LYNX German Tax Return: Anlage KAP from Your LYNX Statement

LYNX issues no German tax certificate and withholds no flat-rate tax. You therefore declare your income yourself in Anlage KAP (funds in Anlage KAP-INV). The numbers come from the annual statement you export as CSV from the LYNX portal and upload to capi.tax under Interactive Brokers.

Why LYNX clients choose "Interactive Brokers"

LYNX is an introducing broker: LYNX looks after you and offers its own interfaces, service and training — but your account itself is held at Interactive Brokers. According to LYNX, for EU residents that has been Interactive Brokers Ireland since 2021; older accounts were with Interactive Brokers in the UK until then.

For your taxes, that means your statement comes from the IBKR system and has its format. capi.tax reads the Activity Statement in German or English, and alternatively a Flex Query as XML. So you don't need a separate "LYNX" option — you choose Interactive Brokers when uploading.

Exporting the statement at LYNX

The LYNX client portal is the Interactive Brokers Client Portal in LYNX branding. The menus follow the IBKR portal; individual labels may differ slightly by language and version.

Log in to the LYNX Client Portal.
Open Performance & Reports (German: Performance & Berichte) and go to Statements.
Choose the default Activity statement — LYNX also calls it the annual statement (Jahresdepotauszug). It contains trades, dividends, withholding tax, interest and fees.
Set the period to Annual and pick the tax year.
Choose CSV as the format — not PDF and not Excel.
Generate the statement and save the file.

If you already set up a Flex Query, you can use its XML file instead. How to create one and which sections it needs is in the Interactive Brokers guide.

Account opened before 2021?

When accounts moved to Interactive Brokers Ireland, many LYNX clients received a new account number. Statements for the period before that are generated under the old account number, which you add in the statement dialog. This matters if you are selling shares today that you bought back then — more on that below.

The LYNX "informational tax report"

In the portal, under Performance & Reports → Tax Documents, you can request an informational tax report for German tax residents. It is produced by an external provider and lists realized gains, losses and dividends.

LYNX itself says this report is not an official tax document and that you must check the figures. It makes a good cross-check. If its totals differ from your result, the cause is often positions from earlier years, written options that run over the year end, or corporate actions.

Uploading to capi.tax

Open capi.tax, choose Interactive Brokers and your tax year.
Upload the CSV or XML file. It is processed in your browser only.
Read the processing notices above the results — for example about skipped currency rows or funds without a fund type.
Copy the values from the KAP Form tab into your tax return.

The tax: exactly as with Interactive Brokers

For tax purposes, a LYNX account is an Interactive Brokers account. Because no German tax was withheld, you have to declare the income yourself (§ 32d (3) EStG). In short:

Shares: gains and losses by FIFO, converted at the Bundesbank rate. Share losses can only be offset against share gains (§ 20 (6) sentence 4 EStG); whether that is constitutional is before the Federal Constitutional Court (2 BvL 3/21).
Options: option-writer premiums (§ 20 (1) no. 11 EStG) and derivatives (§ 20 (2) sentence 1 no. 3 EStG) — see Options & option writing.
Dividends and interest: gross in Anlage KAP, creditable foreign withholding tax on its own line.
ETFs and funds: gross in Anlage KAP-INV, split by fund type.

Which number goes in which line, with a worked example, is in the Interactive Brokers guide.

Example: shares bought in 2019, sold in 2025

You bought 40 shares at LYNX in 2019 and sell them in 2025. If you upload only the 2025 statement, capi.tax sees the sale but no purchase. FIFO cannot assign a cost basis, so the sale stays in the audit trail as unmatched — it is left out of the totals rather than calculated with made-up costs.

Here's how to fix it:

Generate a 2019 statement under the old account number and find the purchase: date, quantity and amount.
Add the purchase in capi.tax under Adjustments as an opening position.

Example values: bought on 12 March 2019 for USD 4,000.00 at a Bundesbank rate of 1.1300 USD/EUR = €3,539.82; sold in 2025 for USD 6,510.00 at 1.0850 USD/EUR = €6,000.00. Taxable gain: 6,000.00 − 3,539.82 = €2,460.18 (fees ignored here). More in Your input.

What capi.tax does not cover for LYNX accounts

Corporate actions such as splits or spin-offs are reported but not applied — see Corporate actions.
Currency gains on foreign-currency cash are not computed — depending on whether the balance earns interest, they belong on Anlage SO or (on the disputed view of the tax authorities) on Anlage KAP. See Currency gains.
Several accounts or years in one calculation: one file per run. If you have another IBKR account next to your LYNX account, calculate them separately and add up the lines.

Frequently asked questions

Do I get a tax certificate from LYNX?

No. Because the account is held abroad at Interactive Brokers, LYNX issues no tax certificate under German law. Your annual statement and your own breakdown are your evidence.

Does LYNX withhold flat-rate tax?

No. Nothing is deducted on capital gains, option premiums or interest, and LYNX cannot apply an exemption order either. You get the saver's allowance through your tax return.

Is there a loss certificate from LYNX?

No, and you don't need one. A loss certificate is what you need to bring losses from a German account into your tax return. With LYNX you declare gains and losses yourself anyway, and the tax office offsets them.

What withholding tax is deducted at LYNX?

Foreign countries withhold tax on dividends. For US shares that is 15 % with a valid W-8BEN, 30 % without. You complete the W-8BEN when opening the account, and it has to be confirmed periodically. At most 15 % is creditable — see Withholding tax.

And German shares in a LYNX account?

According to LYNX, German capital gains tax of 26.375 % (including solidarity surcharge) is already withheld on dividends from German shares — via the central securities depository Clearstream (§ 44 (1) sentence 4 no. 3 EStG). That generally settles the tax (§ 43 (5) sentence 1 EStG): these dividends belong neither in line 19, nor is the tax foreign withholding tax for line 41. If you pay church tax, you still have to declare them for church tax purposes (§ 51a (2d) EStG). If you want the tax withheld credited — for example to use the saver's allowance or offset losses (§ 32d (4) EStG) — the tax office normally requires a tax certificate under § 45a (2) EStG, which IBKR cannot issue. How this case is handled is not conclusively settled; clarify your situation with a tax advisor. ⚠️ capi.tax does not handle this case separately and may currently book such dividends into line 19 and the tax into line 41 — so check dividends and withholding tax by country in the overview.

Ready? Upload your LYNX statement and choose Interactive Brokers.

capi.tax prepares your data and is not tax advice. Please check the numbers and consult a tax advisor for your personal situation.

Last updated: October 10, 2026