Services
Crypto & Digital Assets
Why It's Hard
Four Reasons Crypto
Returns Go Wrong
Buying crypto now takes two taps inside Canada's biggest investing apps. Reporting it correctly is another matter — and it isn't the platform's job to get that right. It's yours.
We trade crypto ourselves — exchanges, wallets, and everything in between. The reconciliation we do for clients is the same one we do on our own records every year. We know where the data hides and where the exchange reports go wrong.
Every Trade Is a Disposition
Selling for dollars, swapping one coin for another, spending it, gifting it — each one is a taxable disposition the CRA expects on Schedule 3. Only buying and holding isn't.
Cost Base Spans Every Platform
The CRA requires one pooled adjusted cost base per coin, across every exchange and wallet you have ever used. No single platform can calculate it, because no single platform can see the others.
Exchange Reports Only See Themselves
Transfer coins onto a platform and its year-end summary has no idea what you paid. Some guess. Some write zero. Either way the gain is wrong — usually against you.
Records Disappear
Exchanges shut down or purge history; wallet apps leave with the old phone. The CRA still expects the numbers. Rebuilding them later is possible — but it takes real work.
Every disposition for the year on Schedule 3, staking and other reward income where it belongs on the T1 — reconciled, documented, and filed with the rest of your return. You export what you have; we turn it into a defensible filing.
Pricing follows transaction volume, added to your T1: from $150 for up to 100 transactions in the year, from $300 for 100 to 1,000. Heavier years — high-frequency trading, DeFi protocols, thousands of transactions — are quoted after a look at your records.
- Schedule 3 capital gains on every disposition — including crypto-to-crypto swaps
- Staking, lending, and reward income at fair market value
- Superficial loss review across all wallets
- Exchange and wallet exports reconciled into one position
- EFILE with the rest of your T1
The adjusted cost base of each coin pools across every platform you have ever used — the one number every exchange report gets wrong. We rebuild it from exchange CSVs, wallet histories, and on-chain data, even when a platform no longer exists.
- One pooled ACB per asset across all exchanges and wallets
- Transfers between your own wallets identified — not taxed as sales
- Missing history rebuilt from block explorers and on-chain records
- Transaction fees capitalized into cost base correctly
- A working paper you keep — next year starts from a clean number
Only half of a capital gain is taxed; business income is taxed in full. Frequent trading can push you from one to the other, and the CRA decides on facts — frequency, holding periods, knowledge, time spent. We make the call deliberately and document why, rather than letting software default you into the wrong treatment.
- Trading pattern reviewed against the CRA's factors
- Capital versus income treatment documented and defensible
- T2125 business treatment where it genuinely applies
- Consistent treatment year over year — switching invites review
Rewards are generally income at fair market value the day they arrive — and that value becomes your cost base for the eventual sale. Getting the first half right is what makes the second half cheap. Counted as part of your transaction volume, not billed separately.
- Staking and lending rewards valued at receipt
- Mining — hobby versus business treatment
- Airdrops and hard forks
- NFT mints, sales, and royalties
- Fair market value sourcing documented
Crypto held on foreign exchanges is generally specified foreign property. Cross $100,000 CAD in total cost at any point in the year and Form T1135 is required — late-filing penalties start at $25 a day. We determine whether you're caught and file it with your return.
- Specified foreign property determination for your holdings
- Cost-amount tracking against the $100,000 threshold
- T1135 preparation and filing
- Self-custody versus foreign-custodian distinctions
A lot of crypto has never been reported — usually not from dishonesty, but because nobody told the trader that swaps counted. The CRA has used court orders to get customer lists from exchanges; coming forward first is materially better than being found. We bring prior years current, and where it fits, through the Voluntary Disclosures Program.
- Prior-year returns prepared or adjusted (T1-ADJ)
- Full-history ACB rebuild across all missing years
- Voluntary Disclosures Program assessment — potential penalty relief
- A clear picture of what you owe before anything is filed
- Quoted per year once we've seen the records