Crypto Tax in Australia 2026-27: What the ATO Actually Taxes

The ATO treats your crypto as a CGT asset, not as currency. Every time you dispose of it — sell it for Aussie dollars, swap it for another coin, spend it, or gift it — that is a capital gains tax event, and any profit is taxable at your marginal rate. Hold it and do nothing, and you owe nothing yet — but you still need records. And no, you do not need to “cash out” to trigger tax: swapping Bitcoin for Ethereum is a disposal, same as selling for dollars.

Quick answer: In 2026-27, crypto profits are taxed as capital gains at your marginal rate (0% to 45% plus the 2% Medicare levy). Hold a coin for more than 12 months and the 50% CGT discount halves the taxable gain. Staking rewards, airdrops and mining income are taxed separately as ordinary income when received. This is the last year the 50% discount exists — from 1 July 2027 it becomes inflation indexation plus a 30% minimum tax.

How the ATO classifies your crypto

Your tax treatment depends on why you hold the crypto:

Classification	Who it fits	How gains are taxed
CGT asset (investor)	You bought it hoping it would go up in value — the default for almost everyone	Capital gains tax on each disposal; 50% discount after 12 months; losses offset other capital gains
Personal use asset	You bought it to spend it quickly on something personal — not to invest	Gains disregarded (tax-free) if the cost was $10,000 or less — but losses can’t be claimed either
Trading stock (business)	You run a genuine crypto trading business with high volume and a profit-making operation	Profits taxed as ordinary income; expenses deductible; no CGT discount

The personal use box is where people get creative — and where the ATO is strictest. It only works if the crypto was kept or used mainly for personal use or enjoyment, cost $10,000 or less, and was never held as an investment. Buying crypto and spending it almost immediately is the classic pass; holding it for a year and then spending it is an investment that ended in a purchase. See the ATO’s crypto guidance.

The rest of this guide assumes the investor box.

Every CGT event that matters

Each of these triggers a CGT event, worked out in Australian dollars at the time:

• Selling crypto for AUD — proceeds are what hit your bank account.
• Swapping one crypto for another — trading BTC for ETH is a disposal of the BTC; the proceeds equal the AUD market value of what you received.
• Spending crypto on goods or services — a disposal, unless the narrow personal use exemption applies.
• Gifting crypto — a CGT event for you, the giver, at market value. (The recipient’s cost base becomes that market value.) Donating to a registered deductible gift recipient is the exception: no CGT for the donor, plus a deduction.
• DeFi moves — adding liquidity to a pool, receiving LP tokens, or wrapping tokens can each count as disposals.
• Network fees paid in crypto — if your holding shrinks during a wallet transfer to cover a gas fee, the ATO treats that fee as a disposal in its own right.

What is not a CGT event: simply holding crypto (no tax until you dispose of it), and transferring crypto between wallets or exchanges you own — as long as you keep ownership throughout.

When crypto is income, not a capital gain

Some crypto arrives as ordinary income first — and this is the layer people most often miss:

• Staking rewards — ordinary income at the AUD market value on the day you receive them, reported as “Other income”.
• DeFi interest and yield farming rewards — income on receipt.
• Airdrops of established tokens — market value is income when received. (Unsolicited ones are generally only taxed when you sell.)
• Mining — hobby miners treat mined coins as a CGT asset at market value on receipt; mining as a business means ordinary income with deductible expenses.
• Getting paid in crypto — salary, freelance fees, referral bonuses: ordinary income at the AUD value received, just like cash.

Here is the trap: staking rewards are taxed twice, in two different ways. Earn 0.05 ETH when ETH is $4,000 AUD and that $200 is ordinary income on receipt — and the cost base of those tokens. Sell them later for $260 and the $60 is a separate capital gain, discount-eligible after 12 months. Keep income and capital records in separate columns.

Run the income side through our free income tax calculator to see how it stacks onto your salary.

Cost base: what you can include

Your capital gain is proceeds minus cost base — and the cost base is more generous than most people realise. It includes the purchase price plus brokerage, exchange, gas and transfer fees. Sale-side fees count too, either added to the cost base or subtracted from the proceeds. For crypto received as income (staking, airdrops, mining), the cost base is the AUD market value you declared as income at receipt — the ATO’s worked examples spell this out (see how to work out and report CGT on crypto).

Every buy creates a separate CGT asset — a “parcel” with its own acquisition date and cost base. The ATO does not force you onto FIFO, but whatever method you use to match disposals to parcels must be reasonable and applied consistently. Most investors use FIFO; if you use specific identification for large holdings, keep proof of which parcel you sold.

The 50% discount and the 12-month clock

Hold a crypto parcel for more than 12 months and, as an individual investor, you can halve the capital gain. The buy day and sell day are both excluded, and the clock runs per parcel: your January Bitcoin may qualify while your June Bitcoin doesn’t.

2026-27 is the last year this discount works this way. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 (Royal Assent 26 June 2026) replaces it from 1 July 2027 with CPI cost-base indexation plus a 30% minimum tax on net capital gains. Crypto is a CGT asset, so the change hits crypto gains the same as shares — the published carve-outs are housing-specific.

What matters now is the transitional rule: gains accrued before 1 July 2027 keep the old 50% discount. A defensible market valuation of your holdings just before that date may be the most valuable record you keep — and the months before 30 June 2027 are the last window to lock in the discount on accrued gains.

Calculating your crypto CGT, step by step

The method is the same for every disposal:

1. Identify the disposal and its AUD value — sale, swap, spend, gift, DeFi move. For swaps, the AUD market value at the time — not the daily average.

