Greece wants to tax crypto gains at 10%. The rate is low, and the plan is still a draft. Yet the real story is not the number. EU countries disagree on what crypto is: an investment, a source of income or a regulated product. Their tax rules show the split.
What Greece Has Actually Proposed
Greece’s finance ministry published a draft bill for public consultation on 7 October. It sets a 10% tax on crypto gains. Reuters reports that the first €500 of gains each year would be exempt. The bill is due in parliament in November. It is not law yet.
Details come from secondary reports of the draft, so treat them with care. According to Yellow, swapping one crypto asset for another would not trigger tax. Staking, lending and liquidity returns would count as interest, also taxed at 10%. Consultation reportedly closes on 22 October, with a vote targeted for early November.
The rate has already moved once. Yellow cites two unnamed officials who said a 15% rate was planned in June. The articles give no reason for the cut.
Reuters offers the official reasoning. Greece has no comprehensive legal framework for taxing crypto. EU countries also share no common tax system for the sector. In short, Athens is writing a rule where none existed.
Why a Low Rate Fits Athens
A 10% rate looks modest beside the 8% to 30% range Reuters reports across Europe. It also suits a country with a practical problem. Greek officials say most investors use platforms outside Greece. That makes the size of the local market hard to estimate. The government has not published a revenue forecast. Without data, a light rule is also the safer guess.
Under those conditions, a low rate does two jobs. It invites disclosure, and it keeps the tax from driving people away. Yellow also reports a 12-month window for taxpayers to declare earlier gains without fines or interest. Conditions apply. That detail suggests the priority is visibility, not revenue.
The €500 exemption points the same way. It spares small holders and keeps attention on larger gains. A simple, light rule may win more compliance than a heavy one.
Still, one question stays open. A low rate treats crypto like any other investment gain. A rule on staking and lending as interest treats part of it as income. Greece’s draft does both at once.
Germany and Portugal Ask a Different Question
Other countries focus on how long you hold an asset. Portugal, according to law firm MCS, taxes gains at a flat 28% when investors sell within 365 days. After 365 days, gains are generally tax-free. Exceptions apply. Crypto that counts as a security loses the exemption, and so can dealings with non-EU or blacklisted parties.
Germany has used the same logic. Privately held crypto currently falls under “other income.” Gains on crypto held for more than a year are generally tax-free today, according to Decrypt.
That may change. The German finance ministry’s draft would tax private crypto income as capital income, PwC Germany reports. The draft is in inter-ministerial coordination, and a cabinet decision is planned. It is not law.
Press accounts add detail. Decrypt, citing Handelsblatt and Welt, reports a flat 25% rate from 1 January 2027. It would apply to crypto bought from that date and end the holding-period exemption for new purchases. Platforms would withhold tax from 2028. Those details come from press reports, and I could not check them in the draft text. They may change.
The contrast is useful. Portugal rewards patience. Germany may move to treat crypto like shares, whatever the holding period.
One Asset, Four Labels
Taken together, these rules show four ways of seeing crypto:
- Investment asset: gains taxed like other capital gains, as Greece proposes.
- Reward for patience: gains tax-free after a holding period, as in Portugal today.
- Income: staking and lending returns taxed as interest, as in the Greek draft.
- Capital income: a German shift that would put crypto beside shares.
None of these is wrong. Each answers a different question about what a token represents. A saver holding bitcoin for years differs from a trader or a staker earning yield. A single rate cannot capture all three.
Rates also hide design choices. Treatment of swaps, the size of allowances and the loss rules change the real burden. A headline of 10% can cost more or less than 25%, depending on those details.
Investors feel this most when they move between platforms. A swap that Greece would ignore can count as a sale elsewhere. The same trade then produces different tax in two countries. For anyone who lives or invests across borders, that gap is the real cost of the patchwork.
Rules Converge While Taxes Don’t
Market rules, by contrast, are converging. The MiCA transition period ended on 1 July 2026, according to France’s AMF. Firms without authorisation had to wind down. Non-EU entities generally cannot serve EU clients, apart from a limited exemption.
Tax reporting is converging too. The DAC8 directive has applied since 1 January 2026. Crypto service providers must report user transactions. Tax authorities then share the data. The first exchange covers 2026 and must happen by 30 September 2027. The Commission’s page covers reporting and exchange, and does not address tax rates.
So Europe is building a shared view of who owns what. It has not agreed on what the profits should cost. That gap will matter more as reporting improves. Authorities will see more, and the differences between national rules will show up in people’s bills.
Greece’s draft will not settle the debate. It does put a clear question on the table. Is crypto a speculative bet, a saving, a wage-like reward or a financial product? When a country decides what crypto is, it also decides how to tax it. Europe’s rulebook, for now, holds several answers.
This article is for general information and is not tax or investment advice. Speak to a qualified adviser about your situation.
Key Sources
- Greek Ministry of National Economy and Finance: Draft bill on debtors, servicers, private debt, crypto and the financial market
- Reuters via Zawya: Greece plans 10% cryptocurrency capital gains tax
- Yellow: Crypto tax rate in Greece falls to 10% in a draft bill after a higher June plan
- European Commission: DAC8
- PwC Germany: BMF draft on the taxation of certain crypto assets held privately
- Decrypt: German finance ministry drafts 25% tax on crypto gains from 2027
- MCS: How capital gains on crypto are taxed in Portugal (2026 guide)
- AMF: End of the MiCA transitional period
Subscribe to EuroLuminant for independent European journalism.
