Greece approves 10% crypto gains tax and 15% levy on staking income

What happened

Greece's parliament has passed legislation imposing a 10% capital gains tax on cryptocurrency profits, alongside a 15% levy on income earned from staking, crypto lending and decentralized finance, according to Decrypt and CryptoSlate. Lawmakers approved the bill on Nov. 5, and the crypto provisions are set to apply from January 1, 2027. The package is described as the country's first comprehensive framework for taxing digital assets.

Under the rules, individual investors whose annual net crypto gains come to €500 or less are exempt. The exemption works as a threshold rather than a deduction: once gains exceed €500, the 10% rate applies to the whole amount. Decrypt illustrated this with an investor holding €600 in net gains, who would owe €60 rather than €10.

The crypto measures were folded into a broader Finance Ministry bill that also covers debt servicing, financial oversight and government accounting. The legislation additionally offers a 12-month window in which investors can voluntarily declare previously unreported crypto income without late-filing penalties or interest, provided they satisfy its conditions and pay within 60 days of filing.

Why it matters

The vote resolves, at least at the headline level, a long period in which Greek crypto investors had no settled tax treatment to plan around. It also places Greece among the lighter-taxed jurisdictions in Europe at a time when several governments have moved the other way. CryptoSlate, citing a Nov. 6 analysis by CryptoDiffer, noted that Italy raised its standard crypto capital gains rate to 33% in 2026 and Romania increased its rate to 16%, while Sweden applies 30% to qualifying profits. The same analysis put Cyprus at 8%, Belgium and Bulgaria at 10%, and Croatia at 12%. The framework also draws a line between trading profits and yield, meaning the tax bill for an investor depends on how the activity is classified as well as on the size of the return.

What the data shows

Gains are generally calculated by subtracting what an asset cost to acquire from the value received when it is disposed of. Selling bitcoin for euros is one taxable event, but spending crypto on goods or services can also count as a disposal, which means investors will need transaction records showing purchase prices and the value of assets when sold or spent. Qualifying losses above €500 may be carried forward for five years and offset against future crypto gains. Returns from staking, lending and DeFi liquidity provision are classified as interest income and taxed at 15%. The government has not published an estimate of how much the tax will raise.

Background

The approved text follows an October public consultation on a draft that already set the trading rate at 10%, below the 15% levy Greek officials had discussed in June. Athens has said that swapping one cryptocurrency for another should not by itself trigger a capital gains charge, a position the government intended to write into the law. Officials have also said the market is hard to size because many Greek crypto investors trade through platforms based abroad, which complicates both monitoring and revenue forecasting.

What is still unclear

Whether token-to-token trades escape the tax remains unsettled. A review by parliament's Scientific Service flagged the bill's broad language covering disposals made "for consideration," warning that the phrase could capture crypto-to-crypto swaps even though the accompanying explanation says such exchanges should not create taxable gains. The reviewers recommended an explicit exemption and clearer rules for trades involving stablecoins and electronic-money tokens. The question matters for traders who move between assets without converting to fiat currency.

What to watch

Attention now turns to the administrative rules needed to make the tax workable. A senior Finance Ministry official told Reuters that guidance on transaction transparency and tax audits would be issued in the coming weeks. How those directives treat record-keeping and reporting for overseas platforms will shape the practical burden on investors ahead of the January 2027 start date.

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