Greece passes crypto tax law with 10% gains levy and 15% rate on staking

Greece's parliament approved a bill on Nov. 5 that imposes a 10% capital gains tax on cryptocurrency profits, the first comprehensive legal framework for taxing crypto assets in the country. The rules take effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Individuals with annual net crypto gains of 500 euros ($557) or less are exempt. Above that threshold, the 10% rate applies to the entire gain rather than only the amount that exceeds 500 euros, according to Decrypt. A taxpayer with 600 euros in net gains would owe 60 euros, not 10.

Reuters reported that a senior finance ministry official said further implementation directives will be published in the coming weeks, defining transparency and audit rules. The official said state revenue from the new tax could not be projected because the vast majority of investors use platforms based abroad, making the size of Greece's crypto market hard to measure.

The crypto provisions sit inside a wider Finance Ministry package dealing with debt servicing, financial oversight and government accounting. Yields from staking, crypto lending and decentralized finance liquidity provision are classified as interest income and taxed at 15%, according to the Finance Ministry, as cited by Decrypt. That rate is separate from the 10% levy on gains from disposals.

The law generally computes gains by subtracting acquisition cost from the value received when an asset is disposed of. Selling Bitcoin for euros counts as one taxable event, and spending crypto on goods or services also counts as a disposal. Qualifying losses above the 500-euro threshold can be carried forward for five years to offset future crypto gains.

The bill also opens a 12-month window for investors to voluntarily declare previously unreported crypto income without late-filing penalties or interest, provided they meet the conditions and pay within 60 days of filing. The window starts when the law appears in the Government Gazette, according to IMI Daily.

A question remains open in the text. Athens says exchanging one cryptocurrency for another should not itself trigger capital gains tax, but parliament's Scientific Service flagged the bill's broad language covering disposals "for consideration," which could include token-to-token trades. The reviewers recommended an explicit exemption and clearer rules for swaps involving stablecoins and electronic-money tokens, according to Decrypt.

The passage follows an October public consultation on the proposal. The draft put forward a 10% rate that was already lower than the 15% levy Greek officials had discussed in June. IMI Daily noted that the ministry's consultation statement had proposed 10% for staking income before the enacted figure rose to 15%. The governing New Democracy party voted for the bill in principle and every opposition party voted against it, that report said. The law takes effect once the president signs it and the Government Gazette publishes it.

For assets bought at different times, the law uses the average acquisition price to work out the gain. When a taxpayer cannot establish what they paid, the acquisition price is treated as zero, the same report said. Losses of more than 500 euros in a tax year can be deducted from crypto gains over the following five years, but they cannot reduce tax on other income.

The law also treats crypto-assets as intangible movable property located abroad for inheritance and gift tax purposes, valued at the price on the day before the tax becomes due.

Greece is also preparing the administrative rules needed to put the tax into practice. EU countries do not have a unified taxation system for the sector. Cyprus taxes crypto transaction gains at a flat 8%, while Italy's rate on crypto-asset gains rose to 33% from fiscal year 2026, according to IMI Daily. Reuters put the range across European countries at 8% to 30%, usually imposed on capital gains.