Bitvavo and taxes in Belgium: the complete guide to your 2026 tax return

Last updated: 26 May 2026 · Reading time: 8 minutes

For many Belgians, Bitvavo is the first step into crypto: Dutch-language, SEPA deposits in seconds, a low barrier to entry. But as soon as the filing season starts, one question lingers: what exactly do I have to declare from my Bitvavo account, and how is it taxed?

Since 1 January 2026, the answer is set out in law. The capital gains tax on financial assets, approved on 3 April 2026 by the Chamber and published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 21 April 2026, regulates for the first time exactly how crypto gains are taxed in Belgium. On top of that, rules that have been around longer still apply: the reporting obligation for foreign accounts (Central Point of Contact (CAP)) and the declaration of staking and other passive income.

In this guide we go through every tax obligation for anyone with a Bitvavo account, how to import your transactions correctly into Cryptotax, and the mistakes we see most often.

🎯 The short version (TL;DR)

• Capital gains on sales and conversions from 1 January 2026: taxable at 10% above a EUR 10,000 annual exemption.
• Staking rewards (Bitvavo Staking): taxable as miscellaneous income (diverse inkomsten) or movable income (roerende inkomsten) at the moment of receipt.
• Conversions between cryptocurrencies (for example ETH to SOL) count as a sale plus a purchase, even though no euro changed hands.
• CAP reporting: your Bitvavo account must be reported once to the Central Point of Contact (CAP) of the National Bank.
• Vak XIII: in your annual personal income tax return you confirm that you hold a foreign account and that it has been reported.
• Import: Bitvavo provides a single CSV export with all your trades, deposits, withdrawals and staking rewards. Cryptotax reads this standard format automatically.

Would rather not calculate by hand? Upload your Bitvavo export and calculate your tax automatically →

📊 Which Bitvavo activity is tax-relevant?

Not every action on Bitvavo triggers tax, but there are more than many people think. Concretely, the tax authorities track the following events:

The biggest pitfall is in the third row: a conversion (crypto to crypto) is fiscally exactly the same as a sale followed by a purchase. Anyone who converted their BTC to SOL in March 2026 realises a taxable capital gain at that moment, even though they never saw a euro return to their bank account. Many investors forget this and therefore underestimate their taxable base.

⚖️ How is each type taxed?

Capital gains: 10% above EUR 10,000

The law of 6 April 2026 introduces a tax of 10% on capital gains from financial assets, including crypto. The taxable basis is set out in article 90, first paragraph, 9° of the Income Tax Code 1992 (WIB 92); the calculation method in article 102 §4 WIB 92.

The key rules at a glance:

• Applies to capital gains realised from 1 January 2026.
• The first tranche of EUR 10,000 per year is exempt (indexed from 2027).
• Rate: 10% on the balance above the exemption.
• No withholding at source, you report it yourself via your tax return.
• Losses can be offset within the same year, but there is no loss carry-forward to subsequent years.
• Cost basis is determined per asset using the weighted average, not FIFO.

For crypto you already held before 2026, your cost basis equals the market value on 31 December 2025. We call this the step-up. As a result, only the capital gain from 2026 onwards is taxed, not what you built up before then. Read our full guide to the capital gains tax for the details, or see how the step-up rule works in practice.

Staking and Bitvavo Earn

Rewards from Bitvavo Staking or Bitvavo Earn are not taxed under the capital gains tax, but as income. The classification depends on your profile:

• Miscellaneous income (diverse inkomsten) (33%): for those who actively manage staking, validate themselves or regularly optimise reallocation.
• Movable income (roerende inkomsten) (30%): for those who participate passively in staking via a platform and simply receive yield.

For most Bitvavo users (passive, via the "Stake" button in the app) the second regime applies. The value of the reward at the moment of receipt counts as taxable income and as cost basis for later capital gains calculation. More detail in our staking guide.

The "prudent person / normal management (normaal beheer)" test

Anyone who trades very actively on Bitvavo (day trading, large volumes, leverage) may fall under the speculative regime, where capital gains are taxed as miscellaneous income (diverse inkomsten) at 33% instead of the 10% capital gains tax. Since April 2026, the Ruling Commission (Dienst Voorafgaande Beslissingen) has applied a stricter threshold: more than 25% of your financial assets in crypto, combined with frequent trading, can already be enough to lose the "prudent person / normal management (normaal beheer)" classification. If you are unsure about your profile, read this guide to the prudent person test or apply for a ruling.

🏦 CAP reporting of your Bitvavo account

Besides the tax on your transactions, there is a separate obligation that is unrelated to what you earned: the Bitvavo account itself must be reported once to the Central Point of Contact (CAP) of the National Bank of Belgium, because Bitvavo B.V. is a Dutch and therefore foreign platform.

The capital gains tax law of April 2026 makes this obligation explicit for crypto accounts, so the older grey area (and the conflicting advice that some sources still publish) is definitively over. For the full step-by-step instructions, details and penalties, read our Bitvavo CAP declaration guide.

In short:

• One-time, not annual.
• Portal: cappcc.nbb.be, log in with eID or itsme.
• Entity: Bitvavo B.V., Keizersgracht 281, 1016 ED Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Deadline: 30 June (together with the personal income tax return).
• Penalty for failure to report: EUR 50 to EUR 1,250 per account, plus an extension of the investigation period to 7 years.

📑 Bitvavo in Vak XIII of your tax return

In your annual personal income tax return you must confirm in Vak XIII, section A that you hold a foreign account and that you have reported it to the CAP. You only fill in the country (Netherlands), no balance or amounts.

Do you also have actual crypto gains and staking income to declare? Those go in other sections, depending on the category (capital gain, miscellaneous income, movable income). Our Tax-on-Web mapping guide shows, per type, which sections and codes you need.

