India Crypto Tax Rules: What You Need to Know About Crypto Taxes in India

When you trade or hold cryptocurrency in India, you’re not just dealing with price swings—you’re dealing with the India crypto tax rules, a set of tax laws that treat digital assets as taxable property, not currency. Also known as cryptocurrency taxation in India, these rules require you to report every trade, airdrop, and staking reward as income or capital gain. The government doesn’t care if you bought Bitcoin on WazirX, earned tokens from a decentralized app, or mined Ethereum on your home rig. If you made a profit, it’s taxable.

The core of these rules is simple: crypto gains, any profit from selling or exchanging digital assets are taxed at 30%, with no deductions allowed—not even for losses. That’s unusual. In most countries, you can offset losses against gains. In India, if you lost money on Solana but made money on Dogecoin, you still pay 30% on the Dogecoin profit. Even crypto airdrops, free tokens you receive without paying for them count as income. If you got 100 tokens worth $500 in an airdrop, you owe tax on that $500 as ordinary income, even if you never sold them.

And it gets more complicated. If you earn crypto through staking, lending, or mining, that’s treated as business income. You must track every transaction—when you bought, when you sold, what you received, and what you paid in fees. The income tax on crypto India, the official term for how the Indian government taxes digital assets doesn’t offer any exemptions for small traders. Even if you only traded $500 worth of crypto all year, you still need to report it. There’s no "de minimis" rule like in the U.S. You also have to file Form ITR-3 or ITR-4, depending on whether you’re trading as a hobby or a business. Failing to report can lead to penalties, audits, or even criminal charges.

Many people think they can avoid taxes by using non-KYC exchanges or sending crypto overseas. But India’s tax department has tools to track that. They’ve already demanded data from exchanges like CoinSwitch and WazirX. They’re cross-referencing bank statements, UPI logs, and blockchain addresses. If your bank shows a $10,000 deposit and you never declared crypto income, you’ll get a notice. And with the new crypto reporting India, mandatory disclosure requirements for financial institutions and exchanges coming into full force, hiding your activity is getting harder every year.

Below, you’ll find real breakdowns of how these rules play out in practice—from how airdrops are taxed to why selling NFTs triggers capital gains, and what happens if you use a foreign exchange. No theory. No guesswork. Just what people in India are actually paying, and how to stay compliant without overpaying.