India Crypto Taxation: What You Need to Know About Taxes on Bitcoin and Altcoins

When you buy or sell cryptocurrency in India, you’re not just trading digital assets—you’re dealing with India crypto taxation, a strict tax regime that treats crypto gains as income with no allowances or offsets. Also known as cryptocurrency tax India, this system doesn’t care if you made a profit or lost money—every trade triggers a tax event. The rules changed in 2022, and since then, the government has treated crypto like a high-risk asset class, not a currency or investment.

Here’s what actually matters: crypto gains tax, a flat 30% rate on all profits from selling or trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any altcoin. You can’t offset losses against gains. If you bought Bitcoin for ₹5 lakh and sold it for ₹8 lakh, you owe ₹90,000 in tax—even if you lost ₹2 lakh on another trade. And if you swap one coin for another, like ETH for SOL, that’s a taxable event too. The IRS-style logic doesn’t apply here. This isn’t about fairness—it’s about tracking every transaction.

Then there’s TDS, a 1% tax deducted at source on every crypto trade over ₹10,000 in a single day. This applies whether you’re buying or selling on Indian exchanges like WazirX or CoinDCX. The exchange takes it out automatically, and you can’t get it back unless you file your return. It’s not a refundable advance—it’s a withholding. And if you use a foreign exchange like Binance or Kraken? You’re still legally required to report it. The Indian tax department has access to data from banks and payment processors, and they’re cross-referencing wallet addresses with UPI and bank transfers.

Gifts, airdrops, and staking rewards? Taxable too. If you get 0.5 BTC as a gift, you pay tax on its market value at the time you received it. Same with airdrops from new projects—even if you never sold them. Staking rewards are treated as income, taxed at your slab rate. There’s no exemption for holding long-term. Unlike Portugal or Switzerland, India doesn’t reward patience. You pay 30% whether you held for 10 days or 10 years.

Reporting is your responsibility. You must file ITR-2 and declare crypto income under "Capital Gains" or "Income from Other Sources." No one’s going to remind you. The penalty for non-disclosure can be up to 200% of the tax evaded, plus interest. Many people think they can hide behind offshore wallets—but with Aadhaar-linked bank accounts and KYC on all Indian exchanges, the trail is clear.

What you’ll find in the posts below aren’t theory or opinion. These are real cases: how people got caught, which exchanges report to the government, why airdrops are risky in India, and what happens when you ignore TDS. You’ll see how tax rules impact mining, DeFi, and even NFT sales. There’s no fluff—just what you need to avoid fines, audits, or worse.