Anlage KAP, KAP-INV & SO
A German broker withholds the tax on your capital income automatically — so it is generally settled and you need not declare anything further. Interactive Brokers and Tastytrade do not. Because no German tax was withheld at source, you are required to report this income yourself (§ 32d Abs. 3 EStG). capi.tax sorts your figures to match the three relevant forms.
Anlage KAP — capital income (§ 20 EStG)
This is the home for your income without German withholding: interest, dividends, gains and losses on shares, results from forward transactions, and writer premiums. You also enter the creditable foreign withholding tax here. The lines for income that did suffer German withholding stay empty for a pure foreign-broker account.
Anlage KAP-INV — funds & ETFs
Almost all fund and ETF income at a US broker lands here, because it saw no German withholding: distributions, the Vorabpauschale, and gains on the sale of fund units. Each of these is entered separately by fund type, because the Teilfreistellung differs by type. You enter gross figures; the tax office applies the Teilfreistellung itself.
Anlage SO — private disposals (§ 23 EStG)
Not for shares or options — those go on Anlage KAP. Anlage SO covers other assets: foreign currency you hold as cash and convert at a gain within a year, crypto within the one-year window, or delivery-backed products such as Xetra-Gold. There is a €1,000 exemption threshold (since 2024, previously €600) — and it is all-or-nothing: a €999 gain stays entirely tax-free, a €1,000 gain is fully taxable.
Your allowance
The Sparer-Pauschbetrag (€1,000 filing alone, €2,000 jointly) shelters your first euros of capital income. A foreign broker cannot apply an exemption order (Freistellungsauftrag), so you claim the allowance through the assessment instead. It applies once across all your accounts. One practical note: ongoing costs such as custody fees are covered by the allowance and not separately deductible (§ 20 Abs. 9 EStG).
The exact line numbers on these forms change every year — check them against the official instructions for the year you are filing.
capi.tax prepares your data and is not tax advice. Please review the figures and ask a tax advisor (Steuerberater) about your personal situation.