The Problem

The most complex tax case — now automatic.

Interactive Brokers is popular with professional retail investors in Germany — but like all foreign brokers, it does not issue a German annual tax certificate.

Especially complex: IBKR users often trade stocks, ETFs, options and futures in multiple currencies simultaneously. Every position must be valued using FIFO, every dividend converted at the ECB daily rate, and option premiums booked to bucket 2.

KAPitan reads your Flex Query XML report and handles all of this automatically. No tax knowledge, no spreadsheet, no tax advisor needed.

Interactive Brokers

No tax certificate available

"Interactive Brokers is a foreign broker and is not subject to the German obligation to issue an annual tax certificate under §43a EStG."

Instead, you receive a Flex Query XML report with all transactions — which is exactly what we process for you.

How it works

Three steps to your completed tax return

Export Flex Query

In the IBKR Client Portal under Reports → Flex Queries, create a Flex Query and download the XML report. Takes 2 minutes.

Upload & check XML files

Upload one file per year (several at once is possible). If ETF categories are missing, you add them once — after that everything runs automatically.

Enter into Tax Return

You receive a table with the exact values for each line of Anlage KAP — simply unlock and transfer.

Flex Query Export

How do I export the Flex Query XML?

Set up the Flex Query once — then fetch the XML for each tax year in seconds. Also works for IBKR introducing brokers like LYNX, CapTrader or BANX.

Navigate in the Client Portal

Start

Performance & Berichte ▾

Einstellungen

PortfolioAnalyst

Kontoauszüge

Flex Queries ← here

Steuerdokumente

Drittanbieter-Berichte

Create a new Activity Flex Query

Click + next to Activity Flex Query and give it a name — e.g. KAPitan Tax.

Activity Flex Query

No queries — click +

Trade Confirmation Flex Query

Select these 8 sections

IBKR shows all available sections as tiles. Click exactly the 8 highlighted below, they turn blue. Then open each section and activate all fields. You do not set a date range here, that comes when you run the query (step 4).

✓ 8 of ~30 sections

Sections (Please select multiple)

Trades

Statement of Funds

Cash Report

Corporate Actions

Open Positions

Transfers

Grant Activity

Financial Instrument Information

Dividends

Cash Transactions

Accrued Interest

Pending Exercises

CFD Fees

Complex Positions

Account Information

+ more …

= select

= not needed

In the Trades section: set the level to Execution, not Order. Only then are the individual fills included for FIFO.

Transfers is one of the 8 required sections and must be selected. Without it, position transfers are missing and the FIFO chain breaks for transferred positions.

For Cash Report and Statement of Funds enable the currency breakdown option — otherwise the original currencies for the ECB conversion are missing.

Level per section: Corporate Actions → Detail, Open Positions → Summary, Transfers → Transfer.

Export XML: one file per year

The date range is not part of the query definition. You choose it when running the query: custom date range with the From and To fields, format XML. IBKR limits every XML export to one year, so export year by year from account opening as its own file and upload them together. Also export January of the following year so later dividend and withholding tax corrections are captured.

Run Flex Query

Period

Custom date range ▾

From

2026-01-01

2026-12-31

Format

XML ✓

CSV

Run & download

Format: XML

One year per file, upload several

Plus January of the following year

Date yyyyMMdd · Time HHmmss · Separator semicolon

Common mistakes

Only current year exported

KAPitan needs all years from account opening — otherwise the FIFO chain is broken and acquisition costs are unknown.

CSV downloaded instead of XML

KAPitan only processes the XML export of the Activity Flex Query — no CSV, no PDF.

Section fields not activated

IBKR sets all fields to inactive by default. In each section, every field must be checked individually.

Trades: Order selected instead of Execution

FIFO calculation requires execution-level data. With Order selected instead of Execution, the individual fills are missing.

Tip: Always select the longest possible period — at least from your first purchase date to the end of the tax year. Interest bookings at IBKR sometimes appear in early January of the following year but still belong to the prior year (10-day rule under § 11 EStG) — so also include January in your export to be safe.

What we calculate

All tax obligations — automatic

German tax law for capital gains is complex. We know every rule.

FIFO cost basis calculation

Gains and losses calculated using FIFO — even across multiple years.

ETF-Teilfreistellung

Equity ETFs (30%), mixed funds (15%), other funds (0%) — tax-free portion calculated automatically.

