Tax on P2P Income in Europe: What You Have to Do Yourself

This is not tax advice. It is a qualitative sketch of how five large EU member states treat P2P lending income, correct as of early 2026. Tax rules change. Consult a qualified adviser in your country before you file.

You are taxed where you live

Under every EU double-taxation treaty, interest income is taxed in your country of residence, not where the platform is located. If you live in Germany and lend through Mintos in Latvia, Germany taxes you. Latvia never sees the transaction. The same rule holds if you live in France and use Maclear in Switzerland, or if you live in Portugal and use Twino. The platform's headquarters are irrelevant to your tax liability.

This creates a clean split: the platform collects no withholding tax and files no report with your tax authority. You receive the full interest payment and you file the tax return yourself. The burden is entirely on you.

Most platforms withhold nothing

Mintos, Twino, PeerBerry, Nectaro, Profitus, Crowdpear, InRento and the rest hold MiFID II or ECSP licences which place no automatic withholding or reporting duty on them. You see 11% advertised, you earn 11% gross, minus any platform fees, and the platform sends you nothing at year-end except possibly an account statement. That statement is a courtesy, not a tax document. The platform does not tell your tax authority how much you earned.

Maclear operates under a Swiss SRO registration which imposes no withholding duty. The same principle applies: you receive the full yield and you declare it where you live. A handful of smaller platforms offer to prepare an annual summary, but even then the filing duty remains yours.

This arrangement is standard across the European P2P market. The only exceptions are platforms that hold banking licences or operate as investment firms subject to specific national rules, and none of the 19 platforms we rate fall into that category.

Italy: Quadro RL and the 26% substitute tax

Italy treats P2P lending income as interest from foreign financial instruments. You declare it on Quadro RL in your annual tax return, and you pay a 26% substitute tax on the net amount. The substitute tax is final: it does not stack with your progressive income-tax rate.

If you earn EUR 1,000 in interest from a Latvian platform and the platform deducts EUR 20 in fees, you declare EUR 980 and pay EUR 254.80. Defaults and capital losses can offset interest income in the same year if you elect the dichiarazione route instead of the risparmio amministrato regime, but most retail P2P investors use dichiarazione by default because the platforms withhold nothing.

You also file Quadro RW to declare the foreign-held asset. The threshold is EUR 5,000 held at any point in the year. Miss the RW filing and the penalty is steep, even if you paid the 26% tax correctly on the income. Keep a month-by-month balance statement from each platform.

France: 2047, 2042 and the flat tax

France introduced a flat tax of 30% on investment income in 2018, covering 12.8% income tax plus 17.2% social charges. P2P lending income falls under this regime. You declare it on form 2047 as foreign-source interest, then transfer the total to box 2TR on form 2042. The 30% is final unless you elect the progressive scale, which makes sense only if your marginal rate is below 11%.

Capital losses from defaults do not offset interest income under the flat-tax regime. P2P is classed as non-securities income, and the offsetting rule applies only within the securities basket. If a platform collapses and you lose EUR 5,000, you cannot use that loss to reduce your tax bill on the EUR 800 you earned from other platforms in the same year.

You must also declare the foreign account on form 3916 if the balance exceeds EUR 10,000 at any point. The penalty for missing this declaration is EUR 1,500 per account per year, whether or not you owe any tax. File 3916 even if you closed the account mid-year.

Portugal: Anexo J and the 28% rate

Portugal taxes interest income at 28%, applied to the net amount after fees. You declare P2P income on anexo J of your IRS return. The platform withholds nothing, so you pay the full 28% when you file. This rate is separate from your progressive income-tax scale and does not count toward your marginal bracket.

Portugal added a limited carve-out for capital losses in recent years, but it applies narrowly: the loss must be realised in the same tax year and the platform must issue a formal statement of the default. A buyback that later fails does not count as a realised loss until the underlying borrower is declared insolvent. In practice, most retail investors cannot use this offset.

