Greece Approves 10% Tax on Crypto Gains Starting in 2027

Greece's parliament approved a 10% capital-gains tax on cryptocurrency investments on November 5, establishing a clearer framework for taxing digital assets. The law includes an exemption for annual crypto gains of up to €500. A senior finance ministry official told Reuters that further rules governing reporting, transparency and audits would be issued in the coming weeks.

The changes are scheduled to apply from January 1, 2027, according to reporting on the approved legislation. The headline rate is straightforward, but investors still need to distinguish taxable gains from the total value of transactions and from income earned by holding or lending tokens.

What the capital-gains tax covers

A capital gain generally arises when an asset is disposed of for more than its acquisition cost. Someone who sells €5,000 worth of tokens has not necessarily made a €5,000 gain: the relevant amount depends on the price paid, associated costs and the applicable calculation method.

The Greek Finance Ministry's October consultation outlined a framework based on the difference between acquisition and disposal prices. It also addressed how to determine acquisition costs when an investor has bought the same asset more than once.

Reuters confirmed the 10% rate and the exemption for annual gains of up to €500 in the approved legislation. Reporting on the threshold has not fully resolved how the exemption works for taxpayers with gains above that amount. Exact calculations should therefore rely on the enacted provisions and forthcoming administrative guidance rather than on a simplified headline.

The new rules are intended to give tax authorities a clearer basis for reviewing transactions, including those conducted through exchanges outside Greece. Officials have not provided a reliable estimate of the law's expected revenue because much of the domestic market is conducted through foreign platforms.

Staking and DeFi income face separate treatment

The ministry's framework distinguishes gains on disposal from income earned through staking, crypto lending and decentralized-finance liquidity provision. Its October proposal classified such returns as interest income, subject to a 15% rate. Subsequent reporting on the legislation describes that treatment as part of the approved framework.

This difference matters because a reward received in tokens may be a separate taxable event from a later sale of those tokens. The amount and timing of income recognition can affect the acquisition value used in a future gain calculation.

For DeFi users, recording transactions will be more complicated than tracking purchases and sales on a single centralized exchange. Rewards can be distributed in multiple assets; their market values can change between receipt and disposal; and platforms may use different transaction descriptions.

TTN Finance's guide to DeFi lending, liquidity pools and associated risks explains the underlying activities. The Greek provisions concern their tax classification, not whether a particular protocol is safe or profitable.

The treatment of token swaps needs clarification

The October ministry proposal indicated that exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would not, by itself, trigger a capital gain. However, the wording of the parliamentary bill raised questions over whether some swaps could fall within broader rules on disposal for consideration.

Neither interpretation should be stated as settled for every transaction until the enacted law and implementation guidance are clear. Investors dealing in token-to-token trades need records of dates, assets, quantities, acquisition costs and transaction fees even where the immediate tax treatment is uncertain.

This recordkeeping issue also appears in TTN Finance's U.S. crypto tax guide, although U.S. taxable events and rates cannot be applied to Greek residents by analogy.

Losses and voluntary disclosure

Reporting on the approved measure says qualifying crypto losses above €500 may be carried forward for five years against future crypto gains. The final conditions for recognizing losses, including documentation requirements, need to be checked against the official legal text.

The framework also provides a 12-month voluntary disclosure period for relevant earlier crypto gains, with relief from late-filing penalties or interest under specified conditions. That should not be confused with a cancellation of the underlying tax obligation.

The practical challenge for taxpayers will be reconstructing records held on multiple exchanges and wallets. Transfers between a person's own accounts, rewards, trades and disposals for goods or services can look similar in an export file while having different legal consequences.

What changes for investors

The approved law gives Greece a national tax framework where digital-asset investors previously faced significant uncertainty. It does not create an EU-wide crypto tax: member states continue to determine their own income and capital-gains treatment within the wider European regulatory framework.

Tax treatment also does not determine whether a crypto business has adequate custody controls or whether a stablecoin can meet redemption requests. Those remain separate issues, covered in TTN Finance's analysis of stablecoin reserves and depeg risk.

The next significant step is publication of administrative instructions explaining filings, documentation, the €500 threshold and token swaps. Until then, the clearest confirmed elements are the parliamentary approval, the 10% gains rate, the €500 exemption and the move toward distinct treatment of crypto investment gains and DeFi income.