CGT on crypto disposals plus income tax on staking rewards.
Total crypto tax
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CGT on gains
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Tax on staking income
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Taxable gain (after exemption)
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Annual exemption used
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Your breakdown
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Amount
Two different buckets of crypto income
Revenue draws a sharp line between crypto you sell and crypto that pays you. When you sell or dispose of a crypto-asset, any gain is Capital Gains Tax at 33%. When a protocol pays you rewards for staking, validating, or providing liquidity, that is income taxable at your marginal rate in the year you receive it. The two treatments are separate calculations that you combine for the total bill. This tool does that split: the gains field covers disposals, the staking field covers income.
The practical problem is that many people do both and only discover that staking rewards count as income when they file. A person who earned 2,000 euro in staking rewards during the year and also sold Bitcoin for a 15,000 euro gain will owe CGT on the gain plus income tax on the rewards. This calculator applies the 1,270 euro annual exemption only to the capital gain side, because the exemption is for CGT, not income tax. The staking income is taxed from the first euro at the marginal rate.
Worked example: 15,000 euro gain plus 2,000 euro staking
Capital gain of 15,000 euro. After the 1,270 euro annual exemption the taxable gain is 13,730 euro. CGT at 33% is 4,531 euro. Staking income of 2,000 euro taxed at 52% (40% IT plus 8% top USC plus 4.1% PRSI rounded) is 1,040 euro. Total crypto tax: 5,571 euro. The effective rate on the total 17,000 euro is about 33%, but the staking portion bears a much heavier rate than the gains, which is why separating the two matters for planning.
Record keeping is not optional
Every crypto transaction must be documented with the acquisition date, acquisition price in euro, disposal date, and disposal price in euro. Token-to-token swaps are disposals too, not just euro sales. Revenue requires records to be kept for six years. Most exchanges and wallets export full transaction history, and several third-party tools will compute the gain automatically from imported data. If you cannot produce a cost basis for assets acquired in previous years, Revenue can treat the acquisition cost as zero, which makes the entire disposal price the gain. Building good records from the start is far cheaper than reconstructing them later.
Frequently asked questions
How does Revenue treat cryptocurrency gains in Ireland?
Revenue classifies crypto-assets as capital assets for CGT purposes. Each disposal, including selling for euros, trading one crypto for another, and spending crypto on goods or services, is a CGT event. The gain is the euro value at disposal minus the euro cost at acquisition. CGT at 33% applies to the net gain after the 1,270 euro annual personal exemption. The same rules apply to Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, and other tokens.
Is crypto staking income taxed differently from capital gains?
Yes. Revenue treats staking rewards, yield farming income, and DeFi interest as income rather than capital gains. These amounts are taxable as miscellaneous income in the year received, at your marginal income tax rate plus USC and PRSI. The cost base for future CGT purposes on the staked tokens is the income value at the time of receipt. This means staking income is taxed twice if it is later sold at a gain: once as income when received and once as a gain at disposal.
Do crypto losses carry forward in Ireland?
Yes, capital losses on crypto can be carried forward and offset against future capital gains. A loss in one tax year cannot be set against income, but it reduces CGT on future crypto or other asset disposals. Losses must be claimed, and the 1,270 euro annual exemption applies before losses are used in the year they arise. Keeping records of every acquisition cost and disposal price is essential to correctly compute losses that can be carried forward.
What records do I need to keep for Irish crypto tax?
Revenue expects you to keep records of every transaction: the date, the asset, the acquisition cost in euro at the date of purchase, the disposal proceeds in euro at the date of sale, and the resulting gain or loss. Exchange and wallet transaction histories export this data in CSV format. Without good records Revenue can challenge your cost basis and assess the full sale proceeds as a gain. The records must be kept for six years from the end of the tax year.