Record-keeping & tax tools: how to keep track

The blockchain shows payments – but not who owns an address, what you paid for your bitcoin or when your holding period began. You keep that evidence yourself. How Bitcoin is taxed is explained in Bitcoin & tax in Germany; this article is about the records.

What the tax office can ask for

The key document is the guidance issued by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) on 6 March 2025. Two principles from it:

• An address alone is not proof. The tax office (Finanzamt) can use your addresses to check your figures, but it needs records. Purchases on a centralised exchangeGlossaryExchange (crypto exchange)A trading platform where buyers and sellers trade bitcoin with each other via an order book. The price results from supply and demand; fees usually follow the maker-taker model.On the learning path: Stage 4 · Step 1 – Ways to get Bitcoin →In the glossary →× usually appear only in the provider’s data, not on the blockchain – you must be able to produce that data too if asked.^[1]
• Foreign platforms mean more work. If you trade through a platform run by a foreign operator, you must download the transaction overviews regularly and in full; as a rule, this also applies to decentralised exchangesTermExchange (crypto exchange)A trading platform where buyers and sellers trade bitcoin with each other via an order book.On the learning path: Stage 4 · Step 2 – Choosing a provider →In the glossary →AdLicensed providers with a paid linkProviders from our comparisonKrakenExchange · MiCA (Central Bank of Ireland)Visit Kraken* (paid link, opens in a new window)BitvavoExchange · MiCA (AFM, Netherlands)Visit Bitvavo* (paid link, opens in a new window)CoinbaseExchange · MiCA (CSSF, Luxembourg)Visit Coinbase* (paid link, opens in a new window)All 7 compared – including non-partners →*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →18+ · Crypto assets are highly volatile; you could lose all your money. No deposit protection.×. If data is missing, for example after the platform’s insolvency or a hack, that counts against you.^[1] The provider’s legal notice (imprint) shows where it is based.

Records that deviate from these requirements were only accepted without objection for tax years up to and including 2024.^[1] Since 2025 the requirements apply in full.

For every sale, your records should show at least:^[1]

• the name (e.g. BTC) and the amount,
• the acquisition costs and the sale proceeds,
• the date and price of purchase and sale,
• the holding period.

Beyond that, the tax office can request further records: raw CSV data and screenshots, fees and price sources, your method per wallet, transfers, wallet addresses, holdings as of 31 December and the source of your funds (BMF guidance, paras 101–104).^[1] The filing system below covers all of this.

You need purchase records for as long as you hold the bitcoin – they show when the holding period began. Anyone with more than €500,000 a year in non-business income (Überschusseinkünfte; from 2027: €750,000) must also keep the records for six years.^[1]

If the holding period is abolished for future purchases, the documented purchase date will also decide which rule applies to your bitcoin. The reform tracker shows where the debate stands.

How to set up your filing system

1. Create one folder per tax year

   With subfolders such as ‘Exchanges’, ‘Wallets’, ‘Bank’ and ‘Report’. Encrypted on your computer, plus an offline backup copy.

2. Download exports regularly

   The transaction overview from every exchange and app, roughly once a quarter and always before you close an account. If a platform goes down, the data may otherwise be gone. Keep the original files, not just the finished report – the tax office can request the raw data.^[1]

3. Keep purchase and bank statements

   Purchase statements show the date, amount, price and fee. Bank statements for your deposits show the source of funds, which the tax office may ask about.^[1]

4. Keep a wallet list

   Each wallet with its purpose (e.g. ‘Savings plan’, ‘Long term’), its addresses and its order of use: FIFOGlossaryFIFO (first in, first out)A tax ordering rule: in Germany, if you can’t prove which bitcoin you sold, the ones bought first count as sold first for the holding period – assessed per wallet.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 3 – Bitcoin & tax →In the glossary →× or average cost. The method applies per wallet until all the bitcoin in it have been sold; only for bitcoin bought after that may you switch.^[1]

5. Note transfers

   Date, amount, from which wallet to which, and the transaction ID. The BMF explicitly lists documentation of reallocations; in our reading, transfers between your own wallets are included.^[1]

6. Capture 31 December

   A screenshot or export of the holdings in every wallet and every exchange account.^[1]

7. Evaluate once a year

   Create a spreadsheet or report for the past year and note the settings and any manual corrections. Where a record shows no euro amount – for example when you paid with bitcoin – use the same price source and the same kind of daily price (e.g. the daily closing price) for purchase and sale. Only then does the tax office accept daily prices.^[1]

Spreadsheet, tool or tax adviser?

