You bought crypto, held it for some time, and eventually sold it for a profit. Now, it is time to file your ITR. While paying the tax may seem straightforward, reporting it correctly is often where things become confusing. The income tax portal contains more than 20 schedules, but it does not clearly explain which ones apply to your crypto transactions.
For instance, Schedule VDA is the primary schedule for most passive crypto investors, where you report gains from selling your virtual digital assets. However, your reporting liabilities do not always end there. To elaborate, if you held crypto on a foreign exchange such as Binance or Bybit, you may also need to disclose those holdings in Schedule FA. Likewise, staking rewards, mining income, and airdrops are not reported in Schedule VDA but under Income from Other Sources (IFOS), making it important to place each type of income in the correct section.
As a result, filing errors are more common than many investors realise. And, today, the Income Tax Department (ITD) can cross check the information in your return against your AIS to identify mismatches. Therefore, reporting crypto income in the wrong schedule or leaving out required disclosures can trigger a Section 143(1) notice, while under reporting may attract penalties under Section 270A.
To ensure this does not happen with you, this guide explains how to e-file ITR-2 for FY 2025-26, including how to complete Schedule VDA correctly and when Schedule FA applies to you.
Key Takeaways
- ITR-2 is the correct form for passive investors, salaried individuals with crypto gains, spot traders, and recipients of staking rewards or airdrops, provided there is no crypto Futures and Options trading or large-scale commercial mining activity.
- Schedule VDA requires individual transaction entries. A lump-sum entry is not accepted by the portal.
- Schedule FA is mandatory for any resident Indian who held crypto on a foreign exchange, like Binance, Bybit, Kraken, or any non-Indian platform, at any point during the calendar year ending 31st December 2025, even with no transactions during the year.
- Staking rewards, airdrops, and mining income do not go into Schedule VDA. Instead, they are reported under IFOS in Schedule OS at the INR Fair Market Value (FMV) on the date of receipt, and taxed at the applicable slab rate.
ITR-2 Deadlines for Crypto Investors/Traders for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27)
Missing the ITR-2 filing deadline can lead to late fees, interest, and the loss of certain tax benefits. Hence, if you gained profits or earned income from cryptocurrency during FY 2025-26, knowing the applicable due dates helps you file your return accurately and avoid unnecessary compliance issues.
Filing Type | Deadline | Fee / Penalty |
ITR-2 | 31st July 2026 | None till this date |
Belated ITR-2 (filed after due date) | 31st December 2026 | INR 5,000 under Section 234F (INR 1,000 if total income is below INR 5 lakh) |
Revised ITR-2 (Updated: Budget 2026) | 31st March 2027 | INR 5,000 under Section 234I (INR 1,000 if total income is below INR 5 lakh) |
ITR-U (Updated Return) | Within 48 months of end of relevant AY | The additional payment under Section 140B (3) is calculated as a percentage of the aggregate tax + interest payable; it ranges between 25% and 70% |
Parts of ITR-2 to Fill as a Crypto Investor/Trader for FY 2025-26
ITR-2 form is divided into two parts: Part A with general information and next part with a set of schedules. Most of which is pre-filled or simple for a passive crypto investor like you. While the ITR contains several schedules, most crypto investors only need to complete a handful. Here’s what each of those schedules is used for:
Part A
It captures your basic personal and filing details. Most of this information is auto-populated when you log into the income tax portal using your PAN. Here is what it basically covers:
- Name
- Residential address
- Filing status
- PAN
- Date of birth
- Aadhar Number
- Mobile number
Part B-TI and Part B-TTI
These are the computation layers of the ITR-2 form. Part B-TI aggregates your total income across all heads, salary, capital gains, and other sources. Whereas, Part B-TTI converts that figure into your final tax liability after credits and TDS adjustments.
Although ITR-2 covers 32 schedules in total, we will only mention those relevant for a passive crypto investor, staker, or miner like you:
Schedules to Report Your Capital Gains from Different Disposals
Here’s how you can report your capital gains on ITR-2:
Schedule VDA (For Crypto)
Schedule VDA captures every crypto transfer from FY 2025-26 individually. So, enter your date of acquisition, date of transfer, cost of acquisition, and sale consideration for each transaction. There’s no lump-sum entry option; every disposal needs its own line.
Schedule CG (For Others)
In case, you have gains from other sources such as shares, mutual funds, property, you must file this. Your VDA totals flow into CG only as a single summary line item, not folded into the main computation. If crypto is your only investment, this schedule may be applicable.
