Most ITR-time stress for crypto traders comes from disorganised records, not the tax math itself. A simple workflow — set up once, maintained monthly — turns ITR season into a 30-minute job instead of a week-long panic.
The data you need to capture
Per trade: date, exchange, side (buy/sell), asset, quantity, price (INR), total INR, counterparty (KYC name if visible), trade ID, payment method, UTR (where applicable).
Per quarter: trade-history Excel exported from each exchange you used.
The template
Google Sheet with columns: Date, Exchange, Side, Asset, Qty, INR Price, Total INR, Counterparty, Trade ID, UTR, Notes.
Add formula columns: 'Cumulative qty per asset' and 'Cumulative INR' for FIFO cost-basis tracking.
Monthly routine
First Sunday of each month: download last month's trade history from each exchange. Append to your master sheet. Reconcile total transfer value against AIS (which lags ~30 days).
Spot any anomalies — TDS not credited, missing trades — and resolve while the records are fresh.
ITR season
By July: aggregate by asset. For each asset, compute total transfers, total cost basis, total gain. Plug into Schedule VDA.
Reconcile total against AIS. If they agree (within rounding), you're done. If they don't, find the gap and explain it.
Tools that help
Koinly, KoinX, CoinTracker — automated tax-reconciliation tools that pull from major exchanges. Charge ₹1k-5k/year. Worth it if you're trading enough to justify.
For low-volume traders, a hand-maintained sheet is fine.
Key takeaways
- Capture trade-level data: 11 columns; consistent format.
- Monthly reconciliation against AIS — catches issues early.
- ITR aggregation by asset for Schedule VDA.
- Tools (Koinly etc.) automate this; spreadsheet works fine for low volume.
