Cryptoupdated 34m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 22 April 2024Greece Approves 10% Tax on Crypto Gains Starting 2027, Adds 15% DeFi Levy
“parliament's Scientific Service warned that the bill's wording could cover such trades”
“Crypto-to-crypto swaps, such as bitcoin for another token, are treated as non-taxable events”
Photo: Yair-haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
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Greece imposes 10% tax on crypto gains starting Jan 1, 2027. 500-euro annual exemption for net crypto gains.
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A 10% levy in 2027
Greece approved a 10% tax on cryptocurrency gains starting in 2027, with an exemption for investors whose annual net gains do not exceed 500 euros.
The Hellenic Parliament passed legislation imposing a 10% tax on profits from crypto asset sales, and the framework is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
The law also imposes a 15% tax on income from staking, crypto lending and providing liquidity to decentralized protocols.
The legislation gives investors 12 months to voluntarily declare previously unreported crypto gains, and it requires them to pay the resulting tax within 60 days of filing to avoid penalties and interest.
The Finance Ministry’s proposal, first floated in October, also states that swapping one crypto asset for another does not generate taxable gains, while using crypto to buy goods or services may trigger capital gains tax.
Threshold and what counts
The Parliament of Greece approved on November 5 a bill establishing a 10% tax on capital gains obtained from cryptocurrencies, and gains up to 500 euros per year are exempt. A senior finance ministry official told Reuters that "Further implementation directives will be published in the coming weeks," which will define transparency and audit rules. The explanatory material describes the tax as applying to net capital gains, calculated as the gap between acquisition and transfer prices, and it says trading fees and related costs can factor into that calculation.
The bill also treats returns from lending, liquidity provision and staking as interest income taxed at 15%, separate from trading gains. The law provides a 12-month window for voluntary declarations of gains from earlier transfers without fines or interest under specified conditions, while crypto-to-crypto swaps are treated as non-taxable events in the explanatory material.
Enforcement and cross-border
A senior Finance Ministry official said further implementation directives will be published in the coming weeks, setting transparency requirements and audit procedures.
The same official said the government has not projected revenue from the measure because most Greek investors trade on platforms based abroad and the size of the domestic market is hard to gauge.
The legislation also ties crypto purchases into Greece’s existing “source of funds” checks from 2027, requiring proof that funds used to buy crypto come from declared income or another lawful source.
The framework lands as the EU's DAC8 rules require crypto service providers to collect data on EU residents' transactions and report it to national tax authorities, with exchanges covering 2026 transactions by Sept. 30, 2027.
For investors, the framework gives Greece-based crypto holders a defined set of rules roughly 14 months before the tax begins, while the voluntary disclosure window may pull previously unreported gains into the system at no penalty.