Schedules to Report your Crypto and Other Income (IFOS)
These help to report Income from Other Sources on ITR-2:
Schedule OS
This is where your staking rewards, airdrops, and mining income belong. Since they are income at the point of receipt, not transfers, they will be taxed at your applicable slab rate under “Income from Other Sources” rather than the 30% VDA rate.
Schedule SI
This is where the 30% flat rate under Section 115BBH actually gets applied to your VDA gains, feeding into the final tax computation. It works alongside Schedule VDA and CG as the tax-rate step, rather than a reporting step.
Schedule to Report Foreign Holdings
Holding crypto abroad triggers disclosure requirements regardless of transaction activity.
Schedule FA
This is mandatory if you held crypto on any non-Indian exchange, Binance, Bybit, Kraken, etc., at any point during FY 2025-26, even with zero transactions. You’ll need to disclose the peak value held during the year.
Schedule to Report Deductions and Loss Set-Offs
Standard deductions and losses interact differently with crypto’s special tax treatment.
Schedule VI-A
It is where Chapter VI-A deductions are claimed, 80C for ELSS/PPF, 80D for health insurance, and similar. VDA gains under Section 115BBH are carved out of the deduction base (the same way other special-rate income like 111A/112A is), so these deductions won’t reduce your crypto tax, but they still apply against your other slab-rate income.
Schedule CYLA
This lets you set off current-year losses across income heads where the law allows it. VDA losses are the exception, they cannot be set off against any other income, so this schedule only matters for you if you have non-crypto losses to adjust.
Schedule to Report Salary Income
Salary is reported in Schedule S regardless of how it’s paid to you:
Schedule S
This captures salary regardless of payment mode, cash, bank transfer, or crypto all land here. The mode of payment doesn’t change which schedule it belongs in. For crypto salary, you report the salary at its FMV in INR on the date you received the crypto, just as you would for any other income in kind.
What Has Changed in ITR-2 for AY 2026-27?
The ITR-2 form for AY 2026-27 is not identical to the one you may have filed last year. Three changes have been made to the form’s structure and disclosure requirements, and two of them affect how crypto investors report gains and claim deductions. Knowing what is different before you open the portal prevents you from filling fields that no longer exist, or missing ones that have been added.
Old Capital Gains Rate Fields Have Been Removed
Since all of FY 2025-26 falls after 23rd July 2024, the 15% and 10% rate fields in Schedule CG are no longer relevant. They have been removed. The pre- and post-July split reporting requirement from last year is gone. For crypto investors, this has no direct impact, the 30% rate under Section 115BBH remains unchanged and was never part of this rate structure.
A New Field for Revised Return Fees Under Section 234I (Updated: Budget 2026)
Budget 2026 extended the revised return deadline to 31st March 2027. A fee now applies:
- INR 5,000 for most taxpayers
- INR 1,000 if total income does not exceed INR 5 lakh
A dedicated field for this fee has been added to ITR-2. For crypto investors who discover a missed transaction after filing, the revised return window is now wider, but filing after 31st December 2026 will cost you INR 5,000.
Expanded Disclosures for Section 80G and 80GGC
Two new mandatory fields have been added:
- Section 80G: Transaction reference number and IFSC code of the donee institution
- Section 80GGC: Political party PAN or registered name
An 80G entry without the reference number and IFSC will be rejected at the portal. These changes do not affect Schedule VDA directly, but they affect any crypto investor claiming deductions alongside their gains.
Schedule AL Threshold Raised to INR 1 Crore (Updated: AY 2026-27)
Schedule AL requires disclosure of all assets and liabilities at the year-end. Previously, this was mandatory for anyone with total income above INR 50 lakh. For AY 2026-27, the threshold has been raised to INR 1 crore. For crypto investors whose total income, salary plus VDA gains plus other sources, falls between INR 50 lakh and INR 1 crore, Schedule AL is no longer required. If your total income exceeds INR 1 crore, the requirement applies in full.
Who Must File ITR-2 in FY 2025-26?
The form you use depends on the nature of your income, not how frequently you traded, how many exchanges you used, or whether you used leverage on spot positions. This section covers exactly who qualifies for ITR-2, and where the boundary with ITR-3 lies for crypto investors.
