Crypto CGT with 50% discount.
CGT payable
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Net after CGT
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The ATO treats crypto as property, not currency
The single fact that drives crypto tax in Australia is that the ATO does not see bitcoin or ether as money. It treats them as capital gains tax assets, the same broad category as shares or an investment property. So when you dispose of crypto, you make a capital gain or loss equal to the proceeds minus your cost base, and that gain feeds into your income tax at your marginal rate. There is no separate flat crypto tax. This calculator takes your cost base, your disposal proceeds, your marginal rate and whether you held for more than twelve months, and returns the CGT payable and what you keep.
The twelve-month line that halves your bill
The most valuable rule for crypto investors is the 50 percent CGT discount. If you held the asset for more than twelve months before disposing of it, only half the gain is taxable. The other half is simply ignored. Hold for twelve months or less and the whole gain is taxed. The tool applies the discount when you tick the holding box, and the difference is large enough that timing a sale a few days either side of the anniversary can change the tax materially.
A $15,000 gain held long term
Take the defaults: a $10,000 cost base, $25,000 of proceeds, a 37 percent marginal rate, and the asset held more than twelve months. The raw gain is $15,000. Because the discount applies, only $7,500 is taxable. At 37 percent that is $2,775 of CGT, leaving $12,225 of the gain in your pocket after tax. Had you sold inside twelve months, the full $15,000 would be taxed at 37 percent, a bill of $5,550, which is exactly double.
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The chart contrasts the tax on the same $15,000 gain held long term versus short term. The discount is the whole story.
Every trade is a taxable event
The trap that catches most crypto holders is thinking tax only applies when they cash out to Australian dollars. It does not. Swapping bitcoin for ether is a disposal of the bitcoin at its market value in dollars on that day, and it triggers CGT even though no dollars hit your bank. Spending crypto on goods or services is also a disposal. Active traders who made dozens of swaps in a rising market can owe real tax while feeling like they never took profit. This calculator handles a single disposal; for a year of trading you need to total the gains and losses across every event, which is exactly what exchange tax reports and the ATO's data-matching program are built around.
Losses and the records that protect you
Capital losses are genuinely useful. A crypto loss can offset capital gains from anywhere, including shares or property, in the same year, and any unused loss carries forward indefinitely to offset future gains. One important caveat: the 50 percent discount applies to net gains, so you offset losses against the gross gain first and discount what remains. Keep records of the dollar value at every acquisition and disposal, including swaps, because the ATO receives data directly from Australian exchanges and reconciles it against returns. Reconstructing a cost base years later, after an exchange has shut down, is a miserable task, so export your history while you can.
Common questions
Am I an investor or a trader, and does it matter?
It matters a lot. An investor holds crypto for capital growth and uses the CGT rules, including the discount. A trader who buys and sells as a business is taxed on profits as ordinary income, with no 50 percent discount, though losses are treated differently too. Most individuals are investors, but high-frequency activity can tip you into trader territory, which removes the discount this tool assumes.
How is staking or airdrop income taxed?
Rewards from staking and most airdrops are treated as ordinary income at their dollar value when you receive them, taxed at your marginal rate, separate from any later CGT when you dispose of the coins. This calculator covers the disposal, not the income leg, so account for staking rewards as income in the year received.
What if I just moved crypto between my own wallets?
Transferring crypto between wallets you own is not a disposal and triggers no CGT, because you still hold the same asset. Only a change of beneficial ownership, selling, swapping, gifting or spending, is a CGT event. Keep evidence that the wallets are both yours, so a transfer is not mistaken for a disposal in any review.