Germany's Proposed Crypto Tax Reform Criticized by Circle Exec

Circle's Patrick Hansen has spoken out against Germany's proposed crypto tax reform, specifically criticizing the planned 50% substitute assessment basis for taxpayers who fail to provide credible purchase information for their cryptocurrency holdings.

The proposed reform would assume that purchases were made after December 31, 2026, with taxes calculated over 50% of the sales proceeds. Hansen warned that this will particularly hit less crypto-savvy retail users hard, as they may not have the technical experience to provide accurate acquisition costs.

Hansen pointed out that the implicit assumption of prices doubling seems high, given that Bitcoin is currently at a lower price than it was a year ago and other cryptocurrency assets have underperformed during this period.