2. Work out the cost base of that parcel — price plus fees, or market value at receipt for income-sourced crypto.

3. Subtract cost base from proceeds — positive is a gain, negative a loss. Net all crypto gains and losses for the year.

4. Apply the discount to eligible gains, then add the net gain to your taxable income. Losses offset capital gains only — not salary — but carry forward indefinitely, and a crypto loss can offset a gain on another asset, like the profit on an investment property sale.

Worked example: 0.5 BTC, real 2026-27 numbers

You bought 0.5 BTC for $95,000 AUD (price plus exchange fee — the full amount is your cost base) and sold it 14 months later for $150,000 AUD, on a $110,000 salary:

The capital gain – Capital proceeds: $150,000 – Less cost base: $95,000 – Capital gain: $55,000

The discount – Held 14 months, so the 50% CGT discount applies – Taxable portion: $55,000 × 50% = $27,500

The tax (2026-27 resident rates — see our full rate table) – Without crypto: $110,000 → tax $23,520 + Medicare $2,200 = $25,720 – With the gain: $137,500 taxable → tax $31,945 + Medicare $2,750 = $34,695 – Extra tax from the crypto sale: $8,975

Note two things. The $27,500 of taxable gain pushed $2,500 of your income into the 37% bracket — gains stack on top of salary. And had you sold at month 10 instead of month 14, the full $55,000 would have been taxable and the extra tax roughly $19,700. Waiting four months for the discount saved about $10,725. That is the 12-month clock in dollars.

Model your own numbers with our free CGT calculator — it handles the discount, the brackets and the Medicare levy for 2026-27.

Record-keeping the ATO expects

The ATO’s guidance says to keep records for at least five years after the disposal. For every transaction, record the date and time, what it was (buy, sell, swap, reward, transfer, gift), the AUD value at the time (noting the price source), the wallets or exchange accounts and transaction IDs, and any fees paid.

Export your exchange transaction history regularly — some platforms purge old data. For swaps, the AUD value at the exact moment matters, and reconstructing it months later from price charts is painful. A crypto tax tool connected to your wallets automates most of this; a spreadsheet works for light trading but not DeFi.

Common mistakes that cost people money

1. “I didn’t cash out, so there’s no tax.” The most common error by a mile. Crypto-to-crypto swaps are disposals — every one is a CGT event, no matter how small. Years of unreported swapping is how people end up with a surprise ATO letter.

2. The personal-use asset myth. Spending the Bitcoin you’ve held as an investment does not make it a personal use asset. The ATO looks at why you acquired and held it — speculation disqualifies it.

3. Forgetting to track fees. Fees either inflate your cost base or reduce your proceeds. Ignore them and you pay tax on money you never made.

4. Missing the staking income layer. Rewards are ordinary income on receipt, not when you sell the tokens. Declaring them only on disposal is wrong.

5. Wash sales. Selling at a loss and immediately rebuying to crystallise the loss for tax purposes can attract ATO scrutiny and anti-avoidance action.

Tips to keep your crypto tax bill legal and lean

• Mind the 12-month clock per parcel. Before selling, check the acquisition date of the specific parcel — a few weeks’ patience can halve the taxable gain.
• Harvest losses deliberately. A crypto loss offsets gains on any asset — shares, property, other coins. Sell a loser before 30 June to absorb earlier gains; unused losses carry forward.
• Log every buy — date, AUD cost, fee.
• Time big disposals with your income year. Gains stack on top of salary, so realising a gain in a lower-income year can mean a lower marginal rate.
• Pair gains with deductible super contributions — see our salary sacrifice guide (fund must receive it by 30 June).
• Get a valuation before 1 July 2027 to protect the discount on accrued up to that date.

Frequently asked questions

I swapped BTC for ETH but never cashed out to AUD. Do I owe tax? Yes. A crypto-to-crypto swap is a disposal of the BTC — a CGT event — even though no dollars touched your bank account. The gain is worked out using the AUD market value of the ETH at the time of the swap.

Do I pay tax if I just hold crypto, or move it between my own wallets? No. Holding is not a disposal, and moving between wallets or exchanges you own is not a disposal while you keep ownership. One watch-out: a network fee paid in crypto during the transfer is itself a small disposal.

How is staking income taxed — isn’t that double taxation? Staking rewards are ordinary income at their AUD value when received. Selling those tokens later is a separate capital gain or loss — income tax on the reward, then CGT on the price movement.

I lost my private keys / got scammed. Can I claim a loss? Possibly, but you must prove ownership and that the loss is genuinely irrecoverable. Document the original purchase, the wallet address and any scam correspondence — the ATO will want evidence.

Should I sell before 1 July 2027 because the 50% discount is ending? Never sell an investment purely for tax reasons — but the calendar matters. Gains accrued up to 30 June 2027 keep the old discount under the transitional rules; gains from 1 July 2027 face CPI indexation plus a 30% minimum tax. If you were already considering selling a long-held position, doing it before the change locks in the discount on the accrued gain. Get advice before moving large positions.

The bottom line

The short version: disposals are CGT events, swaps count as disposals, staking is income on receipt, fees shrink your gain, and the 50% discount rewards a 12-month hold. The record-keeping is the real work — get that right and the maths is straightforward. And with the 50% discount ending on 30 June 2027, this is the last financial year under the rules most investors planned around. Use it deliberately.

Run your numbers through our free CGT calculator; if staking rewards are lifting your ordinary income, our income tax calculator shows where each extra dollar lands.