The draft law exempts the first 500 euros of gains each year and is due to reach parliament in November. Government officials had told Reuters in June that the rate would be 15%.
Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance opened public consultation this week on a draft law that would tax individuals' gains on crypto-assets at 10%, according to a ministry announcement dated October 7.
The ministry's summary of the bill lists crypto taxation at 10% among its measures and describes the legislation as carrying significant provisions on the taxation of crypto-assets. Those rules are a small part of a much larger bill whose main subject is private debt. The ministry counts 16 debt measures, eight protecting borrowers and eight tightening supervision of loan servicers, and says the bill also reaches capital markets, banking, electronic payments and fuel markets.
The rate is lower than the one officials described earlier this year. Decrypt and Unchained, both citing Reuters reporting published on Thursday, say the draft sets the rate at 10% and exempts the first 500 euros of gains in each tax year, and that the bill is due to reach parliament in November. Both also report that Reuters put the figure at 15% in June, citing two unnamed government officials.
Greece has had no comprehensive legal framework for taxing crypto, which has left holders without a settled rule for reporting disposals. The draft would supply one, and Unchained, which read the published text, reports that it draws several lines that matter more than the headline rate. Exchanging one cryptocurrency for another would not create a taxable gain. Income from staking, lending and providing liquidity would be taxed as interest at the same 10%, where a US bill introduced in April would instead have deferred tax on staking rewards until sale. Crypto sales would carry no digital transaction tax. The bill itself was not independently available for this report, and those provisions rest on that account.
The draft would also let holders settle earlier disposals. Unchained reports a 12-month window, running from the law's publication, in which taxpayers could declare gains from past sales without penalty or interest, subject to conditions the bill sets out. Its account does not list those conditions.
A 10% rate would put Greece near the bottom of the European range. Cyprus's flat 8% took effect on January 1. Spain applies progressive rates up to 28%. Ireland and Italy both tax crypto gains at 33%, Italy having raised its rate from 26% at the start of this year. Germany exempts gains on crypto held longer than a year, and the Netherlands taxes a presumed return rather than realized gains.
No revenue estimate has been published. Officials say the size of the Greek market is hard to gauge because most investors trade on platforms based outside the country, a gap the European Union's DAC8 reporting rules are intended to narrow. This year is their first reporting period, so returns under those rules will land after parliament takes up the rate rather than before.
Congress has moved in pieces by comparison. The House crypto tax bill marked up in September waives tax on small network fees and drops that staking deferral, rather than setting one rate on disposals.
The consultation closes on October 22, according to Unchained. The ministry has published no effective date, and the bill still has to clear parliament, where it will arrive bundled with the private-debt measures that occupy most of its text.
