# German ETN Loss Balances Require a Request and Transfer of Old-Broker Securities By Riza Dagoc Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/47431 Published: 2026-11-03T06:55:26.000Z Updated: 2026-11-03T06:55:26.000Z Section: Regulation > Customers must transfer every security held at the former institution to move a loss balance. The Dec. 15, 2026, deadline applies to loss certificates. German investors moving crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) between domestic paying agents must treat three account records separately: acquisition data, loss balances and exemption instructions. The distinction matters when assets move or are sold because the records serve different roles in Germany’s withholding system. A loss balance does not follow the securities automatically; the customer must request its transfer and move every security held at the former institution. When securities move between domestic paying agents, the institution sending them must pass the acquisition data to the receiving institution. If those records cannot be established when an asset is sold or redeemed, withholding is calculated using 30% of the proceeds as its base. That calculation may produce a different taxable amount from the investor’s documented gain. Acquisition data handling is separate from loss transfers and from the receiving institution’s exemption instruction. Banks offset capital losses against positive capital income. Any amount left after that offset carries forward into the next year unless the customer requests a certificate. Moving the balance to another institution requires a separate request and the transfer of all securities held by the former institution. The transfer request has its own rule; no matching Dec. 15 deadline is specified for it. A valid Freistellungsauftrag, or exemption instruction, must be on file with the receiving institution for it to apply Germany’s saver’s allowance before withholding. These procedures govern withholding at German institutions, but they do not settle the tax classification of every crypto ETN. An individual note’s tax treatment may depend on its contract terms, as explained in [coverage of German ETN contract terms](). A loss certificate is a separate route for unused losses held at an institution. The request must arrive by Dec. 15 and cannot be withdrawn. A late request cannot produce a certificate or make the loss eligible for consideration in an income-tax assessment. A certified loss is removed from the bank’s carryforward balance. If a customer relationship ends, the institution closes any remaining loss balance and issues a certificate at year-end unless the customer asked to have the balance reported to the new institution. For 2026, the request deadline is Dec. 15. ## Links in this article - [coverage of German ETN contract terms](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/37869)