The end of financial year is just around the corner. If you're like most people, you've probably been too busy trading to think about tax preparation. The good news: starting now means you won't be rushed in August when everyone else is scrambling.

The Australian tax year ends June 30, and you have until October 31, 2026 to lodge your return. Getting your crypto house in order now gives you time to do it properly, without the panic. Here's what you need to do.

Understand the Australian tax year and your deadline

Your financial year runs from July 1 to June 30. That's the period the ATO cares about. You have until October 31 to lodge your return, though most people file in August or September.

The advantage of starting in April or May is simple: you're not competing for your accountant's time, and you have space to track down missing transaction records without stressing.

Gather your transaction data

This is the part that takes the most time. You need records from everywhere you've moved crypto. For every single transaction, the ATO wants to know the date, the AUD value at that moment, what was sent and received, and the wallet addresses involved. This is tedious, but accuracy here saves you headaches later.

Know what counts as a taxable event

Not every crypto movement triggers a tax bill. The ATO cares about specific events.

Capital gains tax (CGT) events: These happen when you sell crypto for AUD, swap one crypto for another, pay for goods or services with crypto, or move crypto to certain DeFi protocols where you're effectively selling it to earn returns. Each of these is a taxable event.

Income events: Staking rewards count as assessable income. Mining income counts. Airdrops of established tokens count. If your employer paid you salary in crypto, that's income. The ATO treats these as ordinary income, not capital gains.

Not taxable: Transferring crypto between wallets you own is not a taxable event. Buying crypto with AUD is not a taxable event (though selling it later is). Holding crypto that goes up in value is not a taxable event unless you sell it.

Check your cost bases

Your cost base is what you paid for an asset. It's critical for calculating your capital gain. If you bought 1 Bitcoin at $50,000 and sold it at $80,000, your gain is $30,000. But if you bought it at $70,000, your gain is only $10,000. Same sale price, different tax bill.

The ATO's default method is FIFO (first in, first out). If you bought Bitcoin three times at different prices and sell some, the ATO assumes you're selling the oldest batch first. This might not be your best option. Check your records and work through the maths.

Look at your holding periods

If you hold an asset for 12 months or longer, you get the CGT discount. You pay tax on only 50% of your capital gain. This is a real benefit.

If you've got assets approaching the 12-month mark, do the maths. Sometimes it's worth waiting a few weeks past June 30 to hit that discount. Sometimes the price movement makes it not worth the wait. Work through the numbers before you sell.

Assess your tax position

Are you sitting on gains or losses this year? If you have unrealised losses, you could sell before June 30 and crystallise those losses to offset your gains. This reduces your overall tax bill.

One thing to watch: wash sales. If you sell an asset to lock in a loss, then buy it back within a short period, the ATO may disallow the loss and call it artificial tax planning. They don't look kindly on that. Be honest about your intentions.

Use software to manage the complexity

You could spreadsheet all of this yourself. Most people find they'd rather not. That's where Summ comes in. You connect your exchanges and wallets, and Summ pulls in your transaction history automatically. You review it for accuracy, generate your tax report, and share it with your accountant or lodge it yourself.

It takes the tedium out of the process and reduces the chance you'll miss a transaction or miscalculate something.

Keep your records

The ATO requires you to keep records for five years. That means receipts, transaction confirmations, exchange statements, all of it. Store them safely. When you generate your tax report, make sure every transaction is documented with a date, an AUD value at the time, and a description of what happened.

Start now

Spend an afternoon gathering your transaction data from all your sources. Review the taxable events you've had. Check your cost bases and holding periods. If the complexity feels like too much, get Summ set up and let it handle the heavy lifting. The people who feel least stressed about tax season are the ones who started early.

Ready to get organised? Sign up to Summ and start gathering your records now. We'll help you turn a year's worth of crypto activity into a clean tax report.