For many Belgian users, Kraken Earn is the easiest way to earn passive yield on crypto: your assets are automatically staked or lent out and you regularly see rewards coming in…
For many Belgian users, Kraken Earn is the easiest way to earn passive yield on crypto: your assets are automatically staked or lent out and you regularly see rewards coming in. But that is exactly where the confusion arises. What do you now have to declare, and when? In this guide we explain how Kraken Earn works for tax purposes in Belgium, which moments are taxable, and how Cryptotax processes your Earn rewards automatically and correctly.
🔍 What is Kraken Earn?
Kraken Earn is the umbrella name for the yield products on the platform. You let Kraken stake or lend out your crypto, and in return you periodically receive rewards, paid out in the same coin (in kind).
There are roughly two variants:
- Opt-in staking: you deliberately choose to place a certain coin (for example ETH, DOT or ADA) in Earn.
- Bonded versus flexible: bonded positions are locked for a certain period (with an unbonding term), flexible positions you can release again at any time.
Important to understand: when you move assets in or out of Earn, Kraken shifts them internally between your spot wallet and your earn wallet. That is a movement between your own wallets, not a sale.
⚖️ How is Kraken Earn taxed in Belgium?
Since the capital gains tax was approved by the Chamber on 3 April 2026 and published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 21 April 2026, you as a Belgian Earn user look at two separate tax layers. This is the same logic we describe in detail in our guide on staking and taxes.
| Moment | Tax treatment | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving Earn rewards | Movable income (roerende inkomsten) | 30% (self-declared) |
| Selling the underlying or reward token | Capital gain (from 1 Jan 2026) | 10% above €10,000 exemption per year |
| Moving assets in or out of Earn | No taxable event | Not applicable |
| Professional or intensive activity | Professional income | 25 to 50% + social contributions |
There is no automatic withholding on crypto in Belgium. So you always have to declare your Earn rewards yourself in your personal income tax, even if Kraken withholds nothing. The value you declare is the market value in euros at the moment you receive the reward.
🔁 The allocation misconception
The biggest mistake we see with Earn users: mistaking an allocation for a sale. When you move 2 ETH to Earn, an internal movement between your spot and earn wallet appears in your Kraken export. That movement has no sale price and is fully tax-neutral: you remain the owner of the same coins.
Anyone who manually books such movements as a sale creates phantom capital gains that are not there. Conversely, some people see their Earn balance both in the overview and in the spot balance and count their holdings twice.
Cryptotax recognizes these allocations as internal movements between your own wallets. They are not counted as a taxable sale, but they are kept as an acquisition record, so the cost basis travels correctly to your earn wallet for when you actually sell later.
🤖 How Cryptotax processes your Kraken Earn
Connect your Kraken account to Cryptotax and the engine does the following automatically:
- Rewards as taxable income: every Earn payout is recognized and labeled as "Kraken Earn" and booked as movable income (roerende inkomsten) on the date of receipt.
- EUR conversion at the right moment: the reward is converted to euros based on the market value on the payout date, not the value of today.
- Allocations as internal movement: movements between your spot and earn wallet are not counted as a sale, but do carry your cost basis along.
- Capital gain on sale: when you later sell the underlying or reward tokens, the engine calculates the capital gain based on your actual cost basis.
- Audit trail: every reward and movement remains traceable to the original Kraken ledger line.
⚠️ Common mistakes
- Booking allocations as a sale: a movement to Earn is not a disposal. Let the tool make the distinction.
- Not declaring rewards: because there is no withholding, some people think rewards are untaxed. They are movable income (roerende inkomsten) at 30%.
- Double-counting bonded and spot: your Earn balance is not extra holdings on top of your spot balance. Reconcile based on the ledger, not on individual screenshots.
- Wrong EUR value: convert rewards on the date of receipt, not on the value on 31 December.
📋 Earn versus the CAP report
Do not forget that declaring your Earn income is separate from the reporting obligation at the Central Point of Contact (CAP). You also have to report your Kraken account itself annually via the CAP. How that works, you can read in our complete CAP guide for Kraken.
✅ In summary
Kraken Earn has three moments, two of which are tax-relevant:
- You move assets to Earn: nothing to declare.
- You receive rewards: movable income (roerende inkomsten) at 30%, self-declared on the value at receipt.
- You sell later: capital gain at 10% above the annual exemption of €10,000 (from 2026). More on this in our explanation of the capital gains tax.
Don't want to figure this out manually? Connect your Kraken account and let Cryptotax calculate your Earn rewards and capital gains automatically.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is an indicative aid and not tax advice. For your specific situation it is best to consult a recognized Belgian tax advisor, especially with larger amounts or a possible professional qualification.