The following crypto investors should file ITR-2 for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27):
- Salaried individuals and pensioners who buy and hold crypto and have sold or swapped tokens during the year
- Active spot traders disposing of crypto frequently across one or several exchanges, trading frequency alone does not make you eligible for ITR-3
- Investors using leverage or margin on spot positions, without trading Futures and Options contracts
- Algorithmic and bot traders executing spot trades, regardless of volume or automation
- Casual miners without a dedicated, organised mining setup involving specialised rigs and hardware
- Recipients of staking rewards, airdrops, or hard forks who disposed of those tokens during the year, the disposal gain goes in Schedule VDA; the receipt income goes under Income from Other Sources
- Gift recipients who received crypto from a relative or non-relative and disposed of it, Schedule VDA covers the disposal; Section 56(2)(x) governs the receipt if the donor is not a relative
- Investors holding crypto on foreign exchanges such as Binance or Bybit, ITR-2 is still the correct form, but Schedule FA becomes mandatory alongside Schedule VDA
What List of Documents You Need to File ITR-2 in FY 2025-26?
Getting your documents in order before opening the portal saves significant time. The list below covers what you need based on the income types most relevant to crypto investors, salary, capital gains, and crypto-specific income like staking, airdrops, and mining.
For Salary Income
For Crypto Capital Gains (Schedule VDA)
- Complete transaction history from every exchange used during FY 2025-26, date of acquisition, date of disposal, cost of acquisition in INR, and sale consideration in INR
- TDS certificates or Form 26AS entries showing 1% TDS deducted under Section 194S on each disposal
- For crypto received as a gift, the gift deed or documented transfer record, along with the FMV on the date of receipt, which becomes the cost of acquisition
- Your Schedule VDA report from KoinX if you are using a tax platform, this pre-formats every field the ITR-2 portal requires
For Staking Rewards, Airdrops, Mining Income, and Hard Forks (Income from Other Sources)
- Wallet transaction records showing the date and INR FMV of every staking reward, airdrop, or hard fork token received, this FMV at receipt is the taxable income figure
- For mining income, records of tokens mined, date of receipt, and INR FMV on each date
- If any of these tokens were subsequently sold, a second record set covering the disposal, where the cost of acquisition equals the FMV at receipt already taxed as income
For Foreign Exchange Holdings (Schedule FA)
- Account statements from every foreign exchange, Binance, Bybit, Kraken, or any non-Indian platform, showing the peak balance held at any point during FY 2025-26
- The INR equivalent of the peak holding, calculated using the RBI reference rate on the relevant date
- Details of any income received from these foreign accounts during the year, interest, staking rewards, or disposal proceeds
For Other Capital Gains (Schedule CG)
- Broker contract notes or statements for equity shares and mutual fund units sold during FY 2025-26
- Property sale deed and purchase deed if any immovable property was sold during the year
- Cost of improvement records for property, where applicable
For Deductions Under Chapter VI-A (Schedule VI-A)
- Premium receipts for life insurance policies under Section 80C
- Premium receipts for health insurance under Section 80D
- Donation receipts with the registered trust’s PAN for Section 80G claims
- Investment proofs for PPF, ELSS, NSC, or any other Section 80C instrument
For TDS Verification Across All Income Types
- Form 26AS downloaded from the income tax portal, this shows every TDS credit available against your PAN
- Annual Information Statement (AIS): cross-check the gross VDA transaction volume shown in your AIS against your own transaction records before filling Schedule VDA. A mismatch between the two is the most common trigger for a Section 143(1) notice for crypto investors
How to File ITR-2 Online If You are a Crypto Investor?
Filing ITR-2 as a crypto investor follows the same portal steps as any other return, but two additional schedules sit inside the form that most guides skip entirely. The steps below follow the exact sequence in which the portal presents them, including where Schedule VDA, Schedule OS, and Schedule FA appear.
- Go to incometax.gov.in and log in using your PAN and password
- Under the “e-File” tab, select “Income Tax Returns” and click “File Income Tax Return“
- Choose Assessment Year 2026-27 (Current A.Y.), select “Online” mode, and click “Continue“
- In the next tab, click on “Start New Filing”
- Select your applicable status and click “Continue“
- Now, choose ITR-2 from the list of forms. If the portal suggests ITR-1, override it manually, as ITR-1 does not contain Schedule VDA.
