DAC8: what the taxman will know about your crypto

Daniel Platteau

In short: since 1 January 2026, crypto platforms serving European clients have been recording for the tax authorities who you are and what you do: purchases, sales, crypto-to-crypto swaps, transfers to a personal wallet. This is the European DAC8 directive, transposed in Belgium by the law of 16 March 2026. Platforms report 2026 transactions by 30 June 2027 at the latest; EU tax authorities then exchange them, by September 2027 at the latest. Beyond the Union, the OECD's CARF extends these exchanges to dozens of countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan from 2027, and Switzerland and the Emirates in 2028. On 27 October 2026, the French Senate approved the agreement that allows France to take part. For a Belgian holder, the conclusion is simple: your transactions on a regulated platform will be known to the FPS Finance. Your tax return had better be consistent with them.

Updated on 30 October 2026. This article is not tax advice.

DAC8 in two minutes

Bank accounts and securities accounts have been subject to automatic exchange of information between tax authorities for years: your Luxembourg or Dutch bank informs its tax authority, which informs the Belgian FPS Finance. Crypto largely escaped this system, because platforms were not "financial institutions" under the existing rules.

Directive (EU) 2023/2226, known as DAC8, closes that gap. It takes over the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) developed by the OECD and applies it in all 27 member states (Jubel, 2026).

In Belgium, it was transposed by the law of 16 March 2026, published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 1 April 2026 and in force since 11 April (Crypto Belgique, 2026; Jubel, 2026). The same law also implements the CARF for exchanges with countries outside the Union (Bloomberg Tax, 2026). The first reporting period is calendar year 2026: data collected since 1 January 2026 is covered, even though the law was passed later.

The timeline

Sources: Belgian Chamber of Representatives (2026); Revenue (2026).

What data is transmitted?

The CARF framework, taken over by DAC8, and the Chamber's report on the Belgian bill describe what platforms report (Belgian Chamber of Representatives, 2026):

• Your identity: name, address, country of tax residence and tax identification number; for a company, its beneficial owners.
• Your transactions, crypto by crypto: exchanges against euros or another currency, exchanges of one crypto for another, and transfers, including to an address outside the platform that belongs to you.
• The platform's own details, so that the tax authority knows where the information comes from.

Stablecoins are included, including e-money tokens such as EURC. Traditional electronic money and central bank digital currencies go through the existing exchange for financial accounts instead.

For Belgium, the interesting point is the crypto-to-crypto swap. Since 2026, it is taxable under the new capital gains tax. DAC8 gives the FPS Finance the means to see it.

Who reports, and to whom?

Each platform reports to the tax authority of the country where it is authorised or registered, which then forwards the data to the country where the client is resident (Belgian Chamber of Representatives, 2026). For a Belgian, most of the data will therefore arrive from abroad:

Examples taken from our article on authorised platforms; the reporting country follows the country of authorisation, which can change.

A platform outside the Union is also covered if it has a sufficient link with the Union (Belgian Chamber of Representatives, 2026). And since the end of the MiCA transitional period on 30 June 2026, a platform that wants to serve Europeans must in any case be authorised in an EU country: you can check this with our tool Check a crypto platform.

And outside the Union? The OECD's CARF

DAC8 stops at the Union's borders. The CARF takes over: each country that applies it imposes the same reporting on its platforms, then exchanges the data with the other signatories of the multilateral agreement (CARF MCAA), signed in Asunción on 26 November 2024.

According to the list published by the Irish tax administration (as of 10 June 2026), 48 jurisdictions will exchange data from 2027 on 2026 information, including the 27 member states, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. 26 others will follow in 2028, including Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. The United States is not on this list (Revenue, 2026).

That is where the French news fits in. On 27 October 2026, the Senate adopted at first reading the bill authorising France to approve the CARF multilateral agreement and an addendum to the agreement on financial accounts (French Senate, 2026). For France, this mainly concerns platforms based outside the Union, since DAC8 already covers the others.

