Canada denies the loss the US lets you claim.
Sell at a loss, buy back within thirty days: in the United States the wash-sale rule is widely understood not to reach crypto, so the loss stands. In Canada the superficial loss rule turns on identical property rather than on securities, so it does reach crypto — and the loss is denied. Paste your trades and see which ones.
One per line:
date, buy|sell, asset, quantity, total CAD, fees CAD — fees
optional. Dates as YYYY-MM-DD, amounts in Canadian dollars.
—
Shown because § 1091 is widely understood not to reach digital assets, so an engine built for the United States allows the whole loss. That is the American answer, and filing it on a Canadian return is how somebody gets reassessed.
A denied loss is not destroyed — paragraph 53(1)(f) adds it to the adjusted cost base of what you kept, so it reaches you when you sell that.
Nine countries, and the widest spread is in Denmark
Tracks individual lots, wallet by wallet since Rev. Proc. 2024-28. FIFO by default, other identification methods available if you identify at the time. What your broker reports →
Pools per asset under s.104 TCGA 1992, but matches same-day and next-30-day acquisitions first. Forward-only. Work out UK pooling →
Averages every identical property into ONE adjusted cost base across every account you own — s.47(1) — with no matching rules in front of it. And the superficial loss rule looks thirty days in both directions.
FIFO parcels, each with its own twelve-month clock, and half the gain discounted — but only after capital losses are applied, which is the step a US-shaped engine gets in the wrong order. Work out the Australian discount →
The one that breaks every engine built somewhere else: the gain is a fraction of what your whole portfolio cost, sized by its value at the moment of the disposal, so the asset you sold appears nowhere in the arithmetic — and swaps between digital assets are not taxable at all. Work out the French formula →
One average cost per asset across everything held, no schablonmetod — and thirty per cent of every loss simply not deductible, so a year you broke even on is still taxable. Work out the Swedish K4 →
The only place here where the usual bug runs the other way: a deemed acquisition cost of 20 per cent of the sale price — 40 after ten years — taken whenever it beats the real one, so an engine that just does proceeds minus cost overstates the tax. Work out the Finnish deduction →
Changes the question rather than the method: no capital gains tax at all, a deemed return on the value held at 00:00 on 1 January, and a counter-evidence rule whose «actual return» counts unrealised change, allows no costs and cannot go below zero. Work out the Dutch box 3 →
The widest spread of all: a gain is personal income in box 20 at up to 53 %, a loss is a deduction in box 58 worth about 26 %, and as a rule they do not offset each other at all. Work out the Danish boxes →
Harvesting into the superficial-loss rule
Canada is stricter than the US and stricter than the UK: 30 days on EITHER side, and an affiliated person's purchase counts too. The denied loss is not lost, it is added to the ACB of the property still held — which is why harvesting here changes WHEN the loss lands, not whether it exists. Work out what you are holding at a loss →
Questions
Does Canada have a wash-sale rule for crypto?
It has something that does the same job and reaches further. The US wash-sale rule at § 1091 applies to stock and securities, and the widely held view is that it does not reach digital assets. Canada's superficial loss rule — section 54 and paragraph 40(2)(g)(i) of the Income Tax Act — turns on «identical property», not on securities, so it applies to cryptoassets directly. Sell at a loss, buy back inside the window, and the loss is denied. A tool that carries the American answer north lets you claim a loss you are not entitled to.
What exactly is the window?
Sixty-one days: the thirty days before the disposition, the day itself, and the thirty days after — and the replacement property must still be held at the END of that period. Note the difference from the UK's rule, which looks only forward. Canada looks both ways, so a purchase you made three weeks BEFORE selling can deny the loss too.
If I buy back only part of what I sold, is the whole loss denied?
No, and this is where most tools overstate the tax. The denied portion is the least of the units disposed, the units acquired in the window, and the units still held at the end, divided by the units disposed. Sell four coins at a loss and buy one back, and a quarter of the loss is denied.
Is the denied loss gone?
No. Under paragraph 53(1)(f) it is added to the adjusted cost base of the property you kept, so it reaches you when you eventually sell that. It is deferred, not destroyed — and a tool that simply deletes it overstates your tax twice: once now, and again later when the higher cost base never appears.
How does Canada decide which coins I sold?
It does not use FIFO and it does not track lots. Subsection 47(1) averages every identical property into ONE adjusted cost base across everything you own — every exchange and every wallet together — and a disposition takes a proportion of that average. That is a third distinct method: the US tracks lots wallet by wallet, the UK pools with same-day and 30-day matching in front, Canada averages everything.
Why is only half of my gain taxed?
Paragraph 38(a): one half of a capital gain is a taxable capital gain, and one half of a capital loss is an allowable capital loss. Schedule 3 wants the gross figures and the return carries the halved one.
What if I trade a lot — is it still a capital gain?
Possibly not, and this is a question about you rather than about your ledger. Transactions on income account are business income, included at 100% rather than 50%, and the CRA looks at your whole conduct (IT-479R) rather than at any single trade. We do not decide it, and neither should any software.
What about my spouse buying the same coin?
The rule reaches acquisitions by an affiliated person — a spouse or common-law partner, or a corporation you control — which means a repurchase you did not make can still deny your loss. We can only see what you give us, so this is named rather than computed.
Is anything uploaded?
No. This page computes entirely in your browser. The full engine applies the same sections with evidence attached to every figure.
Run it on your real history
The full engine applies these same sections across every exchange export and wallet address you give it, with evidence attached to every figure. Free to see the answer.