Greece Approves 10% Crypto Gains Tax and 15% DeFi Levy
Greece has approved a 10% tax on crypto gains and a separate 15% levy on DeFi income, according to CoinDesk's policy reporting from 6 November 2026. The headline for individual filers is simple: Greek lawmakers have chosen to treat trading profit and DeFi earnings as two different categories with two different rates. If you hold, trade or earn yield on crypto and you have any Greek connection, your DeFi tax records just became more important.
One caution before we go further. The reporting we're working from gives us the two rates and the basic split, and nothing more. We don't have the full legislative text, so we won't guess at start dates, thresholds, exemptions or filing mechanics. What we can do is explain what a two-rate structure means in practice and how to get your records ready.
What Greece approved
The two rates at a glance
The approved framework has two moving parts, and it helps to keep them apart in your head.
| Category | Rate approved |
|---|---|
| Crypto gains | 10% |
| DeFi income | 15% |
The gap between the two is the part worth noticing. A 10% rate on gains is a relatively light touch compared with what many OECD countries apply to investment profit. The 15% on DeFi income is higher, and it is described as a levy on income rather than on a gain from selling. That wording suggests the legislator is separating what you earn from simply holding and deploying assets from what you make when you dispose of them.
Why gains and income are not the same thing
In most tax systems, a gain arises when you sell, swap or otherwise dispose of an asset for more than it cost you. Income arises when you receive something new: interest, a reward, a fee share, a distribution. Those are different events, and they're usually recorded at different moments and measured differently.
With a gain, you need the cost of what you disposed of and the value you got in return. With income, you need the value of what you received at the time you received it. If a single wallet does both, say you farm a token and later sell it, you can end up with two taxable moments on the same asset. A two-rate regime makes it even more important to know which moment is which.
How DeFi tax fits in
DeFi is the area where the new split bites hardest, because on-chain activity rarely looks like a clean buy and sell. A single week of activity can include lending, providing liquidity, claiming rewards, swapping reward tokens and moving funds between chains.
Questions the headline raises for DeFi users
People searching for how DeFi rewards are taxed will want answers the reporting we have doesn't give us yet. Here are the open questions worth watching for in the detailed rules, framed as questions rather than answers:
- Which on-chain activities count as DeFi income for the 15% levy, and which fall under the 10% gains rate?
- Is the levy applied to the value of rewards when received, or at some other point?
- What happens when you later sell a reward token that has already been taxed as income?
- How are losses treated, and can they be set against anything?
We'd rather list these honestly than pretend to know. Until the full provisions are available to read, treat any firm claim about these points, including from social media, with caution.
The risk of double counting
The most common practical error with income-plus-gains regimes is double counting or, just as often, missing one leg entirely. If a reward is taxed as income when you receive it, the value at that moment normally becomes your cost basis for any later sale. If your records skip that step, you may end up overstating a later gain. If they skip the income step, you may understate what you owe. Good records separate the two events from day one. For a wider look at the building blocks involved, our piece on how each DeFi building block affects your return walks through lending, staking, liquidity pools and more.
What this means for you as an individual filer
If you mostly buy, hold and trade
If your activity is centred on buying and selling on exchanges, the 10% rate on gains is the one that matters most. Your job is to keep an accurate record of what you paid, what you sold for, and when. Fees count in many systems, so keep those too. Even a modest portfolio can generate dozens of small disposals across a year once you add swaps between tokens, and each of those is potentially a separate calculation.
A crypto capital gains calculator, or any tool that pulls your exchange history together, can save real time here. Whatever you use, check its output against your own records before you rely on it. If you want to calculate crypto taxes reliably, the quality of the input data matters more than the polish of the software.
If you earn yield on-chain
If you stake, lend, farm or provide liquidity, you're the person this levy is aimed at. The 15% rate applies to DeFi income, so each reward you receive needs a timestamp, a token amount and a fiat value at that moment. That sounds tedious because it is, especially if rewards drop in small amounts every day or even every block.
The practical advice is to start capturing this data now rather than reconstructing it later. Wallet addresses, chain names, protocol names and transaction hashes are the raw materials. Export what you can from the protocols and from block explorers, and keep a dated copy somewhere safe.
