disclosure is worse than none
A disclosure that misses a year, a platform or a category of income does not partially work. It fails as a disclosure while simultaneously telling the tax office that undeclared crypto exists and roughly where. That combination is the worst position available, and it is reached most often by people who filed quickly out of anxiety.
When the window closes
Several events bar the exemption. Only one of them is within your control.
Notification of an audit order. The commencement of criminal or administrative fine proceedings. The appearance of an official for a tax audit or investigation. And, most relevant here, discovery of the offence where you had to reckon with it.
Each of these is objective. None depends on whether you knew about it at the time — what matters is whether a reasonable person in your position had to reckon with discovery.
Crypto asset service providers now report their users, and that data reaches the tax office responsible for you. In our view discovery occurs on arrival there — not on the report to the Federal Central Tax Office, and not when an official opens the file.
The practical consequence is that the deadline is no longer a date you can look up. It is a moving point you cannot observe, which is an argument for acting well before you think you need to.
- Sec. 371(1)completeness, at least ten calendar years
- Sec. 371(2)the bars: audit order, proceedings, discovery
- Sec. 371(3)tax and interest payable within the period set
- Sec. 398asurcharge above €25,000 per act
- Sec. 376 AOlimitation for serious cases
- Sec. 153 AOcorrection where there was no intent
Whether a position was genuinely disputed matters here too. A question that is before a tax court can hardly have been evaded intentionally — and every position taken out of the evasion figure lowers the surcharge.
What it costs
Three separate amounts, and it helps to keep them apart.
| Component | Basis | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The tax itself | Your personal rate on the gains of each year | Payable in full. A disclosure removes the punishment, not the tax |
| Interest | 0.5 per cent per month on the evaded tax | Runs from the original due date. Over eight years this is substantial |
| Surcharge under sec. 398a | 10, 15 or 20 per cent, depending on the amount per act | Applies above €25,000 per act. Not a penalty but a condition of exemption |
| Our fee | From €2,950 surcharge, plus the returns themselves | Covers reviewing up to fifteen years and settling the scope. Fee schedule |
The surcharge under section 398a is staged, so a position that falls out of the evasion figure can move a case below a threshold. Losses that were never declared are one route; positions that were genuinely disputed in law are another. Both are worked out before the disclosure is filed, not afterwards.
How we run it
Five stages. The filing itself is the shortest of them.
Confidential assessment
What happened, over which years, on which platforms, and whether a disclosure or a correction under section 153 is the right route. Nothing goes to the authority at this stage. Confidentiality applies from the first conversation.
Securing the data
Exports from every platform while access still exists, address lists, bank statements. Where a platform has closed, reconstruction from the blockchain. This is the longest stage and the one that decides whether the disclosure holds.
Calculation and scope
Gains per year, rewards per year, losses identified and used, disposal sequence fixed. The scope of the disclosure is settled here — which years, which taxes, which facts.
Filing
The corrected returns with the derivation attached, filed together. Where a surcharge under section 398a will apply, that is anticipated rather than discovered later.
Through to closure
Correspondence with the tax office and, where relevant, the criminal investigation unit, through to the assessment and the confirmation that the exemption applies. Payment deadlines are monitored, because missing one undoes everything.
Questions and answers
What does a voluntary disclosure actually do?
What does "complete" mean?
When is it too late?
What does it cost beyond the tax?
I no longer live in Germany. Is it still relevant?
Will I go to prison?
Should I contact the tax office myself first?
Legal position: 25 August 2026. Sources: sections 153, 371, 376, 398a of the Fiscal Code; section 57 of the German Tax Advisory Act; Directive (EU) 2023/2226.
This page is not advice on an individual case. Where this English text and the German version differ, the German version governs.