Germany's Crypto Holding Period Faces Abolition: What Petition 201716 and the Cabinet Decision Mean for Your Tax

Since August 4, 2026, a submission has been open for signature on the German Bundestag's petition portal that bears directly on private crypto investors. Petition 201716 calls for the one-year holding period for crypto assets under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act (EStG) to be kept in place. The quorum of 30,000 signatures was passed within a few days; on August 8, 2026 the portal showed 38,286 online signatures. The deadline runs until September 15, 2026.

The trigger is a decision taken by the federal cabinet on July 6, 2026 on the draft budget for 2027. Under it, crypto assets held as private wealth would in future be assigned to income from capital assets, and the tax exemption after twelve months of holding would fall away.

What the one-year crypto holding period under Section 23 EStG means today

Under the current view of the tax authorities and the case law of the fiscal courts, crypto assets count as “other assets”, so sales fall under the private disposal transactions of Section 23 of the Income Tax Act. Taxable there, under subsection 1 sentence 1 number 2, are transactions “in which the period between acquisition and disposal is not more than one year”. The familiar rule follows by implication: after more than twelve months of holding, the gain stays tax-free.

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