Crypto tax in NZ: when IRD taxes Bitcoin, with worked NZD examples

Crypto tax in NZ runs through ordinary income tax, not a capital gains tax. If you bought Bitcoin mainly to sell or swap it, which IRD says is usually the case, the profit is taxed at your marginal rate of 10.5% to 39% when you sell, swap or spend it. Moving coins between your own wallets isn’t taxed.

“New Zealand has no capital gains tax, so I don’t pay tax on crypto” is the most common misunderstanding among Kiwi Bitcoin holders. The first half is true. The second half usually isn’t, because of how the Income Tax Act treats property bought to be sold.

Do you pay tax on crypto in NZ? IRD’s purpose test decides

Usually yes, because IRD treats crypto as property, not currency, and profit on property is taxable income if you acquired it for the purpose of disposing of it. Three details make that rule bite:

• Purpose is tested when you buy. What you intended on the day you acquired the coins matters, not a later change of heart.
• If you had several purposes, the main one counts. IRD calls this the dominant purpose.
• Saying it isn’t enough. IRD’s guidance is blunt: “just saying why you got your cryptoassets is not enough.” Your actions need to back the claim.

Bitcoin pays no interest, dividend or rent. If an asset produces no income, IRD reasons, the only way to benefit from it is to sell or exchange it eventually, which points to a disposal purpose.

Calling it a “long-term investment” or an “inflation hedge” rarely changes that, because both usually still involve an eventual sale. In practice, most individuals’ crypto gains end up taxable at their ordinary marginal rate, and IRD said so plainly in its April 2026 media release.

Profits can also be taxable under the rules for people in the business of trading or carrying out a profit-making scheme, even where the purpose test alone might not catch them.

Which crypto transactions are taxable in NZ?

Selling, swapping and spending crypto are taxable disposals; moving it between your own wallets and simply holding it are not. Rewards from staking, lending and mining are income when they arrive.

Taxable

Selling for NZD

A disposal. The NZD you receive minus your cost is income (or a loss).

Taxable

Swapping coins

BTC to ETH, or crypto to a stablecoin, is a disposal valued in NZD at the time.

Taxable

Spending crypto

Paying for goods with Bitcoin disposes of it, just like selling.

Not taxable

Moving to your own wallet

Transfers between wallets you control are not disposals.

Not yet

Buying and holding

Nothing to declare until you dispose, but keep the records now.

Taxable

Staking or lending rewards

Income when received, at NZD market value.

Crypto tax-event decision table

Find the row that matches what you did. Every “yes” assumes the disposal purpose applies, which IRD says is usual for individuals.

Frequent crypto traders: profits are business income

If you trade often enough to be in business, your crypto is trading stock. Profits are business income, and crypto still held at the end of the year is valued at cost under IRD’s guidance.

Is Bitcoin mining taxable in NZ?

Yes, in most cases. IRD says mining rewards, both block rewards and transaction fees, are taxable when received, and so is the later sale. For GST purposes mining is treated as a supply of services, zero-rated where the blockchain is outside New Zealand.

Are staking, lending and DeFi rewards taxable in NZ?

Yes: IRD’s published position is that staking and lending rewards are income when you receive them, at their market value in NZD. That value becomes your cost base, so a later sale is also taxable if the disposal purpose applies. The Taxation Review Authority applied this in TDS 25/23 (9 October 2025), finding that a couple’s staking rewards were income.

On 29 January 2026 IRD released issues paper IRRUIP18, covering wrapping, bridging, lending, borrowing and staking. It is an initial view for consultation, not a final ruling. Some websites describe wrapping and bridging as definitely taxable on the strength of it; that goes further than the paper does.

Are airdrops and hard forks taxable in NZ?

Receiving airdropped or forked tokens is usually not taxable, unless you are in a crypto business, the tokens are payment for services, or you receive them regularly in an income-like way. Selling them later is taxable in wider circumstances, and you generally have no cost to deduct apart from fees.

Crypto salary and bonuses: PAYE under four IRD rulings

Four public rulings issued on 15 May 2023, and applying until 30 November 2027, cover pay in crypto. BR Pub 23/04 treats crypto salary as a PAYE income payment; 23/05 covers bonuses; 23/06 covers employer-issued crypto as a fringe benefit; 23/07 covers employee share schemes.

If your employer pays you in crypto, PAYE should already be handled. A later sale of those coins is a separate question under the purpose test.

Does GST apply to crypto or NFTs in NZ?

Not to crypto itself: since a 2022 amendment, buying and selling crypto is excluded from GST. Secondary sources (Deloitte and CA ANZ) say the exclusion was enacted with retrospective effect to 1 January 2009; IRD’s own page doesn’t state the date.

NFTs are treated differently. IRD’s GST page says GST applies to NFT sales to New Zealand buyers. A GST-registered business that accepts Bitcoin for goods charges GST on the NZD value as usual.

