Now Reading: Crypto tax stays at 30%, new reporting rules from April 2026
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Crypto tax stays at 30%, new reporting rules from April 2026
The Income-tax Act, 2025, effective from 1 April 2026, retains the 30 per cent flat tax on all gains from transferring virtual digital assets (VDAs), including cryptocurrencies and NFTs, experts said on…
The Income-tax Act, 2025, effective from 1 April 2026, retains the 30 per cent flat tax on all gains from transferring virtual digital assets (VDAs), including cryptocurrencies and NFTs, experts said on Tuesday.
The 1 per cent TDS on crypto transactions continues, now under Section 393(1). Investors cannot deduct trading fees, platform charges or advisory expenses. Losses from one VDA cannot be set off against gains from another, nor carried forward. The new Section 509 creates a mandatory reporting framework: exchanges must verify user identities, determine tax residency and file annual transaction-level reports through Form 167, covering crypto-to-crypto trades, fiat conversions and wallet transfers.
The core arithmetic remains unchanged, but the compliance burden intensifies as the tax department gains direct visibility into exchange activity. For individual investors, correctly reporting taxable income in their returns remains their responsibility.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The structural reorganisation of the tax code consolidates scattered provisions into a single framework, but leaves the 30 per cent flat rate untouched, a rate that was modelled on the highest personal income-tax slab plus surcharge, effectively treating crypto income like lottery winnings rather than capital gains. India's crypto ecosystem, valued at roughly Rs 15,000 crore in annual trading volume per industry estimates, has long argued that this punitive rate and the ban on loss offsetting push legitimate traders offshore. The new mandatory reporting under Section 509, requiring exchanges to file Form 167 with transaction-level data, mirrors global norms like the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. For investors, the key shift is visibility: the tax department now has a direct line into every exchange trade and wallet transfer. The first annual reports under Section 509 will be due in 2027, for the tax year beginning 1 April 2026.
Source: livemint.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
