Binance doesn’t send Canadian residents a tax slip, so you build the record yourself from the account history. The CRA treats crypto as property. Selling it, swapping it or spending it is a disposition, and half of any gain is taxable if you’re investing rather than running a business. Exchanges rename menus and change export tools often, so check the current Binance help pages for the exact route. This guide covers what to gather and how the maths works.
What the CRA wants on file
For each transaction, keep the type and number of units, the date and time, and the value in Canadian dollars at that moment. Keep wallet addresses and yearly balances too, plus trade and transfer ledgers from the exchange. The CRA asks you to hold these records for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
Buying with Canadian dollars isn’t a taxable event. Moving coins between your own wallets isn’t either, though you’ll want proof of the transfer.
Two ways to pull the data
Most exchanges let you generate statement files by date range, or connect a read-only API key to a tax tool. Files are slower, but you control them and they double as a backup. An API is quick, yet it only sees what the exchange still exposes, so older or retired products can be missing.
Use both if you can. Compare the two.
If you create a key, allow reading only. Leave trading and withdrawals off, keep the secret out of email and delete the key after you file. Save every download untouched and work from a copy, because a spreadsheet can change date formats and round small amounts.
Fixing gaps on import
A negative balance for a coin means the tool saw more leave than arrive. Usually a deposit from another wallet or exchange is missing, or a reward payout wasn’t in the files. Find the first date the balance drops below zero and look just before it.
Withdrawals to your own wallet look like sales unless the tool can pair them with a deposit. Import the other side and mark the move as a transfer. Duplicates appear when you import an API sync and a file for the same period, so keep one source per period.
Check the time zone as well. A file in UTC puts a trade at 9 pm Toronto time on December 31 into January.
Rewards and staking
The CRA’s page on mining and staking says rewards are generally income when received, valued in Canadian dollars at that time. That value becomes your cost for those coins. Say you receive 0.5 of a coin worth $80. You report $40 of income, and your cost base for that 0.5 is $40.
The treatment of a specific product can depend on its terms, so read them and ask a professional if you can’t classify it.
Average cost, worked through
For identical units the CRA uses the average cost, called the adjusted cost base. Suppose you buy 1 BTC for $40,000 with a $100 fee, then another for $60,000 with a $100 fee. Total cost is $100,200 for 2 BTC, or $50,100 each. You sell 1 BTC for $70,000 and pay a $100 fee.
The gain is $70,000 minus $50,100 minus $100, which is $19,800. Half, $9,900, is taxable. In the band from $58,523 to $107,785 the federal 20.5% plus Ontario’s 9.15% is 29.65% before surtax and health premium, so roughly $2,935 of tax.
You can’t pick which lot you sold, and some software defaults to first-in, first-out, so check that setting. The capital gains tax calculator and the income tax calculator show the effect on your own numbers.
Losses and foreign property
Half of a capital loss can be used against taxable gains. The superficial loss rule denies a loss if you or an affiliated person, such as a spouse, buys identical property within 30 days before or after the sale and still holds it. The denied amount adds to the cost of the new units. Check every account you and your spouse hold.
File Form T1135 if the total cost of your specified foreign property was over $100,000 in Canadian dollars at any time in the year. The test uses cost, not market value, and crypto on a foreign platform can count depending on the circumstances.
The filing deadline is April 30, or June 15 if self-employed, though tax owing is still due April 30. Late filing with a balance owing costs 5% plus 1% per full month. See the late filing penalty guide for relief options. For your own numbers, try the Marginal Tax Rate & Tax Brackets calculator, or browse the tax calculators.
Sources
- CRA, Crypto-asset guide
- CRA, Income from crypto-asset transactions
- CRA, Crypto-asset books and records
- CRA, Form T1135
Common questions
Does Binance send a tax slip to Canadians?
Is converting one coin to another taxable?
How long should crypto records be kept?
When is Form T1135 needed for crypto?
Last reviewed: . Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.