DEGIRO and German Taxes — 2025 Filing Guide

1. The DEGIRO tax situation in Germany

DEGIRO is a Dutch broker. For German tax filing, that classification still holds even after the flatexDEGIRO group structure: DEGIRO's own German help page states that, as a Dutch broker, it does not pay German Kapitalertragsteuer and therefore cannot issue an annual German Steuerbescheinigung; it provides an annual overview of account activity instead, which is not a German tax report (DEGIRO — Steuerbescheinigung). DEGIRO's legal-footer notes describe the German service as the Dutch branch of flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, and DEGIRO separately states that having a German flatex cash account does not determine tax residence (DEGIRO — Steuer-Hilfe).

For a German tax-resident private investor, this puts DEGIRO operationally in the foreign broker bucket: you self-declare investment income in Anlage KAP for non-fund items and Anlage KAP-INV for ETFs and other investment funds. ELSTER's 2025 help confirms KAP-INV is the form for investment income not subject to domestic withholding, including investment fund units held in a foreign custody account (ELSTER — Anlage KAP / KAP-INV 2025 help).

One important nuance: German-source dividends still have German withholding applied at source. DEGIRO documents that the gross dividend on a German share is reduced by 25 % Kapitalertragsteuer + 5.5 % Solidaritätszuschlag = 26.375 % in total, deducted from the gross (DEGIRO — German-source dividend withholding). That is not the same thing as DEGIRO running the broader German Abgeltungsteuer workflow for you.

2. What DEGIRO doesn't withhold for you

For private capital income at DEGIRO, the following German taxes are not generally withheld and remitted by the broker:

• 25 % Kapitalertragsteuer on the broader Abgeltungsteuer scope (§ 32d EStG). German-source dividends are the exception: 26.375 % is withheld at source there.
• 5.5 % Solidaritätszuschlag in the broader sense — only attached to the German-source dividend withholding noted above.
• Kirchensteuer — not applied automatically by DEGIRO.
• Vorabpauschale. DEGIRO states directly that as a Dutch broker, it does not deduct the Vorabpauschale; the customer must report it (DEGIRO — Vorabpauschale; § 18 InvStG).

DEGIRO can show source-country withholding in your account statement, especially for foreign dividends (DEGIRO — Quellensteuer). For US dividends, the W-8BEN process can reduce the standard 30 % US withholding to a treaty rate (DEGIRO — W-8BEN). Source-country tax is not German tax; it may be creditable in Germany via Anlage KAP line 41.

You also cannot apply a German Freistellungsauftrag at DEGIRO in any practical way, because DEGIRO is not running the German withholding mechanism (§ 44a EStG). The Sparer-Pauschbetrag is applied through your tax assessment instead — see Section 8.

3. Reports to download from DEGIRO

Treat every DEGIRO export as source data, not as a German tax certificate. DEGIRO repeatedly says its annual overview is not a Steuerbescheinigung (DEGIRO — Steuerbescheinigung).

Jahresübersicht (Annual Overview)

DEGIRO publishes an annual overview in your document inbox; it tries to make it available before official income-tax filing deadlines but cannot guarantee an exact date (DEGIRO — Jahresübersicht). Use it for reconciliation, not as your KAP / KAP-INV input.

Kontoauszug (Account Statement)

The most important data source. DEGIRO's German help points to Posteingang → Kontoauszug on the web platform (not the app) for gross income, dividends, gross sale proceeds, investments and transactions; overviews can be exported separately (DEGIRO — Wie meldet DEGIRO meine Bruttoeinnahmen?). For German filing this is what you reconcile FX conversions, foreign withholding tax, and cash movements against.

Dividend entries

Dividends appear in the account statement after payment, credited gross, with withholding tax shown as a separate item (DEGIRO — Dividends in account statement). Useful: gross dividend and the withheld tax are separable, which is what Anlage KAP needs.

FX entries (AutoFX / Manual FX)

DEGIRO's AutoFX converts automatically when a foreign-currency order executes or when foreign-currency income arrives; Manual FX leaves balances in foreign-currency accounts (e.g., USD, GBP) (DEGIRO — AutoFX). Conversions appear as "Währungswechsel" entries in the account statement.

Transaction history

Use trade-level exports to reconstruct acquisition dates, sale dates, ISINs, fees and lot history. The Jahresübersicht does not present FIFO in a German-tax-line format — see Section 5 for FIFO.

German Tax Voucher for German-source dividends

DEGIRO's German-source-dividend page describes a paid Tax Voucher request process that confirms type / amount of capital income and tax withheld, but warns that it relies on parties in the custody chain and that acceptance by the German tax authorities is not guaranteed (DEGIRO — German-source dividend / Tax Voucher).

