Crypto Tax Ireland 2026: CGT Rules, Losses and Examples

Revenue’s starting point is that no special tax rules are required for crypto-assets. The tax result follows the nature of the activity. For a typical individual investor, selling, transferring or redeeming a crypto-asset will most likely be considered under Capital Gains Tax. If the facts show that the person is carrying on a trade, the profit can instead be taxable as trading income. A company may have Corporation Tax obligations, a person paid in crypto may have Income Tax and payroll consequences, and a gift or inheritance can bring Capital Acquisitions Tax into the analysis.

Calling yourself an investor does not settle the tax treatment, and making many transactions does not automatically prove a trade. Revenue considers the whole pattern: the commercial organisation, intention, frequency, financing, holding periods, expertise and other facts. The threshold for a financial activity to amount to a trade can be high.

This distinction changes more than the rate. A trade uses income or corporation tax rules and may have different expense, loss, preliminary tax and filing consequences. Someone running a mining operation, dealing systematically for customers or operating a crypto business should not assume the simple investor calculation applies.

The computation is made for each disposal. Proceeds and costs must be expressed in euro. If the transaction has no direct euro quote, Revenue expects a reasonable effort to use an appropriate valuation. Keep the exchange, price pair, timestamp and method so the euro amount can be reproduced later.

The €1,270 annual exemption applies to an individual’s total net chargeable gains for the year after allowable losses. It is not €1,270 for every wallet, token or transaction, it cannot be transferred to another person, and unused exemption is not carried forward.

Assume an individual investor buys crypto for €6,000 and later sells it for €11,000. Allowable buying and selling costs total €200. The disposal gain is €4,800. In the same tax year the person makes an allowable €1,000 loss on another asset, leaving €3,800. After the €1,270 annual exemption, the taxable gain is €2,530. At the standard 33% CGT rate, the illustrative tax is €834.90.

This is a deliberately simple example. Matching costs across repeated acquisitions, connected-party transactions and complex token activity can require additional rules and evidence.

An allowable capital loss can generally be set against chargeable gains in the same year. Unused allowable losses may be carried forward against future gains. The annual exemption cannot be used to create or increase a carried-forward loss, so the ordering matters: losses are used before the exemption.

A fall in market value while you still hold an asset is not the same as a completed disposal loss. Lost private keys, fraud, worthless tokens and failed platforms can also need a closer legal and tax analysis; do not enter the screen value as a loss without evidence that a tax-recognised loss or disposal occurred.

Crypto received for work, services or a business activity can be taxable by reference to its euro value when received. Rewards from mining, staking, promotions or DeFi are not all automatically treated the same way; the contractual rights and activity matter. Record the receipt separately and establish its euro value.

If the asset is later sold or swapped, there may be a second calculation. The value already recognised at receipt can be relevant to the acquisition cost for that later disposal. Keeping the receipt and disposal records connected prevents the same value being omitted or counted twice.