Step-by-step guide to reporting cryptocurrency capital gains on your Australian tax return in myTax, including what records the ATO needs and what exchanges already report to them.
What the ATO Already Knows About Your Crypto
A persistent myth among Australian crypto holders is that crypto transactions are private. They are not. The ATO runs an active data-matching program: Australian crypto exchanges are legally required to provide user transaction data — including names, addresses, dates of birth and full transaction histories — directly to the ATO.
The ATO estimates it receives data covering up to 1.2 million individuals annually, and this data is automatically cross-referenced against lodged tax returns to flag discrepancies. If you've traded on any Australian exchange such as CoinSpot, Swyftx, or Independent Reserve, the ATO likely already has a record of your transactions. It also has international data-sharing agreements that capture some overseas exchange activity.
⚠️ Bottom line: Omitting crypto from your tax return because you assume it won't be noticed is a high-risk strategy that has caught many Australian investors. The ATO issues amended assessments, interest and penalties for under-reported gains.
Records You Need to Keep
For every crypto transaction, you need to record:
- Acquisitions: Date purchased, amount of crypto received, AUD amount paid (including fees), name of the exchange or wallet
- Disposals: Date sold/swapped/spent/gifted, amount of crypto given up, AUD value at the time of disposal, what was received in return (whether AUD, another crypto, or goods/services)
- Income events: Date staking rewards or airdrops were received, AUD value at the time of receipt
Records must be kept for five years after the relevant tax return is lodged. The ATO accepts digital records including exchange transaction exports, screenshots, and spreadsheets — but they must clearly show the date and AUD values.
💡 Pro tip: Export your full transaction history from every exchange you've used as a CSV file and save it somewhere permanent. Exchanges have been known to shut down, change their data export formats, or limit how far back you can access history. Getting your records now is much easier than reconstructing them later.
Calculating Your Gains and Losses
Before opening myTax, you need to have already calculated your net capital gain for the year. Here's the process:
- List every disposal during the financial year (1 July to 30 June) — sales, swaps, spending and gifts all count
- Calculate the gain or loss on each disposal: disposal proceeds minus cost base (what you originally paid plus fees)
- Apply the 50% CGT discount to individual gains where you held the asset for more than 12 continuous months
- Offset capital losses against capital gains (losses from personal use assets cannot be used)
- The result is your net capital gain — this is what goes into your tax return
✅ If you held some assets for more than 12 months and some for less: Calculate each disposal separately. Apply the 50% discount only to the eligible gains, then add all the discounted and non-discounted gains together, offset losses, and report the total net figure.
Where in myTax to Enter Crypto
When you lodge via myTax on the ATO website:
- Log into myGov and open your tax return
- Go to the Capital Gains section (look for "Did you have a capital gain or loss this income year?" — select Yes)
- myTax may pre-fill some data from exchanges — check this carefully against your own records since pre-filled data can be incomplete or show gross proceeds without accounting for your cost base
- Enter your Net capital gain — this is the figure after all losses have been offset and the 50% discount applied
- If you used the CGT discount, you also need to enter the total discount amount applied separately (myTax will prompt you for this)
If you have many transactions, crypto tax software (covered below) can generate a summary report specifically formatted for myTax input — saving you from adding up dozens of individual disposals manually.
Reporting Crypto Income (Staking, Airdrops, Mining)
Staking rewards, airdrop tokens, and mining income are not capital gains — they are ordinary assessable income at the AUD market value on the date you received them. These go in a different section of your return:
- In myTax, look for "Other income" or "Income from foreign sources" depending on where the income originated
- The amount to report is the AUD value of the tokens on the day you received them — not when you eventually sell them
- When you later sell those staked/airdropped tokens, any gain or loss above your original income-inclusion amount is a separate CGT event
Using Crypto Tax Software
If you've had more than a handful of transactions, calculating everything manually is tedious and error-prone. Crypto tax software automates most of this by connecting to your exchange accounts and calculating your gain/loss summary automatically. See our full guide to the best crypto tax software for Australians. Top picks: Koinly (best overall, 800+ integrations) and Summ (best for DeFi and complex on-chain activity) for a detailed comparison.
The output you need from any crypto tax software is an ATO-compliant tax report showing your total net capital gain, total discount applied, and any carry-forward losses — these three figures are what actually go into myTax.
🧮 Calculate Your Crypto CGT First
Work out your capital gain for the year before opening myTax — our free calculator handles the 50% discount and loss offsets automatically.
Open Crypto Tax Calculator →