Crypto tax records in Australia: the minimum records you need before you trust an estimate
The fastest way to get a confident-looking wrong answer is to guess dates, values, or event types. This estimator is intentionally manual, so the result is only as defensible as the records you enter.
The plain-English answer
For this app, the minimum viable record is date, asset, quantity, AUD value, fee in AUD, and enough context to tell a buy, sale, swap, or staking receipt apart. If you do not have that, the maths may still run, but the estimate should not be trusted.
Track the date and AUD value first
Those two fields drive both income timing and cost-base logic. If either one is vague, the estimate weakens fast. This matters for both staking receipts and CGT disposals.
Track fees separately
Fees change both acquisition cost and disposal economics. This version allows you to enter the fee in AUD on each event. If you fold fees into rough total values instead of tracking them clearly, the cost base can drift.
Track what asset came out and what came in
For swaps, you need both sides of the transaction. The outgoing token drives the CGT event and the incoming token becomes a new parcel. If either side is missing, the year-end holding picture will be wrong.
Track source context when the event type is not obvious
Some wallet activity is easy to misread after the fact. A short note like "staking reward", "rebalance swap", or "sell to AUD" can make later manual entry much easier, especially if multiple transfers happened on the same day.
A practical minimum record set
For this app, the practical minimum is: date, disposed or acquired asset, quantity, AUD value, fee in AUD, and enough notes to tell a buy, sale, swap, or staking receipt apart. That is enough to get value from the current estimator even before you build a more complete tax ledger.
How long to keep these records
The ATO generally requires you to keep crypto records for five years from the date of the relevant transaction or CGT event — or five years from when you lodge the tax return relying on them, whichever is later, and for as long as you may still need to amend that return. For an asset you have not yet disposed of, that means keeping the original acquisition records for the whole time you hold it, plus five years after you eventually dispose of it — not five years from the purchase date.
Default route after this page
If you now have a usable minimum ledger, go straight to the calculator. If records are still incomplete, use the checklist first and come back once the missing values are fixed.
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General information about crypto tax in Australia for individual investors. Not tax advice.