Swapping Bitcoin for a gift card is not a purchase for tax purposes, it is a sale.
The moment you pay for a gift card, a good or a service with crypto assets, you hand over the coins and
receive something else in return. The tax office treats that transaction exactly like a sale on an
exchange: as a private disposal under section 23 of the German Income Tax Act, the EStG.

Whether tax actually falls due hangs on two numbers. If more than twelve months lie between the
purchase and the gift card payment, the gain stays tax free. Below that it counts, and it counts
together with every other private disposal of the year against the threshold of 1,000 euros. So if you
buy Bitcoin in January and
pay for a gift card with it in March, you have…