Crypto Tax Calculator for Australian Investors

The ATO treats crypto as a CGT asset, not as money. Selling, swapping, spending or gifting crypto is a CGT event, and your net capital gain is taxed at your marginal rate. Australian resident individuals who owned the crypto for at least 12 months can reduce the gain by 50%. Staking rewards, business mining income and airdrops of established tokens are ordinary income at market value when you receive them.

If you dispose of crypto you owned for less than 12 months, the full capital gain is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate. If you owned it for at least 12 months and you are an Australian resident individual, only half the gain is included in your taxable income. Foreign and temporary residents generally cannot use the full discount on gains made after 8 May 2012.

There is no crypto-specific threshold. The A$18,200 tax-free threshold for Australian residents applies to your total taxable income, so a crypto gain simply adds to that total. Separately, a capital gain on crypto is disregarded only if the crypto is a personal use asset that you acquired for less than A$10,000. Crypto is a personal use asset only when you keep or use it mainly to buy items for personal use or consumption, and this is judged at the time you dispose of it. Crypto bought or held as an investment does not qualify, whatever its value.

The ATO runs a crypto assets data-matching program. Under it, the ATO collects identity and transaction data from crypto designated service providers, such as Australian exchanges, for every financial year from 2014–15 to 2025–26. It matches this data against lodged tax returns to find unreported gains, income or disposals, so it does not depend on you reporting first.

No. Capital losses from crypto can only offset capital gains, whether those gains come from crypto, shares or other assets. They never offset your salary or other ordinary income. If your losses exceed your gains in a year, the unused net capital loss carries forward indefinitely to offset future capital gains.

You must hold crypto for at least 12 months, excluding the acquisition and CGT event dates. Buying on 20 June 2025 and selling on 20 June 2026 counts as 364 days; selling on 21 June 2026 qualifies. No partial discount applies. From 1 July 2027, cost base indexation will replace the 50% discount.

Several approaches are available under the current rules, and they usually work best together:

• Hold for at Least 12 Months: Australian resident individuals can halve the capital gain on crypto held this long. The Government has announced this discount will be replaced from 1 July 2027.
• Realise Genuine Losses: Selling loss-making positions in the same financial year offsets your gains, provided you do not buy the same asset straight back.
• Time Large Disposals: Selling in a year when your other income is lower can mean a lower marginal rate applies.
• Donate to a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR): A gift of crypto to a DGR may be tax deductible. It is still a CGT event, so you must report any capital gain.

Yes. Staking rewards, business mining income and airdrops of established tokens are ordinary income at market value on the day you receive them. Initial allocation airdrops are not income when received. If you later sell or swap the tokens, that is a separate CGT event, and the value you declared as income becomes your cost base. Adding or removing liquidity in DeFi can also be a CGT event, depending on whether you stop owning the original tokens.

You will have to pay the tax you owe, plus the shortfall interest charge (SIC) on the amended assessment. The ATO may also apply an administrative penalty based on your behaviour:

• 25% of the shortfall for failing to take reasonable care
• 50% for recklessness
• 75% for intentional disregard of the law