📤 Importing your transactions into Cryptotax

Bitvavo does not offer an API connection for third-party tax tools, but the CSV export contains everything needed: trades, conversions, deposits, withdrawals and staking rewards in a single file.

Step 1: export your transaction history from Bitvavo

1. Log in at bitvavo.com.
2. Click your name in the top right and go to Account.
3. Select Transaction history.
4. Click Export.
5. Choose full history (or the desired date range).
6. Select CSV as the format and download the file.

The Bitvavo CSV is a single file with all event types together. So you do not need separate exports for trades and staking, as with some other exchanges.

Step 2: upload the CSV file in Cryptotax

1. Log in at cryptotax.be.
2. Go to Data sources and click Add source.
3. Select Bitvavo from the list.
4. Drag the CSV file into the upload zone, or click to browse.
5. Click Import.

Cryptotax recognises the standard Bitvavo CSV format and converts each row to the correct event type (purchase, sale, conversion, staking reward, transfer). After a few seconds you see an overview of the number of imported transactions.

Step 3: check the imported data

Go through the overview and pay particular attention to:

• Conversions: are they marked as a single event or as a sale-plus-purchase? Both are correct, as long as the values are right.
• Staking rewards: these automatically get the "income" label and use the market price at the moment of receipt.
• Withdrawals to your own wallet: if you also add that wallet to Cryptotax (Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum), the transfer is recognised as an internal transfer and not counted as a sale.

Transactions with a data warning (for example an unknown token price or an unrecognised counterparty) get a flag. Those flags are points of attention, not errors: you can confirm or correct them manually.

⚠️ The four mistakes we see most often

1. Not declaring conversions. Many Bitvavo users see a swap within the platform as "I didn't earn anything, I just rebalanced my portfolio". Fiscally that is wrong: every conversion is a taxable event.
2. Forgetting staking rewards. Bitvavo Stake adds rewards to your balance automatically. Anyone who does not export the transaction history misses this income in their tax return.
3. Labelling a transfer to your own wallet as a sale. When you send crypto from Bitvavo to your Ledger, that is not a sale. But without adding the hardware wallet to Cryptotax, the system cannot match that automatically.
4. Skipping the CAP report. "But Bitvavo is in Dutch" is not an exemption. Bitvavo B.V. is a Dutch company, and the CAP reporting obligation applies in full.

❓ FAQ: frequently asked questions

Do I have to pay tax if I only bought crypto and sold nothing?
No. Merely holding crypto does not trigger tax. A taxable event only arises on a sale, conversion or staking reward. You do, however, have to declare the Bitvavo account itself via the CAP, even if you do not trade anything.

What if I have had my Bitvavo account for years but never declared it?
Report it to the CAP as soon as possible. With voluntary regularisation the penalties are usually milder. For anyone who also has undeclared income from the past (for example staking rewards from 2023 or 2024), a tax regularisation via EBA-Quinquies is the right route.

Do small amounts count too?
Yes, in principle. But thanks to the EUR 10,000 annual exemption for capital gains, anyone who trades incidentally will often stay below the threshold. The reporting obligation for the Bitvavo account itself (CAP) exists regardless of the amount.

What if I made a loss in 2026?
Losses can be offset within the same tax year against gains on other financial assets. A net loss does not give a tax benefit and cannot be carried forward to 2027 or later. Read our guide to crypto losses for the details.

I use Bitvavo and a DeFi wallet. How do I consolidate everything?
Add both sources in Cryptotax: Bitvavo via CSV and your wallet via the EVM address (Ethereum, Base or Arbitrum). Cryptotax automatically recognises the transfer from Bitvavo to your wallet as a single whole, so the cost basis is carried over correctly and you do not get a double sale in your tax return.

Does the reporting obligation also apply to self-managed wallets (Ledger, MetaMask)?
No. The CAP reporting obligation only applies to accounts at foreign institutions. A hardware wallet or self-custody software wallet without an intermediary falls outside the scope. Read the hardware wallet guide for how to document this correctly for tax purposes.

And what if I also use Binance, Kraken or Coinbase?
Every foreign exchange follows the same logic: capital gains tax on trades and conversions, CAP reporting of the account, Vak XIII in your tax return. We have separate guides for Binance, Kraken and Coinbase, and an overview checklist for all foreign exchanges.

🔮 What changes with DAC8?

From 1 January 2026, Bitvavo collects data about its Belgian customers under DAC8, the European directive for the automatic exchange of crypto information. From September 2027, the platform reports that data annually to the Belgian tax authorities.

Concretely this means: from 2027, the FPS Finance knows what you have traded on Bitvavo, regardless of whether you declared it yourself. Anyone who gets their tax return in order today avoids a targeted audit for a mismatch tomorrow. Read our DAC8 update for Belgium for the full timeline.

🧾 Summary

✅ Try Cryptotax

Cryptotax automates the entire calculation: you upload your Bitvavo CSV (and optionally your wallet addresses or CSVs from other exchanges), and the system calculates capital gains, staking income and the corresponding tax amounts under Belgian law. The report is directly usable for your Tax-on-Web return.

Try Cryptotax for free and take the first step towards a worry-free tax return. For those who also use other platforms: see our Coinbase guide, or the separate CAP guides for Binance and Kraken.

Sources:

• Law of 6 April 2026 introducing a tax on capital gains on financial assets
• CAP portal of the National Bank of Belgium
• FPS Finance, foreign accounts
• News.belgium.be: introduction of the capital gains tax on financial assets

⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is purely informative and not individual tax advice. For specific cases it is best to consult a qualified Belgian tax advisor or request a ruling from the Ruling Commission (Dienst Voorafgaande Beslissingen).