Germany's financial watchdog unveils cryptocurrency income tax guidance

Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance on Wednesday has unveiled its first nationwide guidance on the taxation of income from cryptocurrencies, according to a release. Specifically, individuals who sell bitcoin (BTC-USD) or ethereum (ETH-USD) won't have to pay the tax after one year, said Parliamentary State Secretary Katja Hessel. "The deadline is not extended to ten years, if for example, bitcoin was previously used for lending or the taxpayer provided ether as a stake for someone else to create their block," Hessel added. In addition to the tax treatment of trading bitcoin (BTC-USD) or ether (ETH-USD), the main points of the guide pertain to crypto-related issues like staking, lending, hard forks and airdrops, the finance ministry said. The actual tax percentage was not disclosed in the release. Recall at the beginning February when India said it will impose a 30% income tax on cryptos and non-fungible tokens, which came into effect