The 1 March 2021 cutoff: old vs new tokens
Austria overhauled its fiscal framework for digital assets in 2022, applied retroactively with a single cutoff date. Crypto acquired on or before 28 February 2021 — the "old tokens" — is grandfathered under the pre-reform rules. Crypto acquired on or after 1 March 2021 is a "new token" and falls under the new regime.
The practical consequence: two BTC in the same wallet can face entirely different tax outcomes depending only on when they were bought. Exchange records, wallet histories and screenshots of acquisition dates are now strategic assets, not administrative detail.
Capital gains tax on crypto in Austria
Under the old framework, crypto held for more than one year before disposal was free of capital gains tax — a rule that rewarded long-term holders and punished quick speculation. The reform abolished the one-year "HODL" exemption for new tokens entirely. For a transition window up to 1 March 2022, quick disposals could even be taxed at progressive income rates up to 55%.
Today, almost every taxable crypto event on a new token is charged at a flat 27.5%. That is structurally simpler than most European peers. Belgium slots traders into vague categories that investors can rarely be sure of; the Netherlands has seen ongoing judicial turmoil over the constitutionality of assumed-gain taxation. Austria traded that ambiguity for a single, predictable rate.
Crypto business activity — building infrastructure, running validator nodes, investing in mining equipment as an enterprise — is also taxed at 27.5% in most cases, but is treated as a separate activity from investment gains. The two can't be netted against each other freely.
Old FIFO vs the new average cost basis
Before the reform, Austria applied the First In, First Out method: the earliest acquired units of an asset were treated as the first ones sold. That could push gains up in rising markets — the oldest, cheapest units carried the largest paper profits.
After the reform: average cost basis
For new tokens, Austria now applies the average cost method. All units of the same asset in a single wallet or account are pooled, and a weighted average acquisition price is calculated. When a sale or swap occurs, gains are measured against this average cost rather than a specific purchase date. This smooths volatility and prevents extreme outcomes from sharp price swings.
One nuance worth internalising: average cost is calculated per wallet, not across your entire portfolio. Moving tokens between your own wallets is not a disposal (see below), but it can meaningfully change the pooled cost basis the Finanzamt applies to a future sale.
Other events that count as disposals
The flat 27.5% applies any time you dispose of a new token — not only when you sell for euros. Each of the following is a taxable event for new tokens, even when it feels like crypto-to-crypto "plumbing":
Austria is notably generous on gifts compared to neighbouring EU jurisdictions: you never owe Austrian tax simply because crypto was gifted to you. For a broader look at how Austrian flat-rate treatment compares with other EU regimes, our guides to Portugal's crypto tax regime and Sweden's 30% tax are useful reference points.
Tax-free events
Receiving certain types of new crypto is not itself a taxable event — but beware the cost basis trap. The initial receipt does not trigger tax; the later sale almost always does, and if the cost basis is zero, the entire sale price is taxable.
Airdrops
No tax on receipt. When you later sell, however, your cost basis is €0, which means the full sale price is taxable at 27.5%. Someone who receives 100 tokens worth €20 each (€2,000) owes nothing at the time — but on selling at €30 each (€3,000), they owe 27.5% of the full €3,000, i.e. €825, because the basis is nil.
Staking rewards
Austria's treatment of pure staking is friendlier than most of the EU: no tax on receipt, similar to airdrops. The cost basis is €0, so the entire future sale price is taxable. This reverses in compensation scenarios below, where staking crosses into business activity.
Hard forks
Receiving new coins from a chain split is not taxed at the moment the fork happens. Cost basis is €0; the tax bill arrives on disposal.
Bounties
Free tokens awarded as rewards follow the same logic: nothing owed on receipt, but selling realises the full amount at 27.5%. Selling 2,000 euros of bounty tokens therefore produces a €550 liability.
When you owe on receipt: mining, liquidity pools, yield farming
Not every reward is deferred to sale. When crypto acts as compensation for economic activity, the 27.5% rate applies immediately at the euro value on the date received — and again on any further gain when the token is eventually sold.
Liquidity pools are a useful example of the edge cases. Simple swaps inside a pool aren't taxed at receipt — the activity is economically equivalent to a crypto-to-crypto swap, covered by the new-token disposal rule. But explicit rewards for providing liquidity (LP incentives, farming yields) are compensation and taxable immediately.
Crowdlending income under the flat rate
Crowdlending — where multiple investors pool funds to finance projects or businesses in exchange for interest — is taxed as investment income in Austria. Earnings from such platforms fall under the flat 27.5% rate, the same as other crypto investment gains, which simplifies tax treatment and aligns it with Austria's broader fixed-rate logic. For a wider view of where crowdlending sits in a portfolio, see our primer on P2P lending risks every investor must know.
The practical reason crowdlending appeals to Austrian investors post-reform is simple: unlike DeFi yield farming — which creates dozens of taxable events across protocols at volatile euro valuations — structured crowdlending generates predictable, contractual income at known dates. That makes record-keeping for the 27.5% rate materially easier.
NFTs: still treated like "old" tokens
NFTs sit outside the new crypto regime. The Finanzamt currently does not classify them as virtual currency, so they still fall under Austria's old income tax regulations on the sale of privately held assets.
This makes planning critical for NFT investors. Short-term flips can produce eye-watering tax bills; long-term holding unlocks a full exemption most crypto no longer enjoys. For tax discipline generally — including the kind of record-keeping that makes exemptions defensible — our overview of Irish Revenue's record-keeping expectations translates well into the Austrian context.
Worked examples
Three short scenarios show how the old/new split and the average-cost rule play out in practice.
Conclusion
Austria's split framework is one of the EU's more investor-friendly crypto regimes once you understand its structure. Old tokens retain a full exemption that no post-reform acquisition can ever match — making documentation of pre-2021 acquisitions materially valuable. New tokens face a single, flat 27.5% rate that is simpler than Belgium's category puzzle or the Netherlands' assumed-gain disputes, but it applies to swaps and spending, not only to cash-outs.
The real work for Austrian investors now is operational: maintaining wallet-level records, treating crypto-to-crypto swaps as real tax events, understanding when staking or liquidity activity crosses into compensation income, and knowing that NFTs play by a completely different rulebook.
For portfolios being rebuilt under the flat rate — especially for investors moving away from high-event-count DeFi strategies — fixed-rate crowdlending offers a cleaner income profile. On 8lends, monthly interest, contractually defined terms, and a blockchain-native audit trail align with Austria's record-keeping reality while delivering yields up to 25% APR on collateral-backed loans assessed by Maclear AG.
