German Crypto Tax Deadline Is Today: What You Need to File Before Midnight

If you are required to file a German income tax return for 2025 and you are doing it yourself, the clock runs out tonight. Not tomorrow morning, not the first working day of August. The statutory deadline is 31 July 2026 at 24:00, and for crypto investors this particular return carries a few things the previous ones did not. Here is what still needs to happen in the next few hours. Why is 31 July the hard deadline this year? The COVID-era extensions are gone. For the 2025 tax year, the normal rule under § 149 Abs. 2 AO applies again: mandatory filers (Pflichtveranlagung) submit by 31 July of the following year. What counts is the moment your return reaches the Finanzamt, so with ELSTER or tax software it is the successful transmission that matters, not when you started filling it in. Two exceptions buy you real time: Filing through a Steuerberater or a Lohnsteuerhilfeverein. Your deadline moves automatically to 1 March 2027, because 28 February 2027 falls on a weekend. Voluntary filing (Antragsveranlagung). If you are not obliged to file and are only submitting because you expect a refund, you have until 31 December 2029 for the 2025 year, with no penalty risk. Everyone else is on the clock tonight. Who actually has to report crypto in Germany? Crypto is not treated like shares here. Coins count as "other assets" under § 23 EStG, which produces the rule that keeps Germany attractive for long-term holders: sell after a holding period of more than twelve months and the gain is tax free, no matter how large it is. The BMF confirmed in its March 2025 letter that staking or lending in the meantime does not extend that period. Inside the twelve months, it looks different: Disposals under one year are taxed at your personal income tax rate, up to 45%. The €1,000 Freigrenze covers all private disposals in a calendar year, not just crypto. Note the word: Freigrenze, not Freibetrag. Stay below it and the gain is tax free. Reach it and the whole gain becomes taxable, not just the excess. Staking, lending and mining rewards are other income under § 22 Nr. 3 EStG, taxable on receipt at the market rate, with a separate €256 Freigrenze. Crypto-to-crypto swaps count as disposals. So do trades on decentralised exchanges. The 2025 BMF letter put DEX activity on the same footing as trades on Binance or Kraken, which means Uniswap and Curve history has to be documented the same way. FIFO is the method the German tax office works with, applied per wallet or per exchange. Most private crypto activity lands in Anlage SO. What is different about the 2025 return specifically? Three things, and they all point the same direction.