How does stETH work for your Belgian tax return?

Staked Ether (stETH) is one of the most popular ways to earn staking yield on your Ethereum. But how do you treat stETH in your Belgian tax return? In this article we explain what stETH is, how rebasing tokens work and which tax options your accountant usually applies.

What is stETH?

stETH is a token issued by Lido, a protocol that makes Ethereum staking accessible without you having to lock up 32 ETH yourself or run a validator.

• You deposit ETH with Lido
• You receive stETH in return as proof of your stake
• Your stETH grows over time along with the staking rewards

In other words: your stETH balance slowly rises through the rewards that the DeFi protocol pays out.

stETH is not the only liquid staking token. Swell, for example, issues swETH, which works slightly differently for tax purposes: instead of rebasing, swETH rises in value against ETH. Cryptotax recognizes both models automatically.

What are rebasing tokens?

ℹ️ What is a rebasing token?

A rebasing token is a token that automatically increases your balance or decreases it, instead of you receiving separate “reward tokens”.

Practical example:

• You buy 1 stETH on 1 January
• Through the staking proceeds this grows to 1.2 stETH on 31 December
• When you sell 1.2 stETH, you realize a higher value than your initial deposit

So it is not the case that you receive separate reward tokens: your existing balance changes directly.

How do you tax stETH in Belgium?

There is (as yet) no specific Belgian legislation on rebasing tokens like stETH. Accountants and tax specialists therefore apply general principles. There are three ways to calculate the tax:

1. Purely as a capital gain (most commonly used)
   You look only at the difference between purchase and sale.
   → Example: 1 ETH deposit → sell 1.2 stETH → capital gain = difference in euros.
   → Typically treated as normal management of private assets (often tax-free).
2. Capital gain with a distinction between deposit and proceeds
   The “extra” part (0.2 stETH) can be seen as a kind of income (withholding tax on movable income).
   The initial part is repaid as capital.
3. Taxing each rebase as income
   Every time your balance rises, this would be booked separately as income.
   In practice this is almost unworkable for an accountant because of the many small increases.

What do accountants usually do?

In practice, Belgian accountants generally treat stETH as a capital gain:

• Only on sale or conversion do you calculate the profit or loss.
• This aligns with how other investments (such as shares or ETFs) are viewed.

How does Cryptotax do this?

We follow the same approach:

• By default we treat stETH as a capital gain.
• Optionally you can indicate that you prefer to treat your rebases as income.
• At the moment of sale we then calculate the correct capital gain or income component.

This way you keep flexibility, while your report stays clear and usable for your return.

Conclusion

stETH and other rebasing tokens like aETH make life easier for the investor, but create complexity in the tax return. In Belgium, accountants usually opt for a simple capital gains approach. Through Cryptotax you automatically get the right treatment, with room for nuance if you want it.

Do you then put your stETH to work via EigenLayer to restake? Cryptotax also includes those extra restaking rewards in your overview.