How to do your Independent Reserve taxes
Founded in 2013, Independent Reserve is a well-established crypto exchange that serves users globally, but primarily serves crypto investors in Australia and New Zealand. If you're using Independent Reserve to invest in crypto, the ATO wants to know about it. You'll need to calculate your capital gains and income from your Independent Reserve transactions and declare them in your annual lodgement by the 31st of October. Here's how to do your Independent Reserve taxes:
Follow these steps to sync your Independent Reserve data automatically to Koinly:
- Log in to Independent Reserve.
- Go to settings.
- Select API.
- Select generate to create a new API key.
- When creating your key do not check "allow this API to withdraw".
- Copy your API key and secret and paste them into the fields in Koinly.
On Koinly:
- Create a free account on Koinly
- Complete onboarding until you get to the Wallets page and find Independent Reserve in the list
- Select API > Paste the API keys you copied above in the appropriate box
- Hit Import and wait for Koinly to sync your data. This can take a few minutes
- Review your transactions on the Transactions page to ensure everything is tagged correctly and no missing data
- Go to the Tax Reports page to view your tax liability!
- Head over to our help center
- Hit up our discussion boards - we might have already answered your question
- Ask us on social media - we're on Twitter and Reddit
- Contact us on email or live chat
- Got a feature request? Give us feedback on Canny
How are Independent Reserve transactions taxed?
The ATO is clear that crypto is subject to tax in Australia, and you can learn all about it in our Australia crypto tax guide. You’ll pay Capital Gains Tax or Income Tax, depending on your specific transactions:
Capital Gains Tax: If you sold or swapped crypto (including with leverage) on Independent Reserve, you’ll pay Capital Gains Tax on any gain, which is the same rate as the Personal Income Tax rates, so you’ll pay between 0% to 45% depending on your total annual income. But if you hold your asset for more than a year, you get a 50% discount.
Income Tax: Meanwhile, if you earned new tokens on Independent Reserve - for example, if you receive your affiliate rewards in crypto - the ATO generally views this as additional income, and you may need to pay Income Tax upon receipt.
Does Independent Reserve report to the ATO?
Yes, Independent Reserve may share customer data with the ATO on request. As an AUSTRAC-registered company, Independent Reserve agrees to share KYC data with the relevant authorities, including the ATO. Learn more in our guide: can the ATO track crypto?
How do I lodge my Independent Reserve taxes?
You need to report any gains, losses, or income from your Independent Reserve transactions to the ATO as part of your annual tax return. You can do this via the myTax portal, or using paper forms NAT 2541 & NAT 2670.
If you’re doing this yourself, you’ll need to start by identifying the cost basis for each asset, your taxable transactions, and the kind of tax that applies, and then calculate your gains and losses using an allowable cost basis method - and separate short and long-term gains! Worse still, not only do you need to do this for your Independent Reserve transactions, but you’ll need to do it for each crypto exchange and wallet you traded with.
Fortunately, Koinly makes this easy. Just connect Independent Reserve and Koinly automatically via API or by uploading a CSV file. Koinly then calculates your Independent Reserve taxes and generates your myTax report, ready to file with the ATO.
FAQs
Does Independent Reserve have tax documents?
No, Independent Reserve doesn’t provide a tax report for the ATO or any other tax office. However, you can generate one using a crypto tax calculator.
How do I get Independent Reserve tax documents?
There's a couple of ways to get your Independent Reserve transaction history to do your taxes:
1. Connect to Independent Reserve via API using a crypto tax calculator like Koinly to automatically fetch you transaction history and calculate your taxes.
2. Export a CSV file of your Independent Reserve transaction history. You can then calculate your taxes yourself or upload it to a crypto tax calculator.
Does Independent Reserve provide financial or end of year statements?
No, Independent Reserve doesn’t provide a financial or EOFY statement for users, so you’ll need to use your transaction history to calculate your taxes.
Do I need to file a Capital Gains Tax Schedule for Independent Reserve?
Potentially. If you have more than $10,000 in capital gains throughout the financial year across Independent Reserve and other platforms, you'll need to file a Capital Gains Tax Schedule with the ATO.
Do I have to pay taxes on Independent Reserve?
Yes - you’ll pay tax on any capital gains or income from your Independent Reserve transactions. And if you’re thinking of avoiding your taxes? Don’t - the penalties are steep!
Which countries can use Independent Reserve?
Although Independent Reserve is most popular in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, the exchange actually serves users around the world including most countries in Europe and North America like the USA, the UK and Canada. If you need to file your Independent Reserve taxes in another country, Koinly can help with that too!
