The 7 July 2026 IR3 deadline for the 2025/2026 tax year is closing in fast. If you have crypto activity to report, the work to get from "I have transactions across three exchanges and a wallet" to "I have a clean number to drop into Other income" takes longer than most people allow for. This checklist walks through every step, in order, so you can file by 7 July without scrambling.

If you've never filed crypto on the IR3 before, start with our step-by-step IR3 filing guide. This checklist is for the prep work that has to happen before you sit down to fill in the form.

Key dates

• 31 March 2026: End of the 2025/2026 NZ tax year (covers activity from 1 April 2025)
• 7 July 2026: Standard IR3 filing deadline (if you're filing yourself)
• 31 March 2027: Extended deadline if you file through an IRD-registered tax agent
• 7 February 2027: Terminal tax payment deadline (any balance owed)

Scope the workload

Most NZ crypto holders underestimate how long reconciliation takes. Getting prepared early gives you margin to handle complications without panic.

• List every exchange, wallet, and DeFi protocol you used between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. Include accounts you forgot about, exchanges you tested for a single trade, and wallets you've since stopped using.
• For each, note whether you have access (login still works, seed phrase still available) and whether the platform is still operational. Defunct exchanges that won't return data are the single biggest source of unrecoverable reconciliation gaps.
• Estimate transaction volume per account. Anything over a few hundred transactions in the tax year benefits from crypto tax software rather than manual reconciliation.
• Decide on your filing path: self-file through myIR (deadline 7 July), or engage a tax agent (deadline 31 March 2027 but with adviser cost). For complex DeFi or business-scale activity, an adviser usually saves more than they cost.

Pull the data

• Export the full tax year transaction history from each exchange. Most NZ-facing exchanges (Easy Crypto, Independent Reserve, Swyftx NZ, Binance NZ) have a "tax export" or "annual statement" option. Use it, even if you're going to put the data through software afterwards.
• For wallets, pull on-chain transaction history. EVM wallets via Etherscan, Solana via Solscan, others via the relevant block explorer. Crypto tax software can typically import via wallet address directly.
• For DeFi activity, every protocol interaction needs to be captured. Lending, LP positions, staking, yield, wrapping, bridging. IRRUIP18 gives the IRD's current view on each of these. See our DeFi tax guide for the practical treatment.
• For lost or stolen crypto during the year, gather the evidence now: date of loss, wallet addresses, transaction hashes, police reports, exchange correspondence. See the lost or stolen guide for the full requirements.

Reconcile

• Load everything into your chosen crypto tax software (or your spreadsheet). Match wallet transfers across platforms so they don't get double-counted as disposals.
• Resolve any flagged transactions: missing prices, unclassified protocol interactions, transfers without matching pairs. This is where most of the reconciliation time goes.
• Confirm your cost basis method. FIFO is the IRD default. If you're switching from another method or considering specific identification, do it now and not on submission day. See the pillar guide for cost basis rules.
• Apply IRRUIP18 treatment to DeFi positions: lending deposits as disposals, LP entries and exits as multiple events each, wrapping and bridging as disposal-and-acquisition events. The conservative treatment produces the cleanest records.
• For staking and lending income, ensure each reward is captured at the NZD value on the receipt date, not at year-end. See our staking rewards tax guide for the details.

Generate the report and validate

• Generate your NZ tax report from your reconciliation. You should have, at minimum:
  • Net taxable trading gain or loss for the year
  • Total staking, mining, and lending income for the year
  • Any airdrop or fork income taxable on receipt
  • Any lost or stolen deduction (where applicable, with evidence)
  • Full supporting transaction log
• Sanity-check the figures. Net trading gain of NZD 200,000 on NZD 1,500,000 of turnover should pass a smell test; net trading gain of NZD 200,000 on NZD 5,000 of turnover suggests something is wrong in the reconciliation.
• Match staking/lending income to the year you received it, not the year you withdrew or sold it. This is a common mismatch.
• If you have unreported crypto from previous years, this is the latest you should consider voluntary disclosure. See our voluntary disclosure guide - disclosure before the IRD makes contact is materially cheaper than after.

Prepare the IR3

• Log in to myIR. Your IR3 form will be available under the 2025/2026 tax year.
• Enter the net crypto trading gain or loss in "Other income." Add staking, mining, and lending rewards under the same heading. Add a clear note in the description field, e.g. "Net crypto disposals" and "Staking and lending rewards."
• For business-scale activity (trader classification), the figures go through the business income sections instead. See our trader vs investor guide if you're not sure which applies to you.
• Attach or note your supporting evidence: tax report, transaction log, NZD valuations. The IRD requires you to retain these for seven years.
• Calculate the terminal tax due. If you owe NZD 5,000 or more, you may be moved into the provisional tax regime for the following year.

Filing day (by 7 July 2026)

• Final review. Read the form end to end before submitting. The most common late corrections are missed staking income lines and incorrectly netted wallet transfers.
• Submit through myIR.
• Save a PDF of the submission and your supporting reconciliation report.
• Note any tax owing. Terminal tax is due 7 February 2027, but smaller balances are sometimes deducted automatically.

If you miss the 7 July deadline

Late filing penalties apply. The IRD's standard penalty is NZD 50 for income under NZD 100,000 and increases from there, plus use-of-money interest on any tax owed. Filing late is significantly less costly than not filing at all, so if you slip past 7 July, file as soon as you can rather than waiting another year.

If you genuinely can't meet the deadline, engaging a tax agent before 7 July gives you the extension to 31 March 2027. The adviser must be IRD-registered and you must be on their client list by 7 July for the extension to apply.

One more thing: CARF starts on 1 April 2026

The 2025/2026 tax year you're filing for predates CARF, so the new reporting framework doesn't directly affect this filing. But CARF applies from 1 April 2026 forward, which means your 2026/2027 activity is being captured by exchanges right now. The IRD will compare what you report against what your exchanges saw you do. Filing the 2025/2026 IR3 cleanly, with all crypto activity declared, sets up a much easier conversation if the IRD ever queries your earlier years against later CARF data. See our CARF guide for the full picture.

How Summ helps

Summ connects your exchanges and wallets, Summ pulls and reconciles transactions automatically, applies NZ-specific tax logic, and outputs a report that maps directly to the IR3 fields. The output is the same regardless of whether your activity is a handful of trades or thousands of DeFi interactions across multiple chains.

‍Get started with Summ well before 7 July to leave time for review.