For a Belgian, the point to remember is that a platform based in the Emirates or in Singapore will not remain a blind spot for long: exchanges with those countries are planned from 2028.

What DAC8 does not see

• Your personal wallet (Ledger, Electrum, Nova…). Nobody reports what it contains, since there is no provider. But transfers between a platform and that wallet are reported: the tax authority will know that crypto left it or arrived in it.
• Decentralised finance with no identifiable intermediary (direct swaps on Uniswap, for example) and peer-to-peer exchanges. Some services presented as "DeFi" do, however, have an operator that may itself be required to report.
• Years before 2026. DAC8 does not look back. The FPS Finance keeps its usual investigative powers, though, and the new tax only covers gains after 31 December 2025 anyway.
• Platforms that break the rules. They exist, but they are no longer allowed to serve Europeans and give you none of MiCA's protections.

What it changes for you

Nothing, if you were already reporting correctly. A lot, if you were counting on the tax authority not seeing your crypto. In practice:

1. Keep a record of your 2026 transactions, platform by platform: most offer an annual export. It is the same information that will be sent to the tax authority.
2. Keep proof of the value of your crypto on 31 December 2025 (screenshot, statement): it is the starting point for calculating the taxable gain.
3. Document your transfers to and from your personal wallet: a transfer between your own wallets is not a sale, but you must be able to show it.
4. Check consistency between your tax return and what the platforms will transmit. An inconsistency is not fraud, but it may prompt questions.
5. If in doubt, consult a tax adviser: the treatment of some transactions (staking, crypto lending) has not yet been settled.

True or false?

"DAC8 creates a new tax on crypto." False. DAC8 organises the transmission of information. In Belgium, the tax comes from the law of 6 April 2026 on capital gains.

"My crypto on a Spanish or Dutch platform is invisible to the Belgian tax authority." False. The platform reports in its own country, which forwards the data to the FPS Finance.

"With a personal wallet, the taxman knows nothing." Not quite. The wallet's contents are not reported, but transfers from and to a platform are.

"2026 data will only be used from 2028." False. Belgian platforms report by 30 June 2027, and the first European exchanges take place in 2027.

"The United States takes part in the CARF exchange." False for now: it is not among the jurisdictions committed for 2027 or 2028.

Test yourself

Disclaimer

This article is for information only and is neither tax advice nor legal advice. Rules and timelines change: check your situation with the FPS Finance or a tax adviser. Crypto-assets carry significant risks, including total loss.

Sources

Belgian Chamber of Representatives. (2026). Bill transposing the DAC8 directive: report (DOC 56 1249/003). https://www.lachambre.be/FLWB/PDF/56/1249/56K1249003.pdf

Bloomberg Tax. (2026, 18 March). Belgium Parliament approves bill to transpose DAC8, amend CRS, implement CARF. https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report-international/belgium-parliament-approves-bill-to-transpose-dac8-amend-crs-implement-carf

Crypto Belgique. (2026). Flash info : réforme fiscale et DAC 8. https://cryptobelgique.substack.com/p/flash-info-reforme-fiscale-and-dac

French Senate. (2026, 27 October). Projet de loi autorisant l'approbation de l'accord multilatéral entre autorités compétentes concernant l'échange automatique de renseignements relatifs au cadre de déclaration applicable aux crypto-actifs (adopted text no. 21). https://www.senat.fr/leg/tas26-021.html

Jubel. (2026, 6 July). DAC8 : obligation de déclaration pour les prestataires de services liés aux crypto-actifs. https://www.jubel.be/fr/dac8-obligation-de-declaration-pour-les-prestataires-de-services-liees-aux-crypto-actifs

Revenue. (2026). List of reportable jurisdictions for CARF and DAC8 purposes (as of 10 June 2026). Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Ireland). https://www.revenue.ie/en/companies-and-charities/documents/aeoi/carf-and-dac8-reportable-jurisdictions.pdf