Crypto Tax for AU Expats
The ATO treats crypto as CGT assets. Calculate your tax on disposals, staking income, and understand how residency status affects your crypto obligations.
CGT events: Selling crypto, swapping one crypto for another, buying goods/services with crypto, and gifting crypto are all CGT events. Only buying crypto with AUD is NOT a CGT event.
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Add your disposals to calculate CGT:
Additional Income
Key Rules for Expats
- Non-residents: No 50% CGT discount on crypto acquired after 8 May 2012. Taxed at 32.5% from $0 on the full capital gain.
- Personal use exemption: If you acquired crypto for <$10,000 to use for personal goods/services (not as an investment), the gain may be exempt. This is very narrow — the ATO scrutinises personal use claims.
- Staking income: Treated as ordinary income (not capital gain) at the time you receive the tokens. The cost base for future CGT is the value at receipt.
- DeFi transactions: Providing liquidity, yield farming, and wrapping tokens are CGT events. Each swap is a disposal.
- NFTs: Treated as CGT assets. 50% discount available for residents holding 12+ months.
- Record keeping: The ATO requires records of every transaction — date, amount in AUD, what you received, and the exchange rate used.
ATO data matching: The ATO receives data from Australian crypto exchanges (CoinSpot, Swyftx, etc.) and has entered into data-sharing agreements with international exchanges. Don't assume offshore trading is invisible.