More than 10 crypto tax specialists
tax advisors (Steuerberater), a lawyer (Rechtsanwalt), blockchain analysts and business economists in one team
Crypto wealth deserves a desk of its own
The Private Desk is the area of our firm dedicated to selected clients whose digital wealth demands more than an annual tax return. We support wealth reaching into the billions, from the initial structure through to the cash-out, and we are there wherever you need us.
Who stands behind the Desk
What holds true in every engagement in this area
Big Four experience
practical experience at international advisory firms
DeFi, NFTs, blockchain analysis
part of our day-to-day client work for years
Wealth reaching into the billions
supported from the structure through to the cash-out into traditional assets
Tax criminal law as Of Counsel
a lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) for crypto crime, voluntary disclosures and blockchain forensics in-house
Crypto tax experience since 2014
a three-digit number of crypto cases handled every year
Who the Desk is intended for
Three groups, one shared characteristic: the tax side of their crypto wealth is too complex for standard processes.
Private individuals
Founders, early-stage participants, traders and investors whose crypto wealth has reached a size at which every decision needs to be prepared from a tax perspective. Often with several residences and banks.
Family offices and holding companies
Companies that hold crypto assets and must prepare their accounts under the German Commercial Code (HGB), including ongoing bookkeeping, valuation and documentation for the tax office (Finanzamt), the bank and the shareholders.
Exchanges and platforms
Trading venues with customers in Germany that wish to provide their private client segment with a reliable tax contact. Without providing tax advice themselves.
What the Private Desk takes care of on an ongoing basis
Not a checklist of services, but support that runs all year round and anticipates events rather than calculating after them.
Tandem support
- One tax advisor and one crypto analyst know your engagement in full. No hotline, no changing case handlers.
Quarterly portfolio review
- Holding periods, loss offsetting, staking and lending income are reviewed four times a year, not once in hindsight.
Structure, relocation, succession
- Holding structures, tax residence, exit tax (Wegzugsbesteuerung, Section 6 AStG) as well as gifts and inheritances of crypto assets, before decisions become irreversible.
Representation before the tax office and the tax investigation service (Steuerfahndung)
- From a query to tax criminal proceedings. This also includes reviewing and supporting a voluntary disclosure (Selbstanzeige).
DAC8 and reporting obligations
- We clarify in advance what exchanges will report about you from 2026 onwards and reconcile it with your tax returns before the tax office does.
Bookkeeping and financial accounting for crypto assets
- Monthly posting batches under SKR 03, internal vouchers, holdings documentation and annual financial statements under the HGB for companies.
When crypto assets become wealth
The moment a large portfolio is realised, cashed out or transferred into a structure has consequences for years. One point of contact coordinates everyone involved: bank and compliance, lawyers, notaries, asset managers and family office. You have one conversation, not seven.
1
Preliminary tax review and timetable
Holding periods, loss pools, tax residence and advance payments are calculated in full before the first sale is triggered. Where required, we secure the outcome by means of a binding ruling (verbindliche Auskunft).
2
Proof of source of funds for banks
Complete documentation of the source of funds from the first transaction to the present day, in the form that bank compliance and anti-money laundering checks accept. We speak directly with the bank.
3
A structure for what comes next
Holding company, family company or foundation, questions of residence and passing wealth on to the next generation, coordinated with your lawyers and notaries.
4
Tax return and defence
The tax return is prepared so that it withstands a tax audit (Betriebsprüfung) or a request for information without rework. Should queries nevertheless arise, we conduct the proceedings.
Available when it matters. Not just during office hours.
Tax emergencies do not keep to business hours. An exchange freezes balances, the tax investigation service is at the door, a protocol is hacked. For these situations there is a dedicated line with a fixed response time, and when a conversation in person is needed, we board a plane.
60 minutes: emergency line
- Around the clock: a call back from a tax advisor within one hour, including at night, at weekends and on public holidays. Encrypted via Signal or Threema, or by telephone.
4 hours: response within your engagement
- On working days, your tandem responds within four hours. At weekends, you receive an initial assessment by the following day at the latest.
At any time: live status in the portal
- Live status: deadlines, open items, documents and the status of every tax return can be viewed without having to ask.