The BMF provides for both: the tax office can adopt a plausible tax report – complete, internally consistent and not contradicted by other information it has. Your own spreadsheets are equally suitable.^[1]

Tax tools at a glance

We have a partnership with BlockpitProvider · Tax toolBlockpitCrypto tax software from Linz: imports your Bitcoin transactions and creates tax reports, including for Germany and Austria.Software provider – no financial licence required · reviewed Sept 2026Costs: Portfolio tracking €0; tax report €49 to €549 per tax year depending on the number of transactions (as of Sept 2026)On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 3 – Bitcoin & tax →Our profile →AdVisit Blockpit* (paid link, opens in a new window)on blockpit.io*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →× and CoinTrackingProvider · Tax toolCoinTrackingPortfolio and tax software from Gräfelfing near Munich, since 2012: imports transactions, creates tax reports for over 100 countries.Software provider – no financial licence required · reviewed Sept 2026Costs: Starter $49 (€39), Pro $169 (€129), Expert from $259 (€219), Unlimited $899 (€769) per year (as of Sept 2026)On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 3 – Bitcoin & tax →Our profile →AdVisit CoinTracking* (paid link, opens in a new window)on cointracking.info*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →×; the buttons leading to them in the ad block at the end of this section are advertising links. We list Koinly and rotki without a partnership. This is not a personal recommendation. Prices in euros, as the providers state them (as of September 2026).

Blockpit

Blockpit is run by Blockpit AG, based in Linz, Austria.^[7] According to the company, it imports data from more than 3,000 exchanges, wallets and blockchains and also offers a source-of-funds report.^[5] Portfolio tracking costs €0; the tax report costs €49 (up to 50 transactions) to €549 (more than 10,000 transactions) per tax year.^[6]

CoinTracking

CoinTracking is run by CoinTracking GmbH of Gräfelfing near Munich; the tool has existed since 2012.^[10],[8] According to the company, it imports from more than 400 exchanges and wallets, via an interface (API) or CSV file.^[8] Only the portfolio view comes without a fee; annual plans start at €39 for up to 200 transactions, and ‘Pro’ costs €129 for up to 3,500.^[9]

CoinTracking offers eleven calculation methods.^[8] For bitcoin held as private assets, however, the BMF only provides for individual identification, FIFO or the average-cost method – applied uniformly per wallet.^[1] So check the setting.

Without a partnership

• Koinly is an international tax toolTermCrypto tax toolsSoftware that collects your buys and sells from exchanges and wallets and turns them into a tax report.On the learning path: Stage 6 · Step 3 – Bitcoin & tax →AdProviders with a paid linkProviders from our comparisonBlockpitTax tool · AustriaVisit Blockpit* (paid link, opens in a new window)CoinTrackingTax tool · GermanyVisit CoinTracking* (paid link, opens in a new window)All 4 compared – including non-partners →*Paid link: if you sign up or buy through it, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same. How we make money →× with dedicated reports for Germany. Importing and viewing your gains comes without a fee; to download the tax report you need a paid plan per tax year.^[11]
• rotki is open source and runs on your own computer, so your data stays with you. Some features are only available in the paid premium subscription.^[12] Its default settings follow German rules: FIFO, tax-free after one year.^[13] Setting it up takes a little more technical know-how.

Privacy: what you entrust to a tool

• Read-only interfaces. If you connect an exchange via an API key, grant read rights only – no trading and no withdrawal rights.
• The xpub shows everything. An xpubGlossaryxpub (extended public key)An extended public key from which all the addresses of a wallet account can be calculated. Nobody can spend bitcoin with it – but anyone who knows it can see your entire account history.In the glossary →× cannot spend bitcoin, but it can derive every address in the wallet. The standard explicitly names sharing it as a way to show auditors all incoming and outgoing payments.^[4] Any online service you give it to gets the same insight. More in Privacy with Bitcoin.

What to look for in a tax report

A report is only as good as its data and settings. The screens show a fictional tool; amounts are in euros because the German tax office calculates in euros.

If records are missing

1. Ask and search

   Ask your providers for transaction overviews from earlier years. Purchase confirmations by email and bank statements for your deposits help you reconstruct them.

2. Trace it on-chain

   Transfers to your own wallets can be checked with a block explorer. The tax office is supposed to do this itself before requesting screenshots.^[1]

3. Flag rather than smooth over

   Mark reconstructed values in the report as corrections and give your reasons. Flagged, traceable adjustments generally don’t count against plausibility.^[1]

4. Check earlier returns

   If, before the time limit for assessment (Festsetzungsfrist) expires, you realise that a return you filed was incorrect or incomplete and that too little tax may be assessed as a result, you must notify the tax office without delay and correct it.^[2] A tax adviser can help with this.

If the tax office cannot determine your income, it estimates it – as close to reality as possible, not as a penalty.^[1] Your own documented figures are still the better basis.

Since 2026, crypto service providers have been recording data on their customers and transactions, and from 2027 they report it annually to Germany’s Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) – as annual totals, not individual purchases.^[3] Only your own records show when you bought and that a withdrawal went to your own wallet. More in DAC8 & reporting obligations.

Your records checklist

What’s next?