CRS / tax-residence data

DEGIRO collects tax-residence information under CRS rules and reports to Dutch tax authorities, which can forward information to the tax authority of your tax-residence country (DEGIRO — CRS). CRS reporting is information exchange; it does not replace your German Anlage KAP / KAP-INV obligation.

4. Currency conversion: from non-EUR activity to EUR for filing

Your German return is in euros. § 20(4) EStG requires that for non-EUR transactions, sale proceeds at disposal and acquisition costs at acquisition each be converted into euros at the relevant date (EStG (PDF)). The BMF's Abgeltungsteuer guidance points to the Devisenbriefkurs on the inflow date for foreign-currency capital income and withholding tax (BMF — Abgeltungsteuer (14 May 2025)).

DEGIRO's AutoFX records can help with documentation but do not by themselves solve the German tax calculation. AutoFX fixes the rate at execution time for triggered orders; for some corporate actions, coupons, redemptions or manual channels, the conversion may be processed later — possibly overnight (DEGIRO — Order Execution Policy (PDF)).

Practical mapping for DEGIRO:

• USD trade in EUR account via AutoFX → use the EUR booking as evidence; verify acquisition and sale are correctly reflected at the relevant dates.
• Foreign dividend converted by AutoFX overnight → use gross dividend and withholding tax bookings; check whether dividend date and conversion date differ materially.
• Manual FX with USD or GBP cash account → keep separate FX records. Foreign-currency cash balances may have their own § 23 EStG implications if held and used within one year.
• Account statement "Währungswechsel" entries → keep them; they're needed to reconcile.

5. ETFs and funds in Anlage KAP-INV

For ETFs and other investment funds at DEGIRO — UCITS ETFs, mutual funds — the Investmentsteuergesetz applies. § 16 InvStG defines investment income as distributions, Vorabpauschalen under § 18, and gains from sale under § 19. Because DEGIRO is a Dutch broker, this all goes on Anlage KAP-INV (ELSTER — Anlage KAP / KAP-INV 2025 help).

Distributions — KAP-INV lines 4–8

2025 KAP-INV lists distributions by fund type, all vor Teilfreistellung:

Vorabpauschalen — KAP-INV lines 9–13

Same fund-type breakdown, again vor Teilfreistellung. ELSTER notes the entry can be "Übertrag aus Zeile 45 oder laut Aufstellung des ausländischen Kreditinstituts" — your own worksheet calculation, or the broker's figure if it provides one. DEGIRO does not provide a German Vorabpauschale figure, so the worksheet calculation is yours.

Sale gains and losses — KAP-INV lines 14, 17, 20, 23, 26

Adjacent fields handle bestandsgeschützte Alt-Anteile and fiktive Veräußerung for fund units acquired before 1 January 2018. If your DEGIRO investing started after 2018, those are normally empty.

Worksheet sections — calculation pages

• Section 4 "Ermittlung der Vorabpauschalen zu den Zeilen 9 bis 13" — calculates Vorabpauschale per fund and per acquisition month (essential for monthly savings plans).
• Section 5 "Ermittlung der Gewinne und Verluste aus der Veräußerung von Investmentanteilen zu den Zeilen 14 bis 28" — calculates per-fund sale results and includes a field for prior Vorabpauschalen during the holding period.

Teilfreistellung — applied by the Finanzamt

You enter gross amounts in KAP-INV lines 4–28. The tax office applies § 20 InvStG partial exemptions:

FIFO is not optional

§ 20(4) EStG and the BMF Abgeltungsteuer guidance both apply FIFO per individual depot for fungible securities — first in, first out — and customer instructions cannot override the income-tax rule (BMF — Abgeltungsteuer (14 May 2025)). DEGIRO's annual overview should not be assumed to provide a German-tax-ready FIFO computation.

6. Stocks and bonds in Anlage KAP

Foreign dividends from individual shares, bond coupons, and broker / cash interest at DEGIRO are foreign capital income for a German resident and go on Anlage KAP. Verified 2025 ELSTER labels for the foreign-broker section:

German-source dividends at DEGIRO are the special evidentiary case. Where DEGIRO has shown 26.375 % withheld at source on a German share, the gross dividend and the withheld Kapitalertragsteuer / Soli are relevant to Anlage KAP — typically the withholding lines (Z37 Kapitalertragsteuer, Z38 Solidaritätszuschlag). The Finanzamt will usually expect supporting evidence such as a German Tax Voucher; given the broker-side ambiguity (Section 3), keep all statements and check current DEGIRO support flow before claiming material amounts.

