Crypto Tax in Greece 2025: Why There Is Still No Crypto-Specific Law

Unlike most EU countries, Greece entered the 2026 filing season for tax year 2025 without a single crypto-specific tax circular, ministerial decision, or statute. The official AADE Form E1 instructions for 2025 do not mention crypto-assets or digital assets at all. Here is what that actually means for your filing, which parts of the tax code might apply by analogy, and what is - and is not - about to change.

TL;DR

Why "no crypto law" is the accurate starting point

It is tempting to assume every EU country has settled crypto tax rules by now. Greece has not. Law 5193/2025, enacted in spring 2025, implements the EU's MiCA regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) for licensing and supervision of crypto-asset service providers - it recognizes crypto-assets as financial instruments for regulatory purposes, but it contains no tax provisions whatsoever. Separately, a crypto-specific tax bill has been discussed in the Greek press since 2022 and was still described as pending, pre-parliamentary-vote legislation as late as mid-2026. Until either is enacted, taxpayers and their advisors are left applying general income tax law - Law 4172/2013 (the Greek Income Tax Code, "ΚΦΕ") - to a situation it was not written to address.

The Article 42 analogy: capital gains at 15%, if it applies

Article 42 of Law 4172/2013 taxes gains from the transfer of "titloi" (τίτλοι) - shares in non-listed companies, listed shares where the holder owns at least 0.5% of the share capital, partnership interests, government and corporate bonds, and certain derivatives. Article 43 sets the rate for that gain at a flat 15%. AADE Circular E.2171 (31 August 2021), read together with POL.1032/2015, clarifies valuation and timing questions for these conventional securities - but neither document mentions crypto-assets.

The analogy has an awkward fit: the 0.5%-of-share-capital threshold that determines whether a listed-share gain is even taxable under Article 42 has no natural equivalent for a token - crypto-assets are not "listed" and there is no "share capital" to hold a percentage of. That mismatch is itself a sign that Article 42 was not drafted with crypto in mind, and it is one reason no confident, automatic classification is safe without professional review of the specific facts.

Form E1: the codes that exist, and what they are not

If Article 42 treatment is confirmed for your situation, the relevant Form E1 fields are:

• 829 / 830 - domestic-source Article 42/42A gain (taxpayer / spouse).
• 865 / 866 - foreign-source Article 42/42A gain (taxpayer / spouse). Code 866 is not a loss field.
• 867 / 868 - foreign tax paid or withheld on that foreign-source income.
• 871 / 872 - current-year loss from securities expressly covered by Article 42 (taxpayer / spouse).
• 873 / 874 - loss carried forward from prior years, offset against the current year's gain.

These codes have been stable since tax year 2021. But stability of the codes does not mean crypto is confirmed to belong in them - it only means that if a gain is classified as Article 42 income, this is where it would go.

When it is Form E3 instead

If your crypto activity is habitual, organized and substantial enough to constitute a business activity under Article 21, it falls outside Article 42 entirely and belongs on Form E3 (statement of economic data from business activity), taxed under the progressive business-income scale rather than the flat 15% capital-gains rate. This is a facts-and-circumstances test - frequency of transactions, organization, and intent - not a bright-line threshold, so it needs to be assessed for your specific trading pattern rather than assumed either way.

Mining, staking and other rewards: no confirmed position

AADE has not published a circular, POL, or FAQ specifically addressing how mining rewards, staking rewards, or airdrops should be classified. Various interpretations circulate informally - business income under Article 21 (with E3 bookkeeping obligations), or "interest-like" income at 15% - but none traces back to a primary AADE source. Until AADE clarifies, this is a case-by-case classification question, best resolved with a Greek tax professional before filing, especially for larger amounts.

The pending crypto tax bill: not law yet

A dedicated crypto tax bill has circulated in the Greek press with a proposed flat 15% rate, an EUR 500 annual tax-free threshold, a 5-year loss carry-forward, and retroactive application to 1 January 2025 - notably exempting individual (not corporate) mining. As of mid-2026, multiple reports placed it as still awaiting a vote in Parliament. A bill that has not been enacted has no legal effect: it cannot be relied on for the 2025 return, however closely its eventual terms might resemble what many taxpayers are already assuming.

Filing deadline for tax year 2025

Under AADE Decision A.1062/06-03-2026, the 2025 individual return window opened on 16 March 2026 with an original deadline of 15 July 2026. That deadline was subsequently extended by AADE Governor decision to 24 July 2026 for individuals, and to 31 July 2026 for taxpayers with income from simplified-bookkeeping partnerships or entities.

Conclusion

The absence of a crypto-specific Greek tax law is not a gap you can fill with confidence by picking the most convenient analogy. Article 42's 15% capital-gains treatment is the most discussed candidate, but it was written for securities with no clean crypto equivalent, and AADE has not confirmed it applies. The safest approach for 2025 is to keep a complete, reconciled economic record of every disposal, derivative close, and reward receipt - in a form that a Greek tax professional can review and classify against Article 21, Article 42, or Form E3 as the facts warrant - rather than assuming a classification the tax administration itself has not settled.

This article is not tax or legal advice. Crypto-asset classification in Greece (Article 21 business income vs. Article 42 capital gains vs. other income) is an open, fact-dependent question that should be confirmed with a Greek tax professional before filing, particularly for mining, staking, airdrops, and financial derivatives.

Hinweis: Dieser Artikel dient ausschließlich zur allgemeinen Information und stellt keine Steuerberatung dar. Für individuelle Steuerberatung wende dich an einen zugelassenen Steuerberater.