The IRD has increased its visibility into crypto activity, provided clearer DeFi guidance, and has new reporting requirements for brokers and exchanges.

Here’s the short version, followed by what it actually means.

How NZ taxes crypto

Unlike many other jurisdictions, New Zealand doesn’t have capital gains tax. Here’s how crypto is taxed:

• Crypto is treated as property under the Income Tax Act 2007. 
• Gains on disposal are taxed as ordinary income, at marginal rates between 10.5% and 39%. 
• Staking and mining rewards, airdrops you actively claimed, and crypto lending interest are all taxed as income when received. 
• There are no holding period discounts. 
• There is no wash-sale rule. 
• Losses offset crypto gains in the same year and roll forward indefinitely.

New changes: CARF went live on 1 April 2026

The biggest shift came on 1 April 2026, with the implementation of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF. CARF is a global tax reporting standard created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to help governments track crypto more consistently.

This change means that every NZ-based crypto exchange, broker, and trading platform now collects transaction-level data on its users and reports it to the IRD. The first reporting period runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, with the first report due to the IRD by 30 June 2027.

The reporting doesn’t stop at the border. NZ is part of the OECD network that exchanges this data between countries. So if you hold crypto on an overseas platform, that platform’s home tax authority will pass NZ tax-resident data back to the IRD. NZ data on foreign tax residents flows the other way.

For crypto investors, the takeaway is straightforward: the IRD now sees your exchange activity, on-shore and off-shore. The asymmetry between what taxpayers report and what platforms report is closing fast.

For the full CARF mechanics, see our CARF guide for NZ crypto investors.

IRRUIP18 put DeFi on the IRD’s desk

On 29 January 2026, the IRD released IRRUIP18, a consultation paper covering wrapping, bridging, lending, borrowing, and staking. It sets out the Commissioner’s initial views on how these transactions should be treated for income tax.

The headline positions:

• Wrapping or bridging a token is treated as a disposal of the original asset and acquisition of a new one.
• Lending into a liquidity pool is treated as a disposal of the original asset and acquisition of the LP token.
• Collateral deposits may be disposals where the user loses key control over the specific units.
• Staking deposits may also count as disposals on the same logic.

One thing to know about the IRRIP18 is that it is a discussion document, not binding law, and the industry pushed back on several of the positions, particularly bridging and collateral.

Final guidance is still pending. Until that happens, current enacted law still applies.

If you’re an active DeFi user, this is the change worth watching most closely over the next few months.

What this actually means for you

A few practical implications worth sitting with.

1. Reconciling old records matters more now. 

If years of activity are sitting in spreadsheets or untouched exchange exports, the gap between “I’ll sort it later” and “the IRD already has this data” just narrowed. The easier path? Sorting it before any correspondence from the IRD ends up in your mailbox.

2. Cross-border activity is more visible. 

Holdings on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and other offshore platforms are no longer outside the IRD’s line of sight. Treat them the same as a Kiwi-based platform for record-keeping purposes.

3. DeFi treatment is still moving. 

If you bridge, wrap, lend, or LP regularly, IRRUIP18 may eventually change how those transactions are characterised. Keep records that capture the underlying movements, not just net positions.

Filing still happens through myIR

When it comes to actually filing your taxes, nothing has changed: 

• The tax year runs 1 April to 31 March, with filing due 7 July. 
• Crypto income goes on the IR3 under “Other income.” 
• There is no fillable PDF for crypto in NZ. 
• Everything goes through the myIR online portal.

Summ produces a Realized Profits and Losses report for NZ users, alongside a breakdown of staking, mining, and other income. Those are the numbers you, or your accountant, take into myIR.

Worth doing this month

Prep your data 

Get your exchange and wallet data imported and clean. Flag anything missing, especially older transfers, bridges, and DeFi positions that don’t have a clean cost basis. Gaps are easier to fix now than at 11pm on 6 July 2026.

Follow changes in crypto tax rules

Next, keep an eye on IRRUIP18. When the IRD publishes final guidance, DeFi treatment may shift underneath you. Knowing where you stand before that happens is the cheap version of compliance.

Nothing here is tax advice. Your position depends on what you hold, how you acquired it, where you transacted, and whether the IRD treats your activity as investment, trading, or business. If any of that is genuinely unclear, talk to a New Zealand tax adviser who works with crypto. The cost of getting it right is almost always lower than the cost of getting it wrong.

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