Everything your exchange records about you this year lands with the tax authority on 30 September 2027

Your exchange is recording something this year that went nowhere last year. Since 1 January 2026, crypto service providers in the EU have had to record what goes in and out for each customer, and that data then travels once a year to the tax authority of the country where you live. The first time this happens is 30 September 2027. What gets sent then is being captured right now.

What DAC8 is and since when it applies

DAC8 is the eighth amendment to the European directive on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation, formally Directive (EU) 2023/2226. The Council adopted it on 17 October 2023. Member States had to transpose it into national law by 31 December 2025, and the rules have applied since 1 January 2026.

The directive is the European implementation of the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. The same arrangement is therefore on the table outside the EU as well, which means an exchange based outside Europe is not a structural escape route; it is mostly a delay.

One distinction matters for telling DAC8 apart from MiCA: DAC8 leans on the MiCA definitions, but the reporting obligation reaches further. Providers without a MiCA authorisation can also fall under it as a Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Provider when they serve customers in the EU. MiCA governs who may operate; DAC8 governs who reports.

Exactly which data is passed on

There are two layers. The first is identification: details of the provider itself and of you as the customer, including country of residence and tax identification number. The second layer is transaction data: aggregate amounts and fair market values per type of crypto-asset, covering purchases, sales, transfers and payments.

The scope is drawn broadly. Reporting covers decentralised crypto-assets, stablecoins, e-money tokens and certain NFTs. On top of that, DAC8 extends the exchange of information to dividend income that does not pass through a custodian, and to advance cross-border rulings for individuals with a value above €1.5 million.

What is not included matters just as much: no tax is calculated and no judgement is attached. The directive hands your tax authority a dataset, not an assessment. What happens next depends entirely on the national system.

The date that counts: 30 September 2027

The first reporting year is 2026. The exchange of information between tax authorities has to take place within nine months of that year's end, so by 30 September 2027 at the latest.

Those twenty months in between are precisely the practical problem. The data on your trading today reaches your tax authority well over a year later, while in the meantime you may already have filed a return, switched platforms or watched an exchange shut down. Anyone who does not keep their own records will then have to reconstruct them from a platform that may no longer exist. Three exchanges have already stopped or closed this year; that makes your own copy less of a luxury.

The same balance, three different tax bills

DAC8 harmonises the data flow, not the tax. The same portfolio therefore produces entirely different outcomes depending on where you live.

In the Netherlands, crypto falls into box 3, in the category of other assets. For 2026 that carries a deemed return of 6.00%, taxed at a rate of 36%. The tax-free allowance is €59,357 per person, or €118,714 for fiscal partners. Bank deposits carry a different, provisional deemed return of 1.28%, and debts 2.70%. Whether you actually made a gain formally plays no part in this system; the value on the reference date does.

In Belgium, a 10% capital gains tax on financial assets has applied since 1 January 2026, with an annual exemption of €10,000. That exemption is applied for the first time in assessment year 2027, covering income year 2026. Gains built up through 31 December 2025 remain exempt, but only if you can document them; the valuation as at 31 December 2025 is the benchmark. FSMA-authorised CASPs still reported nil in withheld tax as at 3 July 2026, which mostly shows that implementation is yet to get going.

Germany works differently again. Anyone holding a crypto-asset for longer than twelve months pays nothing on the gain. Within that period the gain is taxed progressively at 0 to 45%, with a Freigrenze of up to €999.99 per year; above that figure the entire gain is taxable, not just the excess. The 2025 return had to be filed by 31 July 2026.

This is general information and not tax advice. Rates, exemptions and reference dates differ per country and change regularly; have your own situation assessed by someone who sees your full file.

Why this favours authorised exchanges

For a platform, DAC8 is an administrative burden that does not go away: customer identification, tax numbers, aggregate values per asset and an annual submission. Platforms that already built a compliance function because of MiCA can bolt this onto existing processes. Platforms without an authorisation have to build it from scratch, for a market they formally may not actively serve.

That explains part of the consolidation you are seeing this year. The cost of a European customer base is rising while the revenue from that base is not. For you as a user there is a practical consequence: an authorised platform is more likely to deliver a usable annual statement, simply because it has to assemble that data anyway.

What this means for you

Start with your own records, and start with 2026, because that is the year being reported. Export your transaction history quarterly from every platform you use, and keep those files off the platform. An export you make now takes ten minutes; the same export after the fact from a closed exchange may cost you the evidence.

Also check that your country of residence and tax number are correct at your exchange. The wrong country means your data lands with the wrong tax authority, and that takes more explaining than editing a field. If you live in Belgium, record your valuation as at 31 December 2025 explicitly; that date will determine which part of your gain is exempt.

And keep the distinction sharp: DAC8 does not change what you owe, only what your tax authority can see. Until now those two did not coincide. From the 2026 return onwards, they do.

Sources: Directive (EU) 2023/2226, European Commission, OECD CARF, Belastingdienst, FPS Finance, Bundesministerium der Finanzen. Last checked: 30 July 2026.