Crypto-to-crypto: the trade people forget to report
You swapped ETH for USDT and no money touched your bank. In most systems, you still just disposed of an asset.
- Why a swap is usually two events, not zero
- Stablecoins are not a safe harbour by default
- How to price a swap when no AUD was involved
Hold a crypto asset over 12 months and only half the gain is taxable — the 50% CGT discount. Under 12 months, the full gain counts. The ATO also data-matches exchange records directly against your return.
Relevant filing: myTax.
No bank movement, still a disposal
The intuition that 'it isn't real until I cash out' is the most expensive intuition in crypto. In most tax systems, exchanging one asset for another is a disposal of the first one — the fact that you received another token instead of AUD doesn't undo it.
So a single swap can create a gain or loss on the asset you gave up, measured in AUD, even though your bank never saw a cent.
Stablecoins don't switch the rules off
Moving into USDT or USDC feels like parking in cash. Legally, in most places, it is still a disposal of whatever you sold to get there — a stablecoin is an asset, not your national currency.
That is why people with heavy stablecoin activity are often the most surprised at how much there is to report.
Pricing a trade that had no price tag
If no AUD appeared, you still need a AUD value for both sides at the moment of the swap. The market value at that timestamp is what makes the gain computable.
Done by hand, this is where spreadsheets die. Done properly, each swap is converted at the price of its own date and the arithmetic stays visible.
