Interactive Brokers Tax Germany 2026
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) does not issue a German annual tax statement. How do you use the Activity Statement and the Informative Tax Report for Anlage KAP (Germany) or the E1kv supplement (Austria)? And what is the deal with the W-8BEN? Step by step for the 2025 tax return (filing in 2026).
Why Interactive Brokers provides no tax statement
Interactive Brokers holds accounts for EU clients via the Irish IBKR entity — meaning it is neither a German nor an Austrian credit institution. The key consequence in one sentence: IBKR neither withholds Abgeltungsteuer/KESt nor issues an official annual tax statement under §45a EStG. Instead you receive:
- The Activity Statement — the full account statement of all trades, dividends, interest and fees (PDF/CSV/HTML)
- The Informative Tax Report (since October 2020) — a supplementary document that pre-sorts the figures for German Anlage KAP, but is not an official §45a document
- Dividend summaries including withheld US withholding tax
How to obtain your tax data at Interactive Brokers
Tax data is most complete in the Client Portal in a browser, not in the Trader app.
Select the full calendar year 2025 as the period and export the Activity Statement as PDF and CSV. This is your evidentiary basis (audit trail).
Under Reports/Tax Documents → Taxes select the Germany jurisdiction. The Informative Tax Report is typically final from around March/May of the following year and pre-sorts the figures for Anlage KAP.
No automatic tax deduction takes place: you transfer all capital income yourself. Convert all USD amounts to euros (using the daily ECB reference rate). Keep records for 10 years.
🇩🇪 Germany: declare everything yourself via Anlage KAP & KAP-INV
Since IBKR withholds no tax, you declare all capital income in your tax return — and manage loss offsetting yourself. Key points:
- Foreign capital income without tax deduction (dividends, interest, share gains) goes into Anlage KAP
- Fund/ETF income including self-calculated Vorabpauschale into Anlage KAP-INV
- Loss-offset pools (equities pool / other income pool) must be tracked yourself — IBKR does not recognise the German pools
- No Freistellungsauftrag (tax-free allowance order) possible at IBKR (only at domestic banks) — claim the Sparerpauschbetrag (€1,000) via Anlage KAP
What goes where? (Germany 2025)
| Income type | Form | Source in IBKR report |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign dividends & interest | Anlage KAP | Dividends / Interest |
| Share gains/losses | Anlage KAP | Realized Summary |
| ETF/fund income + Vorabpauschale | Anlage KAP-INV | calculate yourself |
| Creditable US withholding tax (15 %) | Anlage KAP | Withholding Tax |
| Sparerpauschbetrag (€1,000) | Anlage KAP | — (no Freistellungsauftrag) |
For active depots, the raw IBKR data often requires further processing: FIFO sequencing, currency conversion for each individual trade and the Vorabpauschale all need to be calculated precisely. Specialised tax tools or a tax adviser experienced with IBKR are invaluable here.
🇦🇹 Austria: self-declaration via FinanzOnline (E1kv)
IBKR is also not a reporting domestic broker in Austria — there is no automatic KESt deduction. You report all capital income yourself via FinanzOnline (supplement E1kv); the 27.5 % KESt is paid through the assessment process.
Key fields in E1kv 2025
| Field | Meaning | Tax rate |
|---|---|---|
| 863 | Foreign dividends & capital gains (securities) | 27.5 % |
| 872 | Foreign withholding tax (creditable, max. 15 %) | credited |
| 923 | Realised capital gains on shares | 27.5 % |
| 937 | Losses on securities | current year only |
| 947 | Deemed distributions from accumulating ETFs | 27.5 % |
Because IBKR does not withhold any tax, there is also no automatic loss offsetting. You must document acquisition costs, FIFO sequencing and currency conversions yourself. Anyone who fails to do so risks a tax surcharge plus interest in both countries — failing to declare a foreign depot constitutes tax evasion.
Tax report comparison: Interactive Brokers vs. competitors
| Broker | DE annual tax statement | AT tax-simple (auto KESt) | Self-declaration required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers | ❌ tax report only | ❌ | ✓ fully |
| Trade Republic | ✓ | ✓ (since 04/2025) | DE: barely / AT: no |
| Scalable Capital | ✓ | ✓ (since 2024) | usually no |
| Flatex | ✓ | ✓ | CFDs only |
| Bitpanda | ⚠️ self-declare | ✓ (since 2024) | DE only |
FAQ — Interactive Brokers taxes 2026
Does Interactive Brokers issue a tax statement?
No — no official §45a document. You receive the Activity Statement (full account statement) and since October 2020 an Informative Tax Report as an aid for Anlage KAP. You make the tax payment yourself via your tax return.
Do I really have to declare everything myself at IBKR?
Yes. No automatic tax deduction takes place — all dividends, interest, capital gains and ETF income must be included in your tax return (DE: Anlage KAP/KAP-INV, AT: E1kv). Failure to declare constitutes tax evasion.
What is the Informative Tax Report?
A supplementary document provided by IBKR (and introducing brokers such as LYNX, CapTrader, BANX) since 2020 that pre-sorts income for German Anlage KAP. It is typically final from around March/May of the following year — your own return remains the binding declaration.
How do I reduce US withholding tax?
With the W-8BEN form (to be re-confirmed in the Client Portal every 3 years), US withholding tax on dividends drops from 30 % to 15 % under the double taxation treaty. You then credit these 15 % in Anlage KAP or via the E1kv.
Is an introducing broker like LYNX or CapTrader worth it?
They use the same IBKR infrastructure but often provide German-language support and sometimes pre-formatted German tax reporting. However, tax deduction remains your responsibility there too — it is and remains a foreign depot.
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