According to Odaily and a report cited from The Times of India, India’s 2026 tax season will bring stricter compliance requirements for crypto investors. The report states that the country’s crypto tax framework has not undergone a drastic structural change, but enforcement intensity and filing details have been tightened significantly. As a result, filing errors now carry more serious consequences for taxpayers who hold, trade, exchange or dispose of crypto assets.
VDA reporting continues under the new Income Tax Act
India will implement the new Income Tax Act, 2025, from April 1, 2026, replacing the original 1961 Act. For the FY2025-26 tax year, crypto assets, referred to as virtual digital assets or VDAs, must still be reported under the existing framework. The main shift lies in the level of execution and detail required during filing. Investors are expected to prepare records that can accurately correspond to each transaction, asset type, timing of disposal and related platform data.
Schedule VDA is a central part of this reporting process. The report notes that investors are required to file on a transaction-by-transaction basis rather than merely submitting an aggregated net gain. The reporting scope includes every trade, exchange and asset disposal record. In practical terms, a single sale, token exchange or other form of disposal must be reflected in the tax filing materials in a way that can be reviewed and matched against underlying data.
Cross-platform activity and wallet transfers raise data challenges
For users who trade across multiple platforms, conduct DeFi operations or move assets between several wallets, data completeness and consistency have become the main difficulties. Records from different exchanges, wallets and on-chain activity need to align in terms of timing, quantity and asset identification. If a taxpayer keeps only partial exchange reports, or fails to match on-chain asset movement with the VDA entries in the filing, gaps will appear in the submitted materials.
The report further states that failure to fully declare any crypto asset exchange or trade can trigger a compliance risk review. Regulatory requirements for data matching and verification against on-chain records and exchange records are increasing. Under the 2026 tax season requirements, Indian crypto investors will need to place transaction-level records, cross-platform data organization and filing consistency at the center of their tax preparation process.