- Choose “Continue with ITR-2” and select whether you are filing as a new return, a revised return under Section 139(5), or a belated return under Section 139(4)
- In Part A-GEN, confirm your personal details, including:
- Name,
- PAN,
- Aadhaar,
- Address,
- Date of birth, and
- Contact information.
Most fields here will be pre-filled from your PAN profile:
- Select your residential status. Resident Indians who held crypto on foreign exchanges will need to tick “Yes” to Question 19 in Part B-TTI, which activates Schedule FA
- Under “Schedules”, navigate to Schedule S first if you have salary income, enter your gross salary figures from Form 16 and confirm the TDS deducted by your employer
- Navigate to Schedule CG, this covers capital gains from assets other than VDAs. If crypto is your only investment, this schedule may have nil entries. Complete it before moving to Schedule VDA, as the portal flows into VDA from here
- Navigate to Schedule VDA, this is where every crypto disposal from FY 2025-26 is reported. See the dedicated section below for field-by-field instructions
- Navigate to Schedule OS, report staking rewards, airdrops, mining income, and hard fork income here under Section 1(e) “Any other income.” Enter the INR Fair Market Value of each receipt on the date it was received. Do not enter these in Schedule VDA
- Complete Schedule CYLA if you have losses to set off across income heads. VDA losses cannot be set off against salary or other income, this schedule is relevant only for non-crypto losses
- Complete Schedule VI-A to claim deductions, Section 80C, 80D, and others. Note that deductions under Chapter VI-A do not reduce your VDA tax liability under Section 115BBH, but they reduce tax on your other income
- Navigate to Schedule FA if you held crypto on any foreign exchange, Binance, Bybit, Kraken, or any non-Indian platform, at any point during the calendar year ending 31st December 2025. See the dedicated section below for field-by-field instructions. Skipping Schedule FA even if you made no transactions is a disclosure violation
- In Part B-TI, the portal auto-computes your total income across all heads. Cross-check that your VDA income from Schedule VDA (Item C2 of Schedule CG) and your Other Sources income from Schedule OS are both reflected correctly
- In Part B-TTI, verify the tax computed on your VDA income at 30% under Section 115BBH. Cross-check the TDS credits in Part 20C, the 1% TDS deducted by exchanges under Section 194S should appear here, pulled from your Form 26AS. Any mismatch between the portal’s pre-filled TDS figure and your own transaction records must be reconciled before you proceed
- Confirm your bank account details for refund purposes. Add all bank accounts held during FY 2025-26, not just the account you want the refund credited to
- Preview the return, download the ITR-2 draft, and review Schedule VDA and Schedule FA entries one final time before submission
- Submit the return. If your total income exceeds INR 5 lakh, complete e-verification immediately using Aadhaar OTP, net banking, or a Digital Signature Certificate. The return is not treated as filed until e-verification is complete, an unverified return is treated as an invalid return after 30 days.
Tracking every schedule across a multi-exchange crypto portfolio, and ensuring your Schedule VDA figures match what the ITD already holds in your AIS, is where manual filing breaks down. KoinX generates an ITR-ready Schedule VDA report for FY 2025-26, pre-formatted to match every field in the ITR-2 portal exactly, so you are not reconciling transaction by transaction at Step 11.
How Can KoinX Help Crypto Traders and Investors File ITR-2?
Pulling together transaction records from multiple exchanges, calculating the INR FMV for every disposal, separating staking rewards from capital gains, and cross checking TDS credits in Form 26AS can quickly become overwhelming. As a result, many crypto investors either make mistakes while entering transactions in Schedule VDA or give up altogether, increasing the risk of receiving a Section 143(1) notice.
KoinX is built to take that entire data problem off the table, so the filing itself becomes straightforward.
ITR-Ready Schedule VDA Report
KoinX generates a Schedule VDA report formatted specifically for the ITR-2 portal. Every disposal from FY 2025-26 is listed individually, date of acquisition, date of transfer, cost of acquisition in INR, and sale consideration, in the exact structure the portal expects. There is no reformatting, no copy-pasting between spreadsheets, and no risk of entering a lump-sum figure where the portal requires individual entries.
Automatic Separation of Capital Gains and Other Sources Income
Staking rewards, airdrops, and mining income do not belong in Schedule VDA, they go under Income from Other Sources. KoinX classifies each transaction type correctly at the point of import. Disposal gains flow into the Schedule VDA report. Receipt-stage income, staking rewards, airdrops, hard forks, is separated into a distinct income summary so you know exactly what to enter under Schedule OS without having to manually sort through your full transaction history.