7. Vorabpauschale specifics for 2025

The Vorabpauschale is a minimum-taxation mechanism on investment-fund units. § 18 InvStG deems it received on the first working day of the following calendar year. DEGIRO does not deduct it (DEGIRO — Vorabpauschale).

Two timing facts that matter for your 2025 return

• The 2024 Vorabpauschale is deemed received on 2 January 2025 and belongs in your 2025 return. ELSTER's 2025 KAP-INV help confirms the 2024 Basiszins of 2.29 % and the resulting calculation rate of 1.603 %.
• The 2025 Vorabpauschale will be deemed received on 2 January 2026 and belongs in your 2026 return. The BMF letter of 10 January 2025 sets the 2025 Basiszins at 2.53 %, giving a calculation rate of 1.771 % (BMF — Basiszins 2025).

Formula

• Basisertrag = January 1 fund value × Basiszins × 70 %.
• Mehrbetrag = (December 31 fund value − January 1 fund value) + distributions.
• Vorabpauschale = min(Basisertrag, Mehrbetrag) − distributions; floor at 0; cap at the Mehrbetrag.
• Acquired during the year: reduce by 1/12 for each full month before the month of acquisition.

The line-53 trap on later sales

When you sell a fund, the Section 5 worksheet (≈ line 53 in PDF form) deducts prior Vorabpauschalen during the holding period before partial exemption — to avoid double taxation. For a DEGIRO custody account, the deduction is allowed only to the extent those Vorabpauschalen were actually reported and taxed, or were absorbed by the Sparer-Pauschbetrag. You must be able to document this. Forgetting the entry in past years effectively double-taxes the same value increase when the fund is sold.

8. The Sparer-Pauschbetrag trap

For 2025, the Sparer-Pauschbetrag is €1,000 single / €2,000 jointly assessed (§ 20 (9) EStG). At a German broker, you can apply this through a Freistellungsauftrag. At DEGIRO, you cannot — DEGIRO does not run the German withholding mechanism. The allowance is applied through your assessment.

9. Common mistakes DEGIRO users make

1. Treating the DEGIRO Jahresübersicht as a German Steuerbescheinigung. DEGIRO itself says it is not one.
2. Not filing because income is under €1,000 / €2,000. ELSTER says foreign-broker capital income and foreign-held fund income still have to be declared if not subject to domestic withholding.
3. Forgetting Vorabpauschale. DEGIRO does not debit it. Even on accumulating ETFs without a cash distribution, the Vorabpauschale can apply.
4. Putting ETF distributions only into Anlage KAP line 19. Foreign-held ETF / fund income belongs in Anlage KAP-INV (lines 4–8 distributions; 9–13 Vorabpauschalen; 14/17/20/23/26 sales by fund type), not in the ordinary KAP foreign-income line.
5. Entering post-Teilfreistellung amounts into KAP-INV. ELSTER wants pre-Teilfreistellung amounts including foreign withholding tax; the Finanzamt applies the exemption.
6. Forgetting the Section 5 / "line 53" prior-Vorabpauschalen entry on sale. This causes double taxation and is widely missed.
7. Ignoring FIFO. German FIFO applies by law and BMF guidance, even if the broker UI seems to support different lot logic.
8. Assuming AutoFX equals the German-tax conversion. AutoFX is evidence; German tax law decides which EUR values and dates count.
9. Claiming German dividend withholding without proof. DEGIRO's German Tax Voucher process exists but is not guaranteed; the second support page even says vouchers cannot currently be issued. Keep statements and check the current support flow.
10. Confusing CRS reporting with tax filing. CRS data exchange does not replace Anlage KAP / KAP-INV.

10. Calculate your Vorabpauschale now

Open the calculator, enter your 2024 fund values and any 2024 distributions, and you get the 2025-return Vorabpauschale and the KAP-INV / KAP figures to copy into ELSTER. Free, no signup, data stays in your browser.

Open the Vorabpauschale calculator

11. Disclaimer and sources

Last updated: 2026-04-29.

Sources: BMF (Bundesministerium der Finanzen), ELSTER, Investmentsteuergesetz, Einkommensteuergesetz, DEGIRO official documentation. We make every effort to be accurate, but tax law and broker reports change and individual circumstances vary.

Disclaimer / Haftungsausschluss: This page is a calculation and filing helper for informational purposes only. It does not constitute tax advisory services (Steuerberatung) within the meaning of the Steuerberatungsgesetz. No advisory or professional relationship is created. The page is not a German Steuerbescheinigung. No guarantee is made regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information. Users are solely responsible for verifying all values before filing their tax return. Always consult a qualified tax advisor (Steuerberater) for individual advice.

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