Free India Crypto Tax Calculator

India treats cryptocurrency, NFTs, and similar tokens as Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) under Section 2(47A). Since April 2022, income from transferring any VDA is taxed at a flat 30% under Section 115BBH — a rule carried forward into the Income-tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026, which also explicitly adds "crypto-asset" to the VDA definition.

Effective rate: 31.2%. The 30% base rate plus a 4% health and education cess means every ₹100 of gain costs ₹31.2 in tax. Investors with total income above ₹50 lakh pay a 10%–25% surcharge on top, pushing the effective rate toward 39% at very high incomes.

What you can and cannot deduct. Only the cost of acquisition reduces your taxable gain. Exchange trading fees, blockchain gas fees, brokerage charges, software subscriptions, and foreign taxes paid — none of these are deductible. This makes the Indian regime harsher than most countries, where fees form part of the cost base.

The loss rule — India's harshest provision. A loss on one VDA cannot be set off against a gain on another VDA, cannot reduce salary or any other income, and cannot be carried forward to future years. Each profitable transfer is taxed at 30% independently. If you make ₹50,000 on one coin and lose ₹50,000 on another in the same year, you still owe ₹15,000 in tax (plus cess) on the profitable one.

1% TDS under Section 194S. Every crypto transfer above ₹10,000 in a financial year (₹50,000 for "specified persons" — typically smaller individual and HUF sellers) attracts 1% tax deducted at source, usually handled automatically by the exchange. TDS is not an extra tax: it appears in Form 26AS/AIS and is credited against your final 30% liability when you file. If your total tax is less than the TDS withheld, you can claim a refund.

Reporting and record keeping. Report all VDA transfers in Schedule VDA of ITR-2 (capital gains) or ITR-3 (business income), transaction by transaction, with quarter-wise totals. From April 1, 2026, Section 509 of the new Act requires exchanges and custodians to report your crypto transactions directly to the department — your Annual Information Statement will show them, so mismatches are easy to detect. Penalties for reporting entities: ₹200 per day for non-filing and ₹50,000 for inaccurate information.

Other taxable events. Crypto-to-crypto trades are taxable (each leg valued in rupees at market price). Gifts of crypto are taxable in the recipient's hands if the aggregate value exceeds ₹50,000 (with exemptions for relatives). Mining, staking rewards, and airdrops are generally taxed as income at their market value when received — that value also becomes your cost of acquisition for the later disposal.