Greece's parliament on Thursday passed a bill imposing a 10% capital-gains tax on cryptocurrency profits, converting a proposal discussed in October into legislation approved by lawmakers. The crypto income-tax rules are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027, and sit inside a wider Finance Ministry package dealing with debt servicing, financial oversight, and government accounting. The full legislative text is published on the Hellenic Parliament website.

Income from staking, crypto lending, and DeFi liquidity provision will face a separate 15% levy. A parliamentary review has also warned that crypto-to-crypto swaps could prove taxable under the law's wording, despite the government's stated intention to exempt them.

Individual investors with annual net crypto gains of €500 ($557) or less will be exempt. Above that threshold, the 10% tax applies to the entire gain, not just the amount over €500. An investor with €600 ($669) in net gains would therefore owe €60 ($67) under the new rate, rather than €10 ($11). Because the entire gain is taxed once the threshold is crossed, the amount owed jumps from zero to roughly €50 the moment annual net gains exceed €500 by even €1.

The rules generally calculate gains by subtracting the acquisition cost from the value received when the crypto is disposed of. Selling Bitcoin for euros is one taxable event, but spending crypto on goods or services can also count as a disposal. Investors will need transaction records to establish what they paid for their assets and what those assets were worth when sold or spent.

Yield is treated separately. According to the Finance Ministry, returns from staking, crypto lending, and providing liquidity to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will be classified as interest income and taxed at 15%. Because the categories are assessed separately, the same investor can owe the 10% rate on disposals of appreciated holdings and the 15% rate on yield in the same year.

The bill also contains relief mechanisms. Qualifying crypto losses exceeding €500 ($557) can be carried forward for five years and offset against future crypto gains. Investors additionally receive a 12-month window to voluntarily declare previously unreported crypto income without late-filing penalties or interest, provided they meet the law's conditions and pay within 60 days of filing.

Thursday's passage follows an October public consultation on the proposal. The draft had already set the rate at 10%, lower than the 15% levy Greek officials had discussed in June. The Finance Ministry has published an overview of the broader framework surrounding the bill.

Crypto swaps remain a tax question

Athens says exchanging one cryptocurrency for another should not itself trigger a capital-gains tax. But the wording lawmakers approved may not make that exclusion as clear as the government intended.

A review by parliament's Scientific Service flagged the bill's broad language covering disposals made "for consideration," according to the service's report (PDF). That phrase could include token-to-token trades, the review said, even though the accompanying explanation states such swaps should not create taxable gains. The reviewers recommended an explicit exemption and suggested clearer rules for exchanges involving stablecoins and electronic-money tokens. The distinction matters for traders who rotate between assets without cashing out to fiat currency.

Greece is also preparing the administrative rules needed to put the tax into practice. A senior Finance Ministry official told Reuters that guidance on transaction transparency and tax audits would be issued in the coming weeks, according to Reuters' report on the vote.

The government has not estimated how much the tax will raise. Officials say the market is difficult to measure because many Greek crypto investors use trading platforms based overseas. As the January 1, 2027 start approaches, the guidance promised in the coming weeks — and whether it settles the swap question raised by parliament's reviewers — will shape how the new framework works in practice.