Crypto Tax India: What You Need to Know About Reporting Crypto in 2025

When you trade, earn, or spend cryptocurrency in India, you’re dealing with crypto tax India, the legal requirement to report crypto gains as income under Indian tax law. Also known as cryptocurrency tax India, it applies to every transaction—whether you bought Bitcoin on WazirX, earned interest on Aave, or swapped tokens on a DEX. The government treats crypto like property, not currency, so every sale or trade triggers a taxable event.

That means if you bought ETH for ₹50,000 and sold it for ₹75,000, you owe tax on the ₹25,000 profit. Even airdrops and staking rewards count as income—the moment you receive them, they’re taxable at your slab rate. And if you send crypto to a friend? That’s a disposal. No exceptions. The Income Tax Department tracks this through exchange data, KYC records, and blockchain analysis tools. If you used Binance P2P, YellowCard, or any other platform to buy or sell crypto in India, your activity is visible to tax authorities. You can’t hide behind decentralization—Indian crypto regulations, the legal framework that mandates reporting of all crypto transactions don’t care if you used a DEX or held crypto in a self-custody wallet.

Many people think if they don’t cash out to INR, they’re safe. They’re wrong. Swapping SOL for USDT? Taxable. Using crypto to buy a laptop? Taxable. Even losing crypto to a scam or hack doesn’t erase the tax liability—you still owe tax on the original purchase value. The 1% TDS on crypto trades since July 2022 isn’t a one-time fee—it’s a tracking mechanism. Every transaction leaves a paper trail. And with crypto income tax, the specific tax category under which crypto gains are classified in India now clearly defined as "income from other sources," the rules are no longer vague. You’re expected to maintain records: dates, amounts, values in INR at time of trade, wallet addresses, and exchange receipts.

Reporting isn’t optional. Failing to file can mean penalties up to 200% of the tax due, or even prosecution under the Income Tax Act. The government has already started matching data from exchanges like CoinSwitch, ZebPay, and others with tax returns. If you bought crypto in 2023 or 2024 and didn’t report it, you’re at risk. Even if you’re not a day trader—if you held crypto for over a year and sold it, you still owe tax. There’s no long-term capital gains exemption for crypto in India, unlike stocks or real estate.

What you’ll find below are real, practical guides from people who’ve been through this. Posts cover how to track your crypto trades manually, how to calculate gains across multiple wallets, what forms to use in your ITR, and which platforms actually share data with the tax department. You’ll also see what happens when you ignore the rules—and how to fix past mistakes before the next filing season. This isn’t theory. These are the exact tools, methods, and mistakes that Indian crypto users are dealing with right now in 2025. Read on to make sure you’re not the one getting caught off guard.