Encrypted: Signal and Threema
- Confidential documents and short-notice coordination run via encrypted channels, not via email or standard messaging services.
24 hours: assessment of market events
- In the event of hacks, delistings, forks, airdrops or the insolvency of an exchange, you receive a tax assessment of your specific situation within one day.
Worldwide: we come to you
- A meeting with your bank in Zurich, your family office in Dubai, an appointment in Bangkok or Brisbane, a search in Germany: a tax advisor will be with you in person within 24 hours within Europe and within 48 hours worldwide. We have not only promised this, we have done it.
What counts as an emergency
A search or summons, an account freeze or the insolvency of an exchange, a hack or loss of access credentials, a letter from the tax investigation service, deadlines of less than 48 hours.
A tax partner for your private client programme
Your most demanding customers expect answers to tax questions that you, as a trading venue, are not permitted to give. The Private Desk closes this gap: a specialist firm in Germany that relieves your team and is available to your customers.
Tax services as part of your programme
- You purchase fixed allocations and offer them to your private client customers: initial tax consultations, an annual crypto tax report, consultation hours or the DAC8 reconciliation. Invoiced to you, advice for your customer.
Support for your VIP services
- For your VIP or private client programme, we provide a personal tax contact with priority access: exclusive consultation hours, in-person meetings with your most important customers and a fast assessment of large transactions. Advice is always given under your customer’s own engagement.
Incident desk for market events
- In the event of hacks, delistings, forks, airdrops or insolvencies in the market, we provide a tax assessment within 24 hours that you can pass on to your customers.
DAC8 from your customers’ perspective
- We help you explain what your reports mean for German customers, and we pick up the cases in which the report and previous tax returns do not match.
Enablement for your support team
- A dedicated contact for tax questions that reach your customer service, plus training so that your team knows where the boundary to tax advice lies.
Content for your customers
- Joint webinars, tax guides for the German market and consultation hours for your private client segment, in your name or under a joint presence.
Crypto tax at your events
- Talks, panels and Q&A sessions on crypto tax at your customer events, roadshows and community meetups, on site or online, in German or English. We translate current topics such as the holding period, DAC8 or staking into clear answers for your customers.
Cross-border cases
- We support customers with a change of residence, several tax residences or foreign structures with in-house expertise in international tax law.
Two ways of working together
You engage us directly and make our services available to your customers as part of your programme. Or your customers engage us themselves, with prioritised access via you. Both can be combined. Regardless of who engages us: advice is provided exclusively in your customer’s interest, and their data remains subject to our duty of confidentiality. We are happy to hold discussions with you under a non-disclosure agreement.
How to join the Private Desk
The Desk is reserved for selected clients. Each tax advisor here handles only as many engagements as are compatible with the committed response times and personal support. Whether the Desk is right for you depends less on the size of your wealth than on its complexity: several exchanges and wallets, structures in Germany and abroad, an upcoming realisation or open prior years. New engagements usually come through referrals.
1
Enquiry
Briefly describe what it is about: assets, exchanges, structure, open issues. One sentence is enough to begin with.
2
Confidential introductory meeting
One hour with a tax advisor, in Düsseldorf, at your location or by video. We establish together whether the Desk is the right fit and, on request, sign a confidentiality agreement beforehand.
3
Fee agreement
A monthly flat fee, agreed in writing in accordance with Section 4 of the German Tax Advisors’ Fee Regulation (StBVV). No surprises when it comes to invoicing.
4
Onboarding and data transfer
Your tandem takes over exchange exports, wallets and prior years, sets up the portal and schedules the first portfolio review.
Private Desk
One conversation is enough to know whether it is the right fit.
Briefly describe what it is about. We will get back to you with a proposed date for a confidential introductory meeting — on request, under a confidentiality agreement signed beforehand.
Request access
Or contact us directly:
The fee for the Private Desk is agreed individually in accordance with Section 4 of the German Tax Advisors’ Fee Regulation (StBVV). The response and travel times stated apply to the emergencies described within existing client engagements. The competent chamber and supervisory authority is the Steuerberaterkammer Düsseldorf (Chamber of Tax Advisors); the Tax Advisory Act (StBerG), the DVStB, the BOStB and the StBVV apply.