How P2P Interest Is Taxed in Germany: Anlage KAP, Allowances and Losses

Interest from a crowdlending platform is taxable income, and when the platform is based outside Germany, nobody withholds the tax for you. That is the whole story in one sentence, and it is less alarming than it sounds: one annex to the tax return, a handful of numbers, and one recent law change that works in investors' favour. This article walks a German tax resident through it.

One thing before the details: this is general information, not tax advice. Tax rules change, individual situations differ, and the figures below describe the position for the 2025 tax year, declared in 2026. For decisions about your own return, speak to a Steuerberater or your local tax office.

The rate: Abgeltungsteuer, like any other capital income

Interest from P2P lending is Einkünfte aus Kapitalvermögen, capital income, and it is taxed at the flat Abgeltungsteuer rate of 25%, plus the Solidaritätszuschlag of 5.5% of the tax, which brings the effective rate to 26.375%. If you pay church tax, the combined rate lands at roughly 28%, depending on your federal state.

Before any tax applies, every saver has the Sparer-Pauschbetrag: €1,000 of capital income per year tax-free, €2,000 for jointly assessed couples. That allowance covers all your capital income together, bank interest, dividends and P2P interest combined, not €1,000 per source.

Why the foreign platform changes the mechanics, not the amount

A German bank withholds Kapitalertragsteuer at source: the tax is taken before the interest reaches you, and for many savers that is the end of the matter. A platform outside Germany is not part of the German withholding system. Your interest arrives gross, untaxed, and the obligation to declare it is yours.

This also means a Freistellungsauftrag does not work here. That exemption order can only be lodged with German withholding agents such as banks and brokers; a foreign platform cannot accept one. You do not lose the allowance, it is simply applied later: when you declare the income in your return, the tax office deducts the Sparer-Pauschbetrag, or whatever portion of it your German banks have not already used, in the assessment.

Where it goes: Anlage KAP

Foreign capital income without German withholding is declared in Anlage KAP of the income tax return, in the line for foreign capital income on which no German tax was withheld (line 19 in recent forms). What you report is the gross interest credited to you during the calendar year. Your platform account statement for the year is the document to work from, and the one to keep in case the tax office asks.

Worth knowing: if your personal income tax rate is below 25%, you can request the Günstigerprüfung in Anlage KAP. The tax office then compares the flat rate against your personal progressive rate and applies whichever is lower. The check can only work in your favour, so for low-income years, students, retirees, part-time workers, it is worth ticking.

Defaults and losses: the rule recently changed in your favour

Crowdlending involves credit risk, and a defaulted loan is also a tax event. Losses from capital claims that become worthless can be offset against capital income. For several years this was subject to an annual cap of €20,000, which made larger defaults painful twice over. That cap was repealed by the Jahressteuergesetz 2024, and the repeal applies retroactively to all cases still open, so for the 2025 tax year defaults can be offset against your other capital income without that limit.

The general ring-fence still stands: losses from capital income can only be offset against capital income, not against your salary, and unused losses carry forward to future years. Also note that a loan being late is not yet a loss for tax purposes; the claim has to be finally lost, and the documentation of when and how matters. For anything beyond a clear-cut case, this is exactly the territory where a Steuerberater earns their fee.

The Swiss angle

CrowdHive is operated from Switzerland, which raises the natural question of Swiss withholding tax. Switzerland's 35% Verrechnungssteuer applies to specific categories such as interest on bonds of Swiss issuers and Swiss bank deposits; ordinary loan claims are not one of those categories, so plain crowdlending interest typically arrives without Swiss withholding. The classification depends on how a structure is set up, so the platform's own tax documentation is the authoritative place to check, and under the Germany-Switzerland double taxation framework interest is in any case generally taxable where you are resident, in Germany.

Deadlines and the practical checklist

The return for the 2025 tax year is due 31 July 2026 if you file yourself, or end of February 2027 if a Steuerberater or Lohnsteuerhilfeverein files for you.

The whole exercise, condensed:

• During the year: nothing. No quarterly filings, no registrations. The interest simply accrues gross in your account.
• After year-end: download the annual statement from the platform showing interest received in the calendar year.
• In the return: enter the gross foreign interest in Anlage KAP; consider the Günstigerprüfung if your personal rate is low; declare any finally lost claims as capital losses.
• Keep: the statements. Germany participates in the international automatic exchange of financial account information, so assuming the tax office cannot see foreign accounts is a poor strategy as well as an unnecessary one, since declaring is straightforward.

One final framing note: tax does not change what the investment is. The risk discipline described in Your First 30 Days on CrowdHive and the cost picture in Fees, Bonuses and Referrals matter before tax and after it. The return you should plan around is the one after losses, idle time and, now you know how to compute it, after roughly 26.4% on the interest that actually arrives.

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CrowdHive is a crowdlending platform operated by BellaVista Invest One AG (UID CHE-373.552.596), Zug, Switzerland, affiliated with the SRO VQF and supervised under Article 24 AMLA in respect of its anti-money-laundering obligations. CrowdHive is not a bank, balances are not covered by esisuisse or any depositor protection scheme, and lending involves the risk of partial or total loss of capital. This article is general information about German tax rules as understood for the 2025 tax year; it is not tax advice, not legal advice and not a substitute for consulting a tax professional about your individual situation. Rules and figures may change.