Crypto tax in South Africa: what SARS says and how to keep records

Who this page is for

This page is for individuals in South Africa who buy, sell, swap or earn crypto and want to know what SARS expects at tax time. It summarises what SARS publishes, with dates. It is not tax advice, and companies, trusts and non-residents follow rules it does not cover.

How SARS taxes crypto: income or capital

SARS’s Crypto Assets & Tax page, last updated on 20 March 2026, says normal income tax rules apply to crypto assets. You must declare crypto gains or losses as part of your taxable income, in the tax year they are received or accrued, and failing to do so can lead to interest and penalties. Whether a gain is revenue or capital is decided under existing case law, which SARS notes is plentiful.

SARS’s Budget 2026 FAQs put the dividing line simply. If you trade frequently or in a business-like way, your gains are ordinary income taxed at your marginal rate. If you hold crypto as a long-term investment, your gains fall under capital gains tax. SARS decides which applies from how often you trade, what you intended and whether you act like a business.

The Budget FAQs say they are based on the Minister’s Budget speech of 25 February 2026 and subject to Parliament’s legislative process.

Capital gains: the exclusion and the inclusion rate

SARS’s annual exclusion table gives a natural person R50,000 for the 2027 year of assessment, up from R40,000 for 2017 to 2026. Its inclusion-rate page sets the share of a net capital gain that is taxed at 40 % for natural persons. That is how the effective rate tops out at 18 %: 40 % of a gain taxed at the highest marginal rate of 45 %.

As an illustration, suppose your net capital gain from crypto in the 2027 tax year is R70,000. The exclusion leaves R20,000, and 40 % of that, R8,000, is added to your taxable income and taxed at your own marginal rate. The exclusion applies to your total net capital gain for the year, not to each coin or each platform.

Every transaction counts

The Budget FAQs say you must declare crypto trading on your ITR12, that the source code for income from crypto trading is 4522, and that all transactions, gains and losses, must be reported. SARS’s 2021 crypto FAQs add three practical points:

• The purchase price is set on the date the crypto was received or accrued, whichever came first. SARS does not treat it as an average for the year, as it may for shares.
• Conventional receipts or invoices are acceptable proof of what you paid and received.
• Crypto received for goods, services or work is income, and a trader includes crypto income on the provisional tax return (IRP6).

SARS’s crypto page also describes three common ways gains arise: mining, exchanging rand for crypto or back on an exchange or privately, and receiving crypto for goods or services, which is treated as a barter. SARS does not say on these pages whether swapping one crypto for another is a separate disposal, so keep a record of every swap with its rand value and let your tax practitioner decide how to treat it.

CARF: exchanges now report to SARS

The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework took effect in South Africa on 2 March 2026, according to the Budget FAQs. Crypto asset service providers must collect user information and transaction data and report it to SARS in an internationally aligned format, alongside the exchange of information with other tax authorities. SARS stresses that CARF is a reporting framework and does not change how crypto is taxed.

The platforms describe what this means for you. VALR’s CARF article asks every user for a tax self-certification: tax residency and taxpayer identification number, from new users since 1 March 2026 and from existing users by 1 March 2027. Luno’s tax-details article says it verifies the tax residency of South African customers at sign-up and shares their crypto-asset activities and balances with SARS.

How to export your records, platform by platform

Every platform below lets you download your history, but none produces a tax certificate for you. VALR says plainly that it does not provide tax forms, and Ovex says it does not issue IT3(b) certificates, so the calculation is yours.

Download a statement for every platform and wallet you used, for the whole tax year, before you file. Because AltCoinTrader’s trade export leaves out its fees, take those from your deposit and withdrawal records as well. If you moved crypto between platforms, keep both sides of the transfer so a move is not mistaken for a sale.

Undeclared crypto: the Voluntary Disclosure Programme

If you have crypto income or gains you never declared, the Budget FAQs point to the Voluntary Disclosure Programme. You must apply before SARS starts an audit, inquiry or investigation into you; after an audit notice, the programme is no longer open for that period. Where there was no intention to evade, it gives full relief from understatement penalties, but interest is still payable.

Limitations of this guide

This page restates SARS’s published guidance as read on 4 October 2026; it is not tax advice. The Budget FAQs are subject to Parliament’s legislative process, and rules for companies, trusts and non-residents are not covered. A registered tax practitioner can tell you whether your activity is trading or investing. Moving crypto or rand abroad is a separate question of exchange control, covered in is crypto legal in South Africa?

Next steps

Before you file, download your history from each platform you used. If you are still choosing a platform, how crypto exchange KYC works in South Africa explains the identity and tax details each one asks for, and how to withdraw crypto to a South African bank account covers the payout side.