Greece is planning legislation that would tax crypto investors’ capital gains at 15%, according to Reuters and local media cited in a Bitcoin Magazine report. The country’s Finance Ministry has drafted a bill carrying the proposal. Greece does not currently have a legal framework for taxing crypto.
How the draft would tax crypto gains
Under the draft, the first €500 of crypto gains each year would be exempt from tax, or about $580. The bill would tax only the net gain when crypto is sold, with trading fees deducted first.
Swapping one cryptocurrency for another, including a bitcoin trade into a different token, would not trigger the tax. The tax would apply only when holdings are converted into euros or another fiat currency, or when they are used to pay for goods and services.
Investors would be allowed to carry losses forward and offset them against future crypto gains for up to five tax years. Tokens received through staking or lending would be taxed only when they are sold.
Retroactive start date and filing timeline
The proposed rules would apply retroactively from Jan. 1, 2025. That means gains made from last year onward would be reported on tax returns filed in 2027. The bill is due to be submitted to parliament in November.
Fit with EU crypto rules
Greece follows the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, or MiCA. The Hellenic Capital Market Commission authorizes and supervises crypto service providers, while the Bank of Greece is responsible for prudential oversight of stablecoin issuers.
Licensing has moved slowly. No Greek providers appeared on the EU register until September, roughly two months after MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1.
Since January 2026, the EU’s DAC8 directive has required crypto exchanges to collect detailed data on users and transactions and report that information to national tax authorities, in a system comparable to how banks already report ordinary account data. Greece wrote those rules into national law in May.
Crypto tax treatment still differs across the bloc
Tax treatment for crypto remains uneven across the European Union. Rates range from 8% in Cyprus to 30% in France.
Some jurisdictions are more lenient. Germany exempts crypto held for more than one year, and Portugal applies a similar exemption after 365 days.
The article first appeared in Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.