To report Coinbase activity to the CRA, you need every buy, sale, swap, reward and transfer listed with a date and a Canadian dollar value. The exchange history is your raw material. You fill the gaps, then calculate each gain using the adjusted cost base. This guide doesn’t describe specific Coinbase screens, because exchanges change their menus and export tools. Check the current Coinbase help pages for the route, and use the steps below as the general shape.
What counts as taxable
The CRA treats crypto-assets as property. A disposition happens when you sell for cash, trade one coin for another, convert through an exchange tool or pay for something with crypto. Each is measured in Canadian dollars at that moment.
Buying with dollars isn’t taxable, and neither is holding. Sending coins to a wallet you own isn’t a sale, though you should keep proof. For most individual investors the result is a capital gain, half of which is added to income. If your activity looks like a business, the CRA can treat the full profit as business income.
Plan by year, oldest first
Your cost base carries forward, so a mistake in an early year changes every gain after it. Make a short table of each tax year, each account and each wallet you used. Then work one year at a time, starting with the oldest.
Getting the history out
Most exchanges can produce a transaction history for a chosen period, often as a CSV. Choose the report that lists every transaction rather than a summary by asset, and check each product area separately if the exchange has more than one.
An API key is the alternative. Give it read-only permission, never withdrawals or trading, and delete it once your return is filed. Compare its output with a downloaded file for at least one year before relying on it.
Reading the file and closing gaps
Look for a date and time, a transaction type, an asset, a quantity, a price and a fee. Rewards and staking payouts need different treatment from purchases, so make sure the tool doesn’t lump them together. Timestamps in UTC can push an evening trade in Toronto into January.
The most common warning is a negative balance. It means a coin left without the tool seeing it arrive, usually a missing deposit from another platform or wallet. Import that other side and mark movements between your own accounts as transfers. Keep the transaction ID for large ones.
Average cost with numbers
The CRA uses the average cost of identical units. In January you buy 2 ETH for $5,000 including fees. In June you buy 3 ETH for $12,000. The pool holds 5 ETH costing $17,000, or $3,400 each.
In November you sell 2 ETH for $9,000 and pay a $50 fee. Those coins carried $6,800. The gain is $9,000 minus $6,800 minus $50, or $2,150, and $1,075 is taxable. The 3 ETH left hold $10,200 of cost.
You can’t choose the cheapest or dearest lot, and some software defaults to first-in, first-out, so check its settings. The capital gains tax calculator shows the tax on a figure like that.
Rewards, losses and foreign property
Staking and similar rewards are generally income at their Canadian dollar value when received, and that value becomes their cost. A reward worth $90 that day is $90 of income, not a capital gain.
Half of a capital loss offsets gains. The superficial loss rule denies a loss if you or an affiliated person buys identical property within 30 days before or after the sale and still holds it. On March 3 you sell one coin at a $1,200 loss and rebuy on March 20. The $1,200 can’t be claimed, and it adds to the cost of the new coin.
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. Whether crypto on a given platform counts depends on the details, so read the current form guide if you’re near that level.
Records and deadlines
Keep the type and number of units, the date and time and the Canadian dollar value of each transaction, plus wallet addresses and balances. Hold them at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, on two separate devices.
The filing deadline is April 30, or June 15 if self-employed, but tax owing is due April 30. Late filing with a balance owing costs 5% plus 1% per full month up to 12 months. Our late filing penalty guide covers relief. 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
Will an exchange gain report satisfy the CRA?
Is receiving crypto rewards taxable?
Do I need to report a transfer to my own wallet?
What is the deadline to file crypto gains?
Last reviewed: . Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.