DAC8 and CARF Explained: What Crypto Providers Report About You

Short answer: DAC8 and CARF are reporting obligations for crypto providers, not for you. Since Jan 1, 2026, exchanges and apps in the EU have been recording who you are and what you buy, sell and transfer to your own wallets. The first report for 2026 goes to the tax office by Jul 31, 2027. Switzerland joins in 2027 at the earliest (as of Nov 13, 2026).

You buy bitcoin through a savings plan, move it to your hardware wallet and now wonder what the tax office learns about it. Since 2026 the answer is: quite a lot, but not everything. Here is what data DAC8 and CARF capture, what is explicitly not included and what it means for you in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

DAC8 and CARF in one sentence

CARF (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework) is an OECD standard: crypto providers collect their customers' tax data, and countries exchange it with each other. DAC8 is Directive (EU) 2023/2226, with which the EU makes this standard binding for all 27 member states, with a few additions.

For you as a customer, both come down to the same thing. You know the principle from foreign bank accounts: since 2017, banks have reported foreigners' accounts to their home countries. CARF and DAC8 extend this to bitcoin.

Who reports: exchanges, brokers, apps

The reporting obligation applies to crypto-asset service providers: exchanges, brokers, savings plan apps, custodians and bitcoin ATM operators, that is, everyone who buys, sells, swaps or transfers bitcoin for you. In the EU, these are the same firms that need a license under MiCA. What else MiCA regulates is explained in MiCA and bitcoin.

Providers outside the EU are not off the hook. If they serve customers in the EU without a MiCA license, they have to register in an EU state and report there. In Germany the responsible authority is the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern, BZSt), which opened registration in May 2026.

You yourself are not obliged to report. And everything that happens without a provider is not covered: your own wallet, a private purchase from person to person, bitcoin you mine yourself.

What data DAC8 reports

Once a year, the provider reports two kinds of data per customer.

Who you are:

• name, address, date of birth
• every country in which you are tax resident
• your tax identification number for each of these countries

What you did, separately for each crypto asset (bitcoin is one) and each as an annual total with amount, quantity and number of transactions:

What is not included: your wallet addresses, individual transactions, your balance at year-end, your purchase price from earlier years and your gain.

Example: what the report for 2026 shows

Numbers make it tangible. Suppose you live in Germany and save with a German app.

On Nov 13, 2026, the price stood at about 0.63 times the Power Law trend, just above the floor in the Accumulation zone. How these zones are calculated is in the methodology. How many sats your own savings plan can bring over the years, you can work out here:

What you have to do: the self-certification

Your only obligation of your own is the self-certification: you confirm to the provider in which country you are tax resident and give your tax identification number. In Germany this is the eleven-digit Steuer-ID from your tax assessment, not the Steuernummer (tax number) of your tax office.

• New customers have to submit the self-certification before they can trade.
• Existing customers who were customers before 2026 had until Jan 1, 2027. Many apps are asking for it right now.

If you ignore the request, things get awkward. Under German law, the provider has to remind you and then send a formal reminder. If an existing customer still doesn't deliver, the provider blocks purchases, sales and transfers no earlier than 60 and no later than 90 days after the first request. As soon as the data is there, things continue.

Watch where the request comes from. Scammers send fake "DAC8 emails" that lead to copied login pages. Only enter your tax ID and ID document in the app or on the website you open yourself, never via a link in an email. The usual scams are shown in Spotting bitcoin scams.

Timeline: what happens when

According to the list of the Irish tax authority (as of Jun 10, 2026), 48 countries and territories exchange data for 2026 from 2027, including all EU states, the UK, Liechtenstein, Norway and Japan. 26 more, including Switzerland, are planned for 2028. The US reports through its own system and belongs to neither of these two waves.

DAC8 in Germany and Austria

Germany implements DAC8 with the Kryptowerte-Steuertransparenzgesetz. Providers report annually by July 31 to the BZSt, which passes the data on to your tax office, and to other countries if you live there. Before a provider reports you for the first time, it has to inform you.

What the tax office does with the figures depends on the tax rules. Sales after a holding period of more than one year are tax-free, but the report doesn't show when you bought. If the tax office can't match a sale, it asks. Then you need your purchase records. How the holding period, exemption limit and FIFO work is explained in the guide Bitcoin taxes in Germany.

Austria implements DAC8 with the Krypto-Meldepflichtgesetz. Providers report to the BMF (Ministry of Finance) for the first time by Jul 31, 2027 for 2026. Because Austria taxes price gains at 27.5% and domestic exchanges often already deduct the tax, the report matters mainly for accounts with foreign providers. Details are in Bitcoin taxes in Austria.

CARF in Switzerland

Switzerland is not an EU member and does not implement DAC8, but CARF. Parliament approved the legal basis on Sep 26, 2025. According to the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF), however, it applies from Jan 1, 2027 at the earliest. With which partner countries Switzerland exchanges data, parliament still has to decide (as of Nov 13, 2026).

So for 2026: Swiss providers collect no CARF data, and Switzerland receives none from abroad either. From the start, it works in both directions:

• A Swiss app reports customers resident in Germany or Austria to their home country.
• An exchange in the EU reports customers resident in Switzerland to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) as soon as the exchange with Switzerland is active.

For you in Switzerland this changes little. Bitcoin already belong in your tax return as wealth, and private price gains remain tax-free. Where to enter them is shown in Bitcoin in the Swiss tax return. If you have not declared bitcoin so far, you can make up for it with a penalty-free voluntary disclosure, as long as the authority doesn't know about it yet. The basics are explained in Bitcoin taxes in Switzerland.

What DAC8 means for your own wallet

DAC8 does not ban self-custody and does not report holdings in your wallet. Withdrawing remains allowed, with no limit. The provider only reports the total you sent out.

Two things follow from this:

1. The trail doesn't end at the wallet, but at the exchange. If you later sell again through a reporting provider, the sale appears in the report. Then you have to prove when and at what price you bought.
2. No provider, no report, but still tax. A private sale from person to person, as described in Buying bitcoin without KYC, is not reported, but just as taxable if, in Germany, it falls within one year of purchase, or in Austria for newer holdings.

So your coins in self-custody are no more secret than before, just better documented. How to set up the wallet safely is shown in Setting up your first wallet. Why more data at more places is also a security issue is in Discretion and physical security.

In practice: how to prepare

1. Submit your self-certification. Check with every provider that your residence and tax ID are correct. If you move, update them.
2. Save annual reports. Download each provider's transaction report for every year, including for accounts you no longer use.
3. Document old purchases. The report starts with 2026. For bitcoin you bought earlier, your own records are the only proof of purchase date and price.
4. Document your own wallets. Note which withdrawals went to which of your wallets. That way you can show a withdrawal was not a sale.
5. Clean up past mistakes. If you have not declared sales in Germany or Austria, talk to a tax adviser before the first report reaches the tax office in 2027.

If you declare your taxes properly, you don't have to change anything about how you act. DAC8 and CARF create no new tax. They only ensure that the tax office no longer depends solely on what you tell it.