If you do both
Plenty of people do. You might buy ETH on an exchange, move it to a wallet, supply it to a lending protocol, claim rewards and eventually sell. In a split regime, that one journey touches both rates. You'll want a clean way to tag each transaction by type: acquisition, transfer, reward, disposal. Transfers between your own wallets generally aren't taxable events in themselves, but they can look like disposals in messy data, so label them clearly.
What this means for accountants and advisers
Although this article is written mainly for individual filers, the people who prepare returns for them will feel the change too. A two-rate regime pushes classification up the priority list. The accounting question becomes: for each on-chain line, is this income or is this a disposal?
Classification becomes the core control
Where a client's data arrives as an undifferentiated transaction export, the preparer has to make a judgement call on every protocol interaction. That judgement should be documented. A short policy note per client, explaining how liquidity-pool deposits, reward claims and wrapped-token conversions were treated, will protect both the client and the preparer if the position is ever queried.
Valuation records
Income measured at receipt needs a fiat valuation at that moment. Decide which price source you rely on and apply it consistently. Mixing sources from line to line creates avoidable noise and makes reconciliation harder. Consistency is easier to defend than a perfect price that can't be reproduced.
Practical steps to take now
A short preparation checklist
You don't need to wait for every detail to start tidying your records. These steps are useful whatever the final rules say:
- List every exchange, wallet and DeFi protocol you've used in the relevant period.
- Export full transaction histories and store dated copies.
- Tag transactions by type: purchase, sale, swap, reward, transfer between your own wallets.
- Record the fiat value of every reward at the time you received it.
- Keep your cost basis records for anything you later sold, including reward tokens.
- Note any activity that doesn't fit neatly, such as bridging or wrapping, so you can ask a professional about it.
Choosing tools sensibly
Crypto tax software can help you assemble a crypto tax report from your wallets and exchanges, but no tool can resolve a legal question the legislator hasn't answered yet. Use software to organise and calculate, and use a qualified adviser to decide how ambiguous items should be treated. If a tool offers a Greece-specific setting, confirm with the tax authority's own published guidance that it matches the final rules before you file.
How this compares with the wider picture
Greece is not acting in isolation. Across Europe and the wider OECD, governments are working out how to tax crypto and how to capture on-chain income. For a sense of how one neighbour is wrestling with similar questions, see our overview of how France is handling its own crypto tax proposals. The common thread is that tax authorities increasingly want to see crypto activity broken down by type, not lumped together.
For you, the lesson is portable. Even if you're not Greek tax resident, keeping gains and income separate in your records is good practice almost everywhere. And if you are, or you might become one, the habit will save you effort whichever way the final details fall.
What we don't know yet
It's worth being direct about the gaps. From the reporting available to us, we can confirm the two rates and the gains-versus-DeFi-income split. We can't confirm when the rules take effect, who exactly is in scope, whether any allowances apply, how losses are handled, or how the levy will be reported and paid. Those are the details that decide what you actually owe and when.
Watch for the official text and any guidance from the Greek tax authority. When it arrives, read the definitions first. How the law defines DeFi income will determine which of your activities land in the 15% bucket and which stay at 10%. Then compare that against your tagged records and see where the grey areas are.
If you're unsure how your own activity will be classified, a short consultation with a tax professional familiar with Greek rules is money well spent before your first return under the new regime.
FAQ
What did Greece approve for crypto tax?
According to CoinDesk's reporting, Greece approved a 10% tax on crypto gains and a separate 15% levy on DeFi income. The full details beyond those two rates weren't available in the source we reviewed.
How are DeFi rewards taxed under the new Greek rules?
The headline says DeFi income faces a 15% levy, which suggests rewards may fall into that category. The precise definition of DeFi income isn't confirmed in the reporting we have, so wait for the official text before assuming how any specific reward type is treated.
Do I need a crypto tax calculator?
You aren't required to use one, but with two rates and potentially many small transactions, a calculator or similar tool can save time. Always check its results against your own records, and don't treat its default settings as legal advice.
How do I prepare to file crypto taxes in Greece?
Export your full exchange and wallet histories, tag each transaction by type, record the fiat value of any rewards when received, and keep cost basis records for assets you sold. Then check the official guidance once it's published.
Does this apply if I'm not Greek tax resident?
We don't know the scope from the reporting available. Residency and source rules vary, so check the official provisions or ask a qualified adviser before assuming either way.
Source: CoinDesk Policy