What is the Anlage KAP?
The Anlage KAP is part of the income tax return. It's where you report income from capital assets, such as interest, dividends, or gains from the sale of securities.
These earnings are usually taxed automatically by your bank at a flat rate of 25% capital gains tax (plus solidarity surcharge and, if applicable, church tax), which is then paid directly to the tax office. In many cases, you don't need to declare these capital gains in your tax return at all.
💡 Good to know: In Accountable, you simply enter the relevant information about your capital gains. Whether, and to what extent, this results in a tax refund or additional payment is determined by the tax office based on your complete income tax return.
When do you need to fill out the Anlage KAP?
You generally need to fill out the Anlage KAP if:
your capital gains exceed the saver lump sum (Sparerpauschbetrag) of €1,000 (single) or €2,000 (married/registered partnerships), and capital gains tax hasn't been withheld yet,
no or not enough capital gains tax was withheld, for example with foreign banks or private loans,
you want to apply for a favorability check (Günstigerprüfung) because your personal tax rate is below 25%,
you want to offset losses from capital assets against gains, where your bank hasn't automatically applied loss offsetting.
Note: If capital gains tax has already been fully withheld on your capital gains and you're below the saver's allowance, you generally don't need to declare these earnings.
Where can you find the "Capital gains" section?
As soon as you indicate under "Additional income" that you had capital gains, the "Capital gains" section will automatically appear in the navigation.
There, you can:
add one or more sources of capital gains (e.g., bank, broker, or loan),
enter the amount of any losses incurred,
enter the amount of allowances used,
and record taxes already withheld.
Note: Capital gains are included in the MAX plan or can be added as an add-on.
💡 Good to know: Accountable currently only supports capital gains from German brokers (stocks, interest, dividends).
Favorability check (Günstigerprüfung)
Once you activate the capital gains section, Accountable will let you know directly that a favorable tax treatment will be requested for all capital income.
This means: Accountable automatically applies for the favorability check on your behalf. The tax office then checks whether taxing your capital gains at your personal income tax rate is more favorable than the flat 25% capital gains tax and automatically applies whichever option is more advantageous for you.
Note: You don't need to activate this option separately; it's automatically requested for all capital income entered in Accountable.
General information about your capital gains
Before entering the specific amounts, Accountable will ask you two introductory questions:
"Did you earn capital gains from multiple sources?"
"Did you pay church tax on your capital gains?"
For both questions, you can select Yes, No, or I don't know.
Note: If you're not sure whether church tax was withheld on your capital gains, you'll find this information on your tax certificate under § 45a EStG (Steuerbescheinigung), which you can request from your bank.
Capital gains & income
In this section, you enter the amount of your capital gains as shown on your tax certificate:
Amount of capital gains, according to tax certificate (amount from line 7, Anlage KAP)
Gains from the sale of shares included in line 7 (amount from line 8, Anlage KAP)
Income from standstill agreements and gains from forward transactions included in line 7 (amount from line 9, Anlage KAP)
Note: Line 7 of your tax certificate usually already includes gains from share sales as well as income from forward transactions. The fields for lines 8 and 9 are used to separate these amounts out from the total, since they're taxed differently.
Losses
If you incurred losses from capital assets during the relevant tax year that your bank hasn't yet offset against gains, you can enter them here:
Unrecognized losses, excluding losses from the sale of shares (amount from line 12, Anlage KAP)
Unrecognized losses from the sale of shares (amount from line 13, Anlage KAP)
Losses from forward transactions (amount from line 14, Anlage KAP)
Important: You'll find these amounts on your bank's loss certificate (Verlustbescheinigung). You generally need to request this from your bank by December 15 of the relevant tax year, so the losses aren't automatically carried forward to the next tax year.
Allowances
With the saver lump sum (Sparer-Pauschbetrag), capital gains up to €1,000 (single) or €2,000 (married) remain tax-free. Enter here how much of this allowance you've already used:
Saver lump sum used (amount from line 16, Anlage KAP)
Lump sum allowance claimed by savers attributable to capital gains not declared in annex KAP
Note: If you've set up an exemption order (Freistellungsauftrag) with your bank, the saver lump sum has already been taken into account there. You'll find the exact amount on your tax certificate.
Taxes already paid
Finally, you enter which taxes have already been withheld and paid on your capital gains:
Paid capital gains tax (amount from line 37, Anlage KAP)
Prepaid solidarity charge on capital gains (amount from line 38, Anlage KAP)
Prepaid church tax on capital gains (amount from line 39, Anlage KAP)
Note: This information is important so the tax office can correctly credit the taxes already paid against your income tax. You'll also find these amounts on your tax certificate.
💡 Please note that these line numbers refer to the 2025 tax certificate
Special cases
Support for foreign capital gains, Anlage KAP-INV (foreign investment funds), and Anlage KAP-BET (separately assessed investment income, e.g. from inheritance communities or partnerships) is currently still in development and is therefore not yet available in Accountable.
Until then, you can submit the relevant information via ELSTER or together with a tax advisor.