Vorabpauschale

For accumulating ETFs under §18 InvStG — including the BMF base rate and price-appreciation cap.

Withholding tax (line 41)

Creditable foreign withholding taxes on dividends are identified and reported.

Loss offset buckets

Bucket 1 (equities) and Bucket 2 (other) tracked separately — exactly as the tax office expects.

Currency conversion

USD, GBP and all other foreign currencies automatically converted using the ECB daily rate.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the most important questions

How much time does KAPitan really save me?

Most users are done in under five minutes: export the file, upload, done. Without KAPitan that means hours of FIFO spreadsheets in Excel, manually researching exchange rates for every trade, and looking up InvStG rules for ETFs. Or a tax advisor appointment that often costs €200–400.

I invest with a foreign broker — do I really have to report this myself?

Yes. With German brokers (comdirect, DKB, ING), the flat-rate withholding tax is automatically deducted — you don't have to do anything. With foreign brokers like DEGIRO, Interactive Brokers or eToro, this does not happen. You are legally required (§149 AO, §32d EStG) to report your capital gains yourself in your tax return. KAPitan makes this easy.

What is the difference between Anlage KAP and KAP-INV?

Anlage KAP covers equity gains, dividends, interest and losses. Anlage KAP-INV is additionally required for ETFs and investment funds — special rules have applied since 2018 under the Investment Tax Act (InvStG), including partial exemption and Vorabpauschale. KAPitan automatically calculates which lines in which form you need to fill in.

What happens to my data?

Your transactions are stored in your account for continuous FIFO calculations across multiple years — you can delete them manually at any time. On account deletion, all data is removed immediately. After 3 years of inactivity we delete your account automatically. Our servers are in the EU (Netherlands), all transmissions are TLS-encrypted. More about our privacy policy →

Who's behind it?

Built by someone who had the problem himself.

I'm Philipp — economist & Master in Finance, studied in Cologne and Amsterdam with a focus on Quantitative Finance. I've been investing through foreign brokers myself for years and know the chaos of every January from personal experience: FIFO by hand, looking up exchange rates, reading InvStG paragraphs. I built KAPitan so that no one ever has to do that again.

Economics Quantitative Finance · Köln Investing abroad since 2019

Privacy

Your tax data belongs to you — not us.

We know what's in your file: your entire investment history. That's why we built KAPitan from the ground up to see as little of it as possible — and to forget it again as quickly as possible.

You stay in control

Your transactions are stored for FIFO calculation across multiple years — this is necessary for correct results. You can delete them at any time. On account deletion, all data is removed immediately and completely.

EU servers only

Our servers are located in the Netherlands (EU). Your data never leaves the European Union. Full GDPR jurisdiction, no data transfer to third countries.

Encrypted transmission

Your file is transmitted exclusively via HTTPS (TLS 1.3) — the same encryption used for online banking. Third parties cannot intercept the upload.

No sharing with third parties

Your financial data is never shared with third parties, sold, or used for advertising. We make no money from your data — only from our tool.

Your GDPR rights

You have the right at any time to access, correct and delete your data (Art. 15–17 GDPR). You can delete your transactions and your account yourself at any time — or ask us to do so by email.

Questions? We'll answer.

For privacy questions or deletion requests, contact us directly:For questions about data privacy or deletion requests, write to us directly: philipp@traqqie.com. We respond within 48 hours.

The key point in one sentence: We store your transactions only for as long as you need them — for FIFO across multiple years. You can delete them at any time, and on account deletion everything disappears immediately.

Full legal details in our Privacy policy →

Calculate now

Your Anlage KAP in 5 minutes.

Upload Flex Query XML, review briefly — done. The raw XML is deleted immediately; we store your transactions for continuous FIFO calculations across multiple years.

KAPitan creates a summary of your capital gains — not a substitute for tax advice.

Upload your Interactive Brokers file(s):

Important: Only upload files for a single depot at a time. If you have multiple depots, you must upload and process each depot separately — positions from different depots must not be netted against each other for tax purposes.

Flex Query report (XML)

Select one or more files or drag them here

Tax year

One-time from €9.99 · File deleted immediately · Transactions saved for FIFO · GDPR-compliant

Interactive Brokers Tax Return in 5 minutes.