Greece Proposes 10% Tax on Crypto Capital Gains, Among EU's Lowest Rates

Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance published a draft bill on October 8, 2026, proposing a flat 10% tax on individuals' cryptocurrency capital gains — one of the lowest rates among European Union member states that have moved to tax digital assets. The proposal would also fill what the ministry describes as a legislative gap in Greece's treatment of crypto taxation.

What the Draft Bill Proposes

Under the proposal, a 10% capital gains tax would apply to profits individuals realize from selling or otherwise disposing of cryptocurrency. Annual gains of up to €500 (approximately $560) would be exempt, shielding smaller retail investors from the obligation. Crucially, swapping one cryptocurrency for another would not trigger a taxable event — a provision that distinguishes the Greek approach from some other jurisdictions and reduces friction for active traders.

The same 10% flat rate would extend to returns generated through staking (earning rewards by locking tokens to help validate a blockchain network), lending, and liquidity provision (supplying assets to decentralized trading pools in exchange for fees). Treating these yield-generating activities consistently with outright sales simplifies compliance for users who participate in decentralized finance.

The bill also includes a one-time amnesty window: individuals who have already realized crypto gains but never declared them could do so voluntarily, without penalties, within 12 months of the law's publication. This suggests the government is prioritizing revenue capture and compliance normalization over retrospective enforcement.

Timeline and Next Steps

Public consultation on the draft closes on October 22. The Ministry of National Economy and Finance is targeting a parliamentary vote in the first week of November 2026. The bill is not yet law, and its terms could change before passage. Greek officials have not published any projections for expected tax revenue, in part because most Greek crypto investors use platforms based outside the country, making the domestic market difficult to size.

How Greece Compares With Other EU Countries

Greece's proposed 10% rate sits well below the rates established or proposed by its EU peers. Austria introduced a 27.5% tax on cryptocurrency gains in March 2022. France has applied a 30% flat tax on individual crypto capital gains since December 2018. In September 2026, Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance reportedly circulated a draft proposal to subject cryptocurrency trading profits to the standard 25% flat-rate tax beginning in 2028; under current German law, gains on crypto assets held for more than 12 months are generally tax-free.

The lower Greek rate may reflect both a competitive positioning strategy and the practical difficulty of enforcing a higher rate in a market where investor activity is largely conducted through foreign platforms. Whether the rate proves durable will depend partly on how much revenue it generates once DAC8 reporting infrastructure is in place.

The EU Regulatory Context

Greece's move is not happening in isolation. As an EU member state, Greece is required to implement DAC8 — the bloc's eighth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation — which extends automatic tax information sharing between national authorities to cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto service providers must begin collecting transaction data on EU users from January 1, 2026, and national authorities are required to complete their first cross-border data exchanges — covering 2026 activity — by September 30, 2027.

DAC8's reporting requirements are modeled on the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). Greece formally committed to implementing CARF and beginning information exchanges by 2027 as part of a multinational agreement signed in November 2023. In practical terms, this means Greek tax authorities will soon have access to standardized transaction data from crypto platforms operating across the EU, giving the proposed tax real enforcement teeth regardless of where a platform is headquartered.

For Greek crypto holders, the combination of a new domestic tax law and incoming cross-border data sharing represents a meaningful shift in the compliance landscape. The amnesty window in the draft bill offers a defined period to regularize past gains before that infrastructure is fully operational — a detail worth noting for anyone with undeclared positions.