Exporting your exchange history in a form a German tax adviser can actually work with
Every spring the same thing happens: an adviser asks for the year's crypto records, and the trader sends a screenshot of the portfolio screen. That is not enough. To work out what was bought when, at what price, and whether coins changed wallets in between, an adviser needs full transaction exports, consistent time zones and a clear explanation of every transfer. Whether a particular sale is taxable is a question for the adviser, not for this article. What you can control is the quality of the material you give them.
Pull every report, not just trades
On Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget the export function sits under the orders or assets history, usually with a button to generate a statement for a date range. Request separate files for spot trades, deposits, withdrawals, conversions and, if you use them, earn products and futures. A trade export alone hides the moments when coins entered or left the exchange, which is exactly where acquisition dates get lost. Some exchanges limit how long a range can be in one request, so you may need several files per year.
Set one time zone and keep the raw files untouched
Exports often come in UTC, while your bank statements show German time. Note which zone each file uses in a short readme in the same folder rather than editing timestamps by hand. Keep the downloaded files exactly as they arrived and do any sorting or labelling in a copy. If the adviser or a tax tool later imports the data, they will want the original format, and you will want to be able to prove that nothing was altered.
Label transfers between your own wallets
Withdrawals from one exchange that arrive as deposits at another, or in your own wallet, are not sales, but a tool reading the files cannot know that. Add a column in your working copy where you mark each such pair with the transaction hash shown in both records. Do the same for coins you send to a hardware wallet and later bring back. These links let the adviser carry the original purchase date across the transfer instead of treating the coins as newly acquired.
Add the context only you know
Some events never appear clearly in an export: an airdrop you received, a hack, a lost wallet, coins you were given as a gift. Write a short dated note for each with whatever evidence you have. Add the euro bank statements that show deposits to and payouts from the exchanges. Store everything in one yearly folder with a backup, and repeat the export each quarter so that a closed or changed account does not leave a gap.
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Scenario checkpoint
- Export spot trades, deposits, withdrawals, conversions and any earn or futures history separately.
- Write down the time zone each export uses and keep the original files unedited.
- Pair each transfer between your own accounts using the transaction hash from both records.
- Add dated notes for airdrops, gifts or losses and attach the matching euro bank statements.