How to Calculate Crypto Capital Gains Tax in Ireland

If you searched for a capital gains tax calculator Ireland guide, this page takes you through the crypto calculation in writing. It covers the inputs, the order of deductions and a worked example from Revenue. It is not an interactive calculator. For the wider rules on rates and exemptions, see capital gains tax in Ireland.

Risk warning: Crypto-assets such as bitcoin are high risk and speculative. Their value can go down as well as up, sometimes sharply, and you could lose all the money you put in. Past performance doesn't necessarily give a guide to the future. Some crypto products and services are unregulated, and even under MiCA crypto is not covered by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme or the Investor Compensation Scheme. Crypto isn't suitable for everyone, so only use money you can afford to lose.

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Tax note: This is general information based on Revenue guidance, checked on 4 November 2026. It isn't tax advice. Your position depends on your circumstances, so speak to a tax adviser or Revenue before you file.

Step 1: identify the disposals being calculated

Revenue's crypto manual, reviewed January 2026, says a sale, transfer or redemption of crypto-assets is most likely a CGT disposal unless the facts establish a trade of dealing in crypto-assets. Treatment depends on individual circumstances. Using crypto to buy goods is also a disposal for CGT purposes.

The manual requires a separate calculation for each asset on each disposal. A useful calculation sheet therefore has a separate entry for each disposal, with its date, proceeds or relevant valuation, purchase cost and allowable expenses. This keeps the individual calculations visible before the annual totals are combined.

The steps below concern capital gains. They do not determine whether someone's activity amounts to a trade. The manual's general reference to transfers also does not resolve the treatment of movements between wallets owned by the same person.

Step 2: establish the proceeds or relevant value

For a straightforward sale, the calculation starts with the sale proceeds. Revenue's calculation guidance, published 7 October 2026, requires market value in specified cases. These include a gift to someone other than a spouse or civil partner, a below-value sale intended to help the buyer, or disposal of an inherited asset.

A cash receipt is therefore not a suitable starting figure for every case. The valuation rule needs to fit the disposal being calculated.

Section 4 of the crypto manual recognises that values can differ between exchanges. It calls for a reasonable effort to use an appropriate transaction valuation. Recording the valuation used alongside the transaction makes the calculation easier to explain and review.

Step 3: subtract purchase cost and allowable expenses

For a straightforward sale, Revenue's calculation is:

Sale proceeds less purchase cost less allowable expenses = chargeable gain.

CGT applies to the gain, rather than all the sale proceeds. Keeping the purchase cost separate from the proceeds makes that distinction clear.

Revenue lists costs of acquiring and disposing of the asset, and expenditure that adds value to it, as potentially deductible. That general guidance does not establish that every crypto-related expense qualifies. This guide does not assume that a particular network fee, software subscription or exchange charge is deductible.

The sources used here also do not establish an identification rule for multiple acquisitions of the same crypto-asset. This page therefore does not choose FIFO, pooling or another method. A calculation involving several purchases needs that issue resolved before a purchase cost can be treated as settled.

Step 4: combine gains and deduct allowable losses

Revenue's calculation page says to calculate for the whole tax year, add gains together and deduct losses. The crypto manual says losses can in most cases offset chargeable gains in the same period, with excess losses carried forward against future chargeable gains.

Keep the disposal calculations and the annual summary as separate parts of the worksheet. The first shows where each gain or loss came from. The second shows the gains being combined and the allowable losses being used, including any eligible losses brought forward.

Applicable reliefs also form part of the move from chargeable gain to taxable gain. Their availability depends on the circumstances; the example below does not establish entitlement to any relief. Our crypto losses guide covers losses in more detail.

Step 5: apply the annual personal exemption

Section 1.3 of Revenue's crypto manual gives an individual a €1,270 annual personal exemption against total annual chargeable gains after losses. It is an annual amount, rather than a fresh deduction for every disposal or every coin.

The exemption cannot create a loss, and unused exemption cannot be used. Revenue's smaller crypto example illustrates this limit: €5,000 proceeds less €4,500 acquisition cost produces a €500 gain. The exemption used is limited to €500, leaving €0 taxable gain.

That example shows why subtracting the full exemption mechanically can give the wrong result. The exemption reduces the remaining gain only as far as zero.

Worked example: Revenue's crypto calculation

This is Revenue's example 2 in section 1.3.2 of the crypto manual, not an actual investor result. It concerns crypto acquired in 2023 for €4,500 and disposed of in 2024 for €15,000, with €2,500 of allowable losses carried forward.

Revenue's published computation stops at taxable gain. Its examples exclude buying and selling expenses, including transaction fees and broker charges. Those omissions are part of the example, rather than a finding that those costs are always disallowed.

The result demonstrates the order: calculate the disposal gain, deduct allowable losses, then apply the exemption. The €6,730 is the taxable gain, not the tax payable.

Step 6: apply the rate relevant to the disposal

The final calculation is:

Taxable gain multiplied by the applicable CGT rate = CGT payable.

Revenue's calculation page, published 7 October 2026 and checked on 4 November 2026, states that the rate for most gains changed to 31% on 7 October 2026. That current rate is not applied retrospectively to the manual's 2024 example here. The verified example ends at €6,730 taxable gain.

Revenue's historical rate table contains an apparent date inconsistency. The research also does not establish how to allocate exemptions or losses across gains subject to different rates during 2026. A mixed-rate year is therefore outside this worked example. The disposal date and applicable rate remain separate inputs to resolve before calculating tax payable.

For readers considering tax software to organise the calculation, Koinly (affiliate link) is an option to consider. The unresolved questions above still need an answer before a calculation is ready for filing.

Step 7: carry the calculation into payment and filing

Revenue's payment and filing guidance, published 27 October 2026, separates the deadlines:

• Disposals from 1 January to 30 November: payment is due by 15 December of that year.
• Disposals from 1 December to 31 December: payment is due by 31 January of the following year.
• The return is due on or before 31 October of the year following disposal, even if reliefs or allowable losses mean no tax is due.

Payment happens before the return, which includes the amount paid. Revenue lists the asset description, proceeds, claimed reliefs, unused prior-year losses being offset, gain or loss, taxable gain, rate and amount paid among the return information.

Keeping those fields in the calculation summary helps connect the arithmetic to the return. Revenue's crypto manual requires transaction records to be retained for six years, including for PAYE-only taxpayers. For the reporting process, see how to report crypto to Revenue.