Singapore has no capital gains tax. This tool shows when crypto gains may instead be treated as taxable business income.
Tax outcome
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Crypto gains
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Capital gain (not taxed)
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If classified as business income
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Estimated tax (if business)
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Your breakdown
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Singapore has no capital gains tax on crypto
Singapore is one of the few developed economies that does not impose a capital gains tax, and this applies fully to cryptocurrency. An investor who bought Ethereum in 2020 and sold in 2024 at a large profit owes no tax on the gain. IRAS stated this position in its e-Tax Guide on the income tax treatment of digital payment tokens, drawing a clear line between investment gains (not taxable) and trading profits (potentially taxable as income). The absence of a capital gains tax is one reason Singapore has become a regional hub for digital asset activity and for individuals in the crypto industry who have relocated here. This calculator is an educational tool to help you understand which side of that line your activity falls on, and to give a rough estimate of the tax exposure if your activity were classified as a trade.
The business income test and how IRAS applies it
IRAS applies what is sometimes called the badges of trade test to determine whether gains are capital or income. The factors include: the number of transactions in the year, the typical holding period before selling (days and weeks versus months and years), whether you use borrowed money to fund purchases, whether you have specialist trading knowledge or infrastructure, and whether you quit a job to trade full-time. No single factor is decisive. A person who made 300 crypto trades in a year using a systematic strategy and substantial leverage is a much harder case than a salaried employee who bought Bitcoin once and sold it two years later. Where the facts are genuinely ambiguous, a tax adviser can help you document and defend your position, including seeking an advance ruling from IRAS if the amounts are large.
Crypto received as income, salary, and NFT proceeds
Even without a capital gains tax, crypto creates Singapore tax liability in three scenarios. First, crypto received as salary or professional fees is employment or business income at the SGD market value on the date received. Second, crypto mining rewards are income to the miner at receipt value. Third, if an NFT creator sells an NFT they made, the proceeds are likely income from a trade in creative works, taxable in the same way as any artist or author. The capital-gain exception only applies to investment assets held for appreciation, not to the outputs of your labour or business activity. For these scenarios the income tax rate is the resident progressive rate starting from 0 and rising to 24 percent above $1 million, and CPF also applies on the employment portion if the recipient is a Singapore citizen or PR.