You also complete anexo J quadro 9 to declare foreign-held financial assets if the aggregate balance across all foreign platforms exceeds EUR 5,000. The calculation is the highest balance at any month-end during the year. Keep monthly extracts from each platform to prove the figure if the tax authority asks.

Germany: Anlage KAP and the Gunstigerprufung

Germany treats P2P lending income as interest from loans. You file it on Anlage KAP, report the foreign source, and pay tax at your marginal income-tax rate. If your marginal rate is above 25%, you can elect the flat Abgeltungsteuer of 25% plus 5.5% solidarity surcharge by ticking the Gunstigerprufung box. The tax office calculates both and charges you the lower amount.

Capital losses from defaults can offset interest income in the same year. If you earned EUR 1,200 in interest and lost EUR 400 to a default, you declare EUR 800 net. The loss must be realised: a buyback promise that is still live does not count. Some investors wait until the platform writes off the loan formally before they claim the offset.

Germany requires no separate foreign-asset declaration for P2P accounts. The income disclosure on Anlage KAP is sufficient. You still need to keep records: the tax office can audit back six years and will ask for transaction logs if your declared figure does not match their data.

Spain: modelo 100 and D6

Spain taxes P2P income as interest from foreign sources. You file it on modelo 100, annex D6, and pay tax at your progressive income-tax rate. There is no flat-tax election. If your marginal rate is 30%, you pay 30% on the net interest after fees.

Capital losses from defaults can offset interest income within the same tax year. Spain treats P2P as financial income, and losses in that category reduce the taxable base. If you earned EUR 1,500 and lost EUR 600 to defaults, you declare EUR 900. The loss does not carry forward: use it in the year it occurs or lose it.

You must also file modelo 720 if your aggregate foreign financial assets exceed EUR 50,000 at year-end. The threshold is high enough that most retail P2P investors stay below it, but if you hold accounts on six platforms and each averages EUR 9,000, you cross the line. Miss the 720 filing and the penalty is severe, up to 150% of the undeclared amount in extreme cases. File modelo 720 by March 31 of the following year, three weeks before the modelo 100 deadline.

What records to keep from day one

Most European tax authorities can audit back six years. You need a month-by-month record of gross interest received, fees deducted, defaults or write-offs and your end-of-month balance on every platform you use. Export the transaction log at year-end in CSV or PDF and store it alongside your filed tax return.

If you hold accounts on multiple platforms, keep a spreadsheet that sums gross income and realised losses by platform by year. When a loan defaults, record the principal amount written off and the date the platform declared it a loss. Some countries require a formal insolvency notice before they allow the offset, and you will need to prove the timing if the tax authority questions it.

Do not rely on the platform to keep the records for you. Platforms shut down, merge or purge old data. Reinvest24 froze withdrawals in February 2024, and investors who had not exported their transaction logs beforehand found themselves unable to prove their capital losses when they filed in 2025. Download the data every January and keep it offline.

When you owe nothing but still have to file

Germany, France and Spain require all foreign-source income to be declared regardless of amount. If you earned EUR 50 from PeerBerry and paid EUR 5 in fees, you declare the EUR 45 even if the resulting tax is trivial. Italy and Portugal have minimum thresholds below which you may not owe tax, but the declaration duty often remains. A handful of jurisdictions exempt trivial amounts, but EUR 200 is above the line in every case we have seen.

An undeclared foreign asset can trigger penalties years later when the tax authority cross-checks data. The EU Directive on Administrative Cooperation requires financial institutions to report certain account information to their home regulator, which then shares it with other member states. P2P platforms are not yet fully caught by this net, but the scope is widening. File the income even if you owe nothing: the penalty for non-declaration is often larger than the tax itself.

Capital at risk. P2P lending can lose part or all of the money you put in. No compensation scheme covers borrower defaults. This is not tax advice; consult a qualified adviser before you file. Tax rules and forms are correct as of early 2026 and may change.