Loss certificate for crypto ETNs: “must reach the paying agent by December 15 of the current year”

The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry a high degree of risk. Always conduct your own research.Anyone holding crypto ETNs in a securities account at a German bank and sitting on a loss there has until December 15 to request the loss certificate. After that the loss stays in that one account, even when gains are waiting at a second bank.The loss certificate is a document your bank issues only on request, and that request has a hard expiry date. Section 43a(3) sentence 5 of the German Income Tax Act devotes a single sentence to it: the irrevocable request “must reach the paying agent by December 15 of the current year”. Reaching means arriving, not posting. So anyone holding crypto ETNs or crypto ETPs in a securities account at a German bank and sitting on a loss there decides over the coming eight weeks whether that loss will ever reduce a tax payment. One distinction matters right at the start: this text is about crypto securities in a securities account, not about coins on a trading platform or in your own wallet. Directly held coins fall under Section 23 of the Income T...