Speculation Period: Stocks, Legacy Holdings and the Crypto Exception

Stocks bought before 1 January 2009 are grandfathered: their capital gains remain entirely tax-free on sale to this day. For fund units bought before 2009, the 2018 investment tax reform curtailed the protection: the units are deemed sold and reacquired as of 31 Dec 2017; gains accrued since 2018 are taxable, offset by a personal allowance of €100,000 on those gains.

Practically important: if legacy and newer holdings sit in the same account, the FIFO principle applies on sale — the oldest (tax-free) shares leave first. To deliberately use or preserve the grandfathering, manage it via partial sales or a transfer to a second brokerage account. A tranche view like MoneyPeak’s shows which lots with which purchase dates sit in your portfolio.

For cryptocurrencies the speculation period still applies, because they are taxed as private sale transactions under § 23 EStG — not as capital assets:

• Holding over one year: gains entirely tax-free — document your holding period!
• Sale within one year: gains are subject to your personal income tax rate (not the flat tax) — up to 42 % or more for high earners.
• €1,000 annual threshold: if all private sale gains stay below it, everything is tax-free. One euro above, and the entire gain is taxable — it’s a threshold, not an allowance.

Losses from crypto sales within the one-year period can only be offset against other private sale gains — not against stock gains. Stock and ETF losses instead follow the loss pots of the withholding tax regime.

Documentation is the practical crux: unlike with stocks, no custodian bank keeps records of crypto purchase dates and prices. Anyone trading across multiple exchanges and wallets should log every transaction with date and price — and for the order of disposals, FIFO generally applies per wallet here too. Without clean records, the tax office will assume the less favourable variant in case of doubt.