Greece's parliament has approved legislation that imposes a 10% tax on cryptocurrency gains. Lawmakers passed it Thursday as part of a broader bill covering loan oversight, debt protections and financial market regulation. The new capital gains provisions take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
Who pays and who does not
The bill taxes profits from crypto sales at 10%, but investors whose annual gains do not exceed 500 euros ($560) are exempt. Once annual net gains pass that floor, the entire gain becomes taxable at 10%, so the 500 euros works as a threshold and not as a deduction. The rate applies to net profit, not to the total sale proceeds. A buyer who pays 5,000 euros for crypto and sells it for 8,000 euros has a 3,000 euro gain and owes 300 euros, assuming no other factors apply.
Using crypto to buy goods or services may also trigger capital gains tax, while swapping one crypto asset for another does not generate taxable gains. The Ministry of National Economy and Finance first proposed the tax in October.
Swaps, staking and losses
The swap exemption comes with a caveat. The Finance Ministry says exchanges between crypto assets are not taxable, but parliament's Scientific Service noted that the bill's broader wording on disposals may cover them. It recommended excluding them explicitly.
Income from lending, providing liquidity and staking will be taxed as interest at 15%. Losses above the 500 euro level can be carried forward for up to five years, though they may offset only future crypto gains. The rules also cover contributing crypto assets as corporate capital. Crypto sales are exempt from the Digital Transaction Fee.
Past gains and proof of funds
Investors with older profits get a way to come clean. They will have 12 months to declare past crypto gains without late-filing penalties. The 10% tax on declared gains is paid within 60 days of filing the declaration. No late-payment fines or interest apply if the tax is paid on time.
Spending on crypto purchases will fall under the presumptive asset-acquisition rules from 2027. Greece will also require proof that the money used to buy crypto comes from declared income or another lawful source. A Greek tax bulletin noted that voluntary disclosure does not by itself prove the funds used to buy the crypto were legitimate. As a result, a taxpayer's declared means can still be tested against what they spent on crypto, and an unexplained gap may create an additional taxable difference.
What comes next
The law is not yet fully in force. The bill still awaits publication in the Government Gazette. The Finance Ministry says further implementing rules on transparency and tax audits will follow. The hard part may be enforcement. Most trading runs through platforms abroad, which makes transactions and capital flows difficult to track. Revenue could not yet be estimated because overseas platform use makes the Greek market hard to measure.
Tax authorities will have some help from the EU. A reporting regime that started on Jan. 1, 2026 obliges crypto service providers to collect data on EU residents' transactions and report it to national tax authorities, which then share it with the investor's country of residence. The first exchanges cover 2026 transactions and must take place by Sept. 30, 2027.
Greece's rate is lower than that of some neighbors. It sits below France's 30% but above Cyprus's 8%. Germany and Portugal charge 0% on holdings kept longer than one year. The EU has no unified system, and rates across European countries range from 8% to 30%. An earlier draft proposed a higher 15% rate, but parliament settled on 10%.
Gunel Ismayilova
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