New Zealand has no capital gains tax, which leads a great many people to assume crypto profits are untaxed. Inland Revenue's position is that cryptoassets are property acquired with a purpose of disposal, which makes the profit ordinary income at your marginal rate. This tool shows what that costs.
Estimate your crypto income tax
All figures in New Zealand dollars, for one tax year
Estimate only. Excludes ACC levies, student loan repayments, Working for Families adjustments, provisional tax, GST, foreign investment fund income and losses carried forward. Confirm your position with Inland Revenue or a chartered accountant before filing.
How the bands work
New Zealand uses progressive marginal rates. Only the portion of income falling inside each band is taxed at that band's rate, which is why a crypto profit that pushes you into a higher band does not retax everything you earned below it.
| Income band | Rate | Tax on the full band |
|---|---|---|
| $0 – $15,600 | 10.5% | $1,638 |
| $15,601 – $53,500 | 17.5% | $6,632 |
| $53,501 – $78,100 | 30% | $7,380 |
| $78,101 – $180,000 | 33% | $33,627 |
| Over $180,000 | 39% | On the excess |
Always confirm current thresholds with Inland Revenue before relying on them for a return.
What the calculator does not know
It assumes a straightforward case: you have other income, you realised a crypto profit, and the profit is ordinary income. That covers most New Zealanders. It does not cover several situations that change the answer materially.
- Trading as a business. High-frequency activity can change your status, bringing different deductions and obligations. See our trading page.
- Foreign investment fund holdings. Overseas bitcoin ETFs above the $50,000 threshold fall under an entirely different regime — see ETFs and FIF.
- Losses carried forward from earlier years.
- ACC levies and student loan repayments, which are calculated separately and can add materially.
- Provisional tax, which may apply once your residual income tax passes the threshold.
- GST, where crypto is received in the course of a taxable activity.
Getting your input numbers right
The calculator is only as good as the figures you feed it, and the cost base is where people go wrong. Your cost is the New Zealand dollar amount you paid, including purchase fees and card charges, at the time of acquisition — not the value when you started paying attention.
Proceeds are the New Zealand dollar value received on disposal. For a sale to NZD that is obvious. For a coin-to-coin swap it is the market value of what you gave up on the day, which is exactly the number people fail to record at the time. For crypto spent on goods, it is the value at the moment of the transaction.
If you have more than a handful of transactions, do not attempt this by hand. Crypto tax software reconciles across exchanges and wallets and produces a defensible calculation. Our filing guide covers the options and what a compliant record looks like.
Why this matters more from 2026
New Zealand adopted the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework with effect from 1 April 2026. Reporting crypto-asset service providers now collect user identification, tax residency and transaction data, with the first annual reports due to Inland Revenue by 30 June 2027 and exchanged internationally from there.
In practice that means the gap between what a taxpayer declares and what platforms report is newly visible. Running this calculation and setting the money aside is cheaper than explaining a discrepancy later.