Greece Approves 10% Crypto Tax and 15% DeFi Levy

Greece crypto tax has a €500 threshold

The official parliamentary docket records the bill as approved on November 5. That changes its status from the consultation framework published in October, although the docket cautions that the reproduced bill still awaits spelling and drafting corrections.

Annual net gains of up to €500 are exempt. Once gains exceed that level, the full amount becomes taxable, rather than only the portion above it, according to CoinDesk’s account of the approved rules.

The distinction changes the calculation. Illustratively, €600 of qualifying annual net gains would produce €60 of tax at 10%, rather than €10 on the €100 above the threshold. This is arithmetic under the reported rule, rather than a calculation for a particular taxpayer.

Qualifying annual crypto losses above €500 can be carried forward for five years against future crypto gains. The framework also covers spending crypto on goods or services, so a taxable disposal need not involve withdrawing cash to a bank account.

A senior finance ministry official told Reuters after the vote that implementation directives would follow in the coming weeks. The official said revenue could not yet be estimated because much activity takes place through overseas platforms.

The distinction between passage and commencement is particularly relevant alongside South Korea’s proposed tax delay. Greece has an approved framework; the Korean development concerns a government-backed proposal. Neither headline alone describes every filing obligation.

Staking and DeFi income face 15%

In its October explanation of the framework, the ministry classified staking, crypto lending and liquidity-provision returns as interest subject to 15% tax. Capital gains generally reflect the difference between acquisition and transfer prices, with average acquisition cost used for successive purchases.

That creates separate questions for an investor who both earns tokens and later disposes of them. The headline 10% rate cannot simply be applied to every form of crypto-related receipt. Records must distinguish the activity that generated income from the transaction that realizes a gain.

The ministry also described a conditional 12-month window, measured from publication of the law, to voluntarily declare earlier gains without penalties or interest. CoinDesk reported that payment would be due within 60 days of declaration. The relief concerns late-filing charges, rather than a blanket cancellation of the underlying payment.

The Greek approach differs from HMRC’s proposed treatment of DeFi loans and liquidity pools, which focuses on when qualifying transfers trigger UK capital-gains tax. A lending transaction’s timing and the classification of its return are distinct policy choices.

For platforms, that distinction also shapes what transaction histories need to show. A list of token balances cannot, by itself, distinguish purchases, rewards and disposals. The practical compliance question is whether available records explain how each balance arose and what happened when it changed.

Crypto swaps still need clarification

Parliament’s Scientific Service report identifies a conflict between the ministry’s stated intention to exclude crypto-to-crypto exchanges and broader disposal wording that could encompass them. It recommends an explicit exception.

The report also places documentation and verification details with the revenue authority, following consultation with market and banking regulators. It questions how obligations and data-sharing purposes are defined. These observations concern the reviewed bill; they do not establish a subsequent tax-authority ruling.

For a trader rotating between tokens, the unresolved wording affects when a gain might be recognized even if no cash leaves the crypto market. The relevant distinction is between policy intent and an operative rule that taxpayers and platforms can apply consistently.

Alternative.me’s sentiment index showed 28, or Fear, versus 50 a day earlier when checked on November 6 around 12:00 UTC. The measure tracks Bitcoin sentiment, rather than Greek taxpayers’ expectations.

The next checkpoints are publication of the final law and implementing guidance on records, deadlines and swaps. A final resolution of the exchange-language issue was not established in the sources reviewed, leaving it a material implementation question ahead of 2027.