How much tax do I pay on crypto in NZ?

You pay your ordinary marginal income tax rate, between 10.5% and 39%, on taxable crypto gains. There is no special crypto rate: the gain is added to your salary and other income for the year, and the extra dollars are taxed in whichever band they land.

A gain can straddle two bands. Someone on NZ$75,000 with a NZ$5,000 crypto profit would pay 30% on the first NZ$3,100 and 33% on the remaining NZ$1,900, because the extra income crosses the NZ$78,100 threshold.

Four worked NZD examples: a sale, a swap, staking and a loss

Example 1: a simple sale. Mere earns a NZ$70,000 salary. She buys Bitcoin for NZ$2,000, including fees, and later sells it for NZ$2,600. Her taxable crypto income is NZ$600. At her 30% marginal rate, that adds roughly NZ$180 to her tax bill.

Example 2: a swap with no cash. Tom buys Bitcoin for NZ$1,400. Months later he swaps it for Ether worth NZ$2,000 at that moment. He has received no dollars, but he has disposed of the Bitcoin: NZ$600 of income. His cost for the Ether is NZ$2,000.

Example 3: staking rewards. Priya receives staking rewards worth NZ$80 on the days they arrive. That NZ$80 is income in the year received. When she later sells those tokens for NZ$110, she has a further NZ$30 of income, because her cost base is the NZ$80 she already declared.

Example 4: a realised loss. Sam buys Bitcoin for NZ$5,000 and sells it for NZ$3,800. If a profit would have been taxable, his NZ$1,200 loss can be set against other crypto income and then against his other income. Had he kept the coins, the paper loss would not be deductible.

FIFO or weighted average: which cost method can you use in NZ?

IRD names two methods: first in, first out (FIFO) and weighted average cost. You need one whenever you’ve bought at different prices and sell only part of your holding, because it decides which coins you sold.

Over the life of a holding, the choice mostly changes when gains are recognised rather than the total. Pick one, apply it consistently, and ask an accountant before switching.

Can you claim crypto losses or stolen crypto against your NZ tax?

Yes, if a profit on the same disposal would have been taxable. Realised losses can be applied against other crypto profits and then against other income. Unrealised losses aren’t deductible.

Stolen crypto has its own rule. IRD allows a deduction for its original cost in the year of the theft, provided a sale would have been taxable and nothing was recovered. Any later recovery or compensation is income, up to the amount you claimed. Keep police reports and exchange correspondence.

How to declare crypto on an IR3, and the records IRD wants for seven years

Taxable crypto income goes on an IR3 individual return, converted to NZ dollars. IRD says to use “other income” if no better box applies.

Got a past return wrong? IRD’s guidance (updated 14 September 2026) asks you to tell it as soon as possible and notes you may need to make a voluntary disclosure. An accountant can help you work through that process.

IRD expects you to keep these records for at least seven years, even after you’ve sold everything:

• the type of crypto, dates and units for each transaction;
• whether you received or disposed of it, and its NZD value at the time;
• opening and closing holdings for each year;
• exchange statements, bank records and your wallet addresses.

Download your history before an NZ exchange closes

Records disappear when platforms do. Easy Crypto stopped trading in New Zealand on 30 March 2026, though its site was kept up so customers could download their history; see what happened to Easy Crypto. Kiwi-Coin ceased trading on 1 January 2026, and Cryptopia and Dasset ended in liquidation.

Download a full CSV from every platform you use at least once a year, and especially before you close an account or sell Bitcoin for NZD.

Will IRD know about your crypto? 355,000 users already identified

Very likely. IRD announced on 20 April 2026 that it had identified 355,000 unique crypto users in New Zealand and had started writing to some of them.

IRD’s first letters went to people whose tax is auto-assessed and who had traded on exchanges, inviting them to file IR3 returns. Its message was that people are “not invisible on blockchain.”

Genuine IRD contact never asks you to pay by crypto or at a Bitcoin ATM. Impostors posing as IRD are one of the patterns in our guide to crypto scams in NZ.

What CARF means: NZ crypto providers reporting your trades to IRD

The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, an OECD standard, has been part of New Zealand law since 1 April 2026. New Zealand-based crypto service providers must collect your identity, tax residency and tax number, and report your transactions to IRD each year. IRD then shares data with other countries’ tax authorities, and receives theirs.

You don’t register for CARF yourself. You must answer a provider’s self-certification truthfully and keep it up to date; civil penalties apply for giving false information, and providers may restrict accounts that don’t self-certify.

Tax is one strand of a wider set of rules on exchanges, AML checks and consumer protection, covered in our guide to whether crypto is legal in NZ. Weighing whether to keep coins on a platform at all? Our explainer on custodial vs non-custodial wallets sets out the trade-off. And if your records are a mess, start with this year’s exports and work backwards before you file.