Crypto Tax India: Rules, Reporting, and What You Need to Know

When you trade or hold cryptocurrency, a digital asset bought, sold, or stored on a blockchain that can be taxed like property or income. Also known as digital assets, it's treated as a taxable asset under Indian law since 2022. Whether you bought Bitcoin on Binance, staked Ethereum, or sold a meme coin on KuCoin, the Indian government wants to know—and so does the tax department.

The 30% crypto tax, a flat rate applied to all gains from crypto transfers in India, regardless of holding period is the biggest change. Unlike stocks, there’s no distinction between short-term and long-term gains. Every sale, swap, or spend of crypto triggers a taxable event. Even gifting crypto to a friend counts. There’s no deduction for losses, and you can’t offset them against other income. The 1% TDS, a tax deducted at source on every crypto transaction above ₹10,000, applied by exchanges like CoinSwitch or ZebPay adds another layer. This is withheld automatically, but it doesn’t replace your final tax bill—it just reduces what you owe later.

Reporting is simple in theory but messy in practice. You need to track every single transaction: buys, sells, trades, staking rewards, airdrops, even NFT purchases. If you used a foreign exchange like Binance or Bybit, you’re still required to report it. The government doesn’t care if you didn’t convert to INR—what matters is the fair market value in rupees at the time of the transaction. Many traders miss this and end up underreporting. The Income Tax Department, India’s tax authority that now cross-checks crypto data with exchanges and banks under the Global Crypto Reporting Standard has access to transaction logs from Indian exchanges and can request data from foreign platforms too.

What about mining or earning crypto as income? If you’re paid in crypto for freelance work, that’s treated as business income and taxed at your slab rate. Staking rewards? Taxable as income when you receive them. Airdrops? Taxable at fair market value on the day you claim them. There’s no exemption for small amounts. Even ₹500 in Solana from an airdrop needs to be recorded.

You don’t need to file a separate form, but you must report crypto gains under Capital Gains or Income from Other Sources in your ITR-2 or ITR-3. Keep records for at least six years. If you’re unsure, use a crypto tax tool—many Indian traders rely on Koinly or CoinTracker to auto-calculate their liability. Don’t wait until April to figure it out. Start tracking now.

The posts below cover real cases: how traders in Mumbai reported their Binance trades, what happened when someone forgot to declare a Dogecoin airdrop, how staking rewards on Coinbase were taxed, and why using a VPN to access foreign exchanges doesn’t hide your tax liability. You’ll find no fluff—just what actually matters when filing your crypto taxes in India.