India Defines Crypto, Tax Reporting Mandatory from 2026

The Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defined cryptocurrencies for the first time in their newly tabled Finance Bill 2025 on Saturday and proposed various reforms to encourage crypto transactions’ reporting, making it obligatory to report them while filing tax returns.

Now, as per the proposed Finance Bill 2025, cryptocurrencies will be defined as “crypto-asset being a digital representation of value that relies on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger or a similar technology to validate and secure transactions” with effect from April 1, 2026.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the new Finance Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha (lower house parliament) in New Delhi on Saturday whilst also presenting the union budget 2025. According to the newly tabled Finance Bill, a new sub-clause ‘D’ has been inserted in clause 47A of the Income Tax act, to identify cryptocurrencies.

Till now, cryptocurrencies were clubbed under Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs) in India with 30% tax on capital gains plus an additional 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS). There has been no changes in the tax rates on crypto but the government has now tried to bring more clarity in the sector through the proposed reforms in the bill.

Additionally, the Indian government has also included a new section 285 BAA making it “obligatory” for crypto investors to furnish information on their crypto transactions along with time duration while filing tax returns every financial year.

The clause further states that if the reporting entity fails to report or wrongly reports about crypto assets transactions, then initially a notice period of 30 days will be given to the party to respond, after which, the penal provisions of income tax will be applied in case of failure to report.