Crypto for Canadians

Most crypto writing is aimed at the United States, and the places where Canada differs are exactly the places where mistakes cost money. A Canadian resident averages the cost of identical coins into one pool instead of choosing lots, denies a loss when the same coin is bought back within 30 days on either side of a sale, and holds registered accounts that follow a fixed qualified-investment list. A gain is reported in Canadian dollars, only half of a capital gain is taxable, and a loss is usable only against capital gains.

This pillar covers the Canadian side in three parts. The tax guides read the Canada Revenue Agency's crypto pages and the Income Tax Act itself: how dispositions, business income versus capital gains, pooled adjusted cost base and the superficial loss rule work, with worked examples in Canadian dollars and a clear note wherever the CRA's published guidance is silent, as it is on lost or stolen coins. The account guide explains which crypto-related products a TFSA or RRSP can hold and what the CRA's 50 percent tax on a mistake looks like. The platform and scam guides cover how to check whether a trading platform is registered with Canadian securities regulators, and where to report a fraud.

These pages are general education and not tax advice, and they cover Canadian crypto only. Housing, mortgages and the rest of the Canadian economy are outside this site's scope. Every rate, threshold and date carries the year it applies to and the date we checked it, and where a point rests on a secondary summary instead of a CRA document, the page says so.