Section 194S TDS Tracking
KoinX tracks the 1% TDS deducted by Indian exchanges under Section 194S on every disposal. These figures are surfaced in your tax report alongside the corresponding Schedule VDA entries, making it straightforward to cross-check against Form 26AS before filing. Discrepancies between the TDS your exchange deducted and what appears in your Form 26AS are flagged before they become a mismatch notice.
800+ Exchange and Wallet Integrations
Whether you traded on CoinDCX, WazirX, or Binance, KoinX imports your full transaction history directly. For Indian exchanges, Schedule FA holdings data, peak balances and income received, is captured alongside your disposal records, so both schedules are populated from a single import rather than two separate manual processes.
Generate your ITR-ready Schedule VDA report on KoinX and file ITR-2 for FY 2025-26 with figures that match what the ITD already holds in your AIS.
Conclusion
Filing ITR-2 as a crypto investor is not complicated once you know which schedules apply to you. Schedule VDA covers every disposal, Schedule OS handles staking rewards and airdrops, and Schedule FA is mandatory if you held crypto on any foreign exchange during FY 2025-26. The 31st July 2026 deadline is fixed, and missing it means forfeiting the right to carry forward any capital losses from the year, on top of the Section 234F late fee.
The part that takes the most time is pulling accurate transaction records across exchanges and reconciling them against your AIS before the portal session begins. KoinX handles that entire process, importing your transaction history, generating an ITR-ready Schedule VDA report, and separating capital gains from other sources of income, so you log into the portal with figures you can file with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s answer some of the frequently asked questions about crypto tax India:
I held crypto on Binance last year but made no trades. Do I still need to fill Schedule FA?
Yes. Schedule FA disclosure is mandatory for any resident Indian who held an asset, including crypto, on a foreign platform at any point during the calendar year ending 31st December 2025. The trigger is holding, not trading. Even a zero-transaction year with a non-zero balance on Binance or Bybit requires Schedule FA to be completed. Omitting it is a disclosure violation independent of any tax liability.
I already filed ITR-1 with my crypto gains. What happens now?
ITR-1 does not contain Schedule VDA, which means your crypto gains were not reported in the correct schedule. The return is technically defective under Section 139(9). You should file a revised return under Section 139(5) using ITR-2 before 31st March 2027, correctly filling Schedule VDA with each disposal listed individually. File the revision before the ITD issues a defective return notice, voluntary correction is treated more favourably than a prompted one.
My AIS shows a much higher figure than my actual crypto gains. Which figure do I report in Schedule VDA?
Report your actual gains, not the AIS figure. Indian exchanges report gross transaction volume to the ITD under SFT obligations, which means your AIS may show total buy-plus-sell value rather than net proceeds. Calculate your gain as sale consideration minus cost of acquisition for each disposal and report that figure in Schedule VDA. If the numbers differ significantly from your AIS, prepare a reconciliation note before filing to reduce the risk of a Section 143(1) notice.
Where do staking rewards and airdrops go in ITR-2, Schedule VDA or somewhere else?
Staking rewards, airdrops, mining income, and hard fork receipts go under Income from Other Sources in Schedule OS, not Schedule VDA. The taxable figure at receipt is the INR Fair Market Value on the date the tokens were received, taxed at your applicable slab rate. When you subsequently sell those tokens, the disposal gain goes into Schedule VDA, with the cost of acquisition equal to the FMV already taxed at receipt.
I missed the 31st July 2026 deadline. Can I still file ITR-2 and will I lose my crypto losses?
You can file a belated return under Section 139(4) until 31st December 2026, with a late fee of INR 5,000 under Section 234F, or INR 1,000 if your total income is below INR 5 lakh. However, capital losses from FY 2025-26 cannot be carried forward if the return is filed after 31st July 2026. For crypto investors, this means any VDA disposal losses from this year cannot offset future gains.
The TDS deducted by my exchange does not match what appears in my Form 26AS. What should I do before filing?
Do not file until the discrepancy is resolved. Download your full transaction history from the exchange, calculate the 1% TDS that should have been deducted on each disposal under Section 194S, and compare it against the TDS entries in your Form 26AS and AIS. If the exchange deducted correctly but the amount is not showing in Form 26AS, raise a grievance on the income tax portal. Filing with a known TDS mismatch without a reconciliation note is the most common trigger for a Section 143(1) notice for crypto investors.
