Canadian Crypto Tax Calculator

Use this free Canadian crypto tax calculator to estimate the gain on a disposition under CRA rules. It opens with Canada already selected and works in Canadian dollars, using the adjusted cost base — the average across every unit of a coin you hold, which is the method the CRA requires rather than one of several you may choose.

This calculator produces an estimate for general information, not tax advice, and covers one disposition at a time. It does not apply the superficial loss rule. Whether your activity is a capital gain or business income depends on your circumstances; confirm your position with the CRA or a qualified accountant.

How the Canadian crypto tax calculator works

The calculator above is already set to Canada. Add a row for each purchase of the coin you disposed of, with the quantity, the price you paid per unit and the date. Then enter the quantity you disposed of and the proceeds. The estimate is the capital gain on that disposition, in Canadian dollars.

What makes the Canadian version different is that you do not choose how the cost is worked out. The CRA averages your cost across all identical properties, so the cost of what you sold is that running average rather than a specific purchase you nominate. Enter every acquisition you made before the disposal, not just the one you have in mind, or the average will be wrong and the gain with it.

The country picker remains usable if you landed here but file elsewhere.

Adjusted Cost Base (ACB) averaging

The Adjusted Cost Base is the average cost, in Canadian dollars, across all your units of a given coin. When you dispose of part of a holding, the cost assigned to what you sold is that average, and the pool carries on with the rest at the same average.

That makes the ACB a single running number your whole history feeds into, which is fine for one disposition in a calculator and punishing across a real year. Every purchase moves the average, so a disposition in October depends on a purchase in February that itself moved an average set the previous year. Miss one acquisition and every disposition after it is wrong, with nothing to flag it. Getting the ACB right, with a trail behind each disposition, is also exactly what a CRA review would look at.

The 50% capital gains inclusion rate

The inclusion rate is 50%: half your net capital gain is added to your taxable income. There is no separate capital gains rate in Canada and no holding-period discount, which makes the Canadian calculation structurally simpler than the Australian or UK one. It does not make arriving at the gain simpler, because that still runs through the ACB.

It is the net gain for the year that is included, so losses matter. Capital losses offset capital gains, and where they exceed them the excess can generally be carried to other years. A single-disposition estimate cannot see your other dispositions, so the figure above may be reduced by losses elsewhere.

Superficial loss rule (30-day)

If you sell crypto at a loss and buy the same crypto back within 30 days, the superficial loss rule can deny that loss. It is not erased outright: the denied amount is added to the adjusted cost base of the reacquired units, so the benefit is deferred until you eventually dispose of them.

This calculator cannot apply it, and it is worth being clear about why rather than leaving you to assume it did. The rule depends on what you reacquire in the 30 days after the disposition, across all your accounts — neither of which a single-disposition estimate can see. If you are harvesting losses in December and rebuying in January, treat the figure here as provisional. The mechanics are in the tax-loss harvesting guide.

Capital gains vs business income

Before you rely on the figure above, check which side of this line you are on. It decides whether the estimate applies to you at all, and it is the one question a calculator cannot answer for you:

When the estimate above applies: capital gains

Most individuals investing rather than operating a business are on the capital gains side. Half the net gain is included in taxable income and it is reported on Schedule 3. That is what this calculator estimates.

When it does not: business income

Business-like, high-frequency trading, or mining run as a business, generally means the full profit is taxable rather than half of it, reported on a different form under different rules. It also changes what you can deduct — a business miner can typically deduct equipment and electricity where a hobbyist cannot. If this is you, the number above understates your position by roughly half.

Which side you fall on depends on the facts of how you operate, so it is a judgement to confirm with an accountant rather than a threshold to look up. The Canadian crypto tax guide sets out where the line usually falls.

Your marginal rate on the taxable half

The included half of your net capital gain is taxed at your marginal rate, combining federal and provincial tax. This calculator does not ask for your income or your province and so does not apply a rate — treat the gain as the output and apply your own.

From estimate to Schedule 3 filing

Schedule 3 of the T1 return is where capital gains and losses are reported, and where crypto dispositions land; the taxable half then flows into your income. If your activity is business income it goes on T2125 instead, under different rules. The filing deadline is 30 April, or 15 June if you or your spouse are self-employed — though any tax owing is still due 30 April.

CryptaTax imports your exchanges and wallets, maintains the ACB pool per coin in Canadian dollars, applies the superficial loss rule across your accounts, and produces Schedule 3-ready figures with each number traceable to its transaction. See crypto on Canada's Schedule 3 for how dispositions reach the form.

Other crypto tax calculators and Canadian guides

Filing elsewhere? Try the UK crypto tax calculator or the Australian crypto tax calculator, or start from the main crypto tax calculator and pick any supported country. For the Canadian rules in full, read the Canadian crypto tax guide; if you are moving off another tool, see the best Koinly alternative for CRA reporting.