India’s 39 million verified crypto investors are sitting on roughly $2.1 billion in digital assets, and the government is taking a 30% cut of every gain they make. No negotiations, no sliding scale, no exceptions.
The flat tax on virtual digital assets, paired with a 1% tax deducted at source on every transaction, has been the law of the land since February 2022. And despite years of industry lobbying, the 2026-27 Union Budget changed exactly nothing about the framework.
The tax regime that won’t budge
Section 115BBH of India’s Income Tax Act lays out the rules in blunt terms. Any gains from virtual digital assets, which India calls VDAs, get taxed at a flat 30%. On top of that, every transaction triggers a 1% TDS, regardless of whether the trade was profitable.
The real kicker is the loss offsetting prohibition. In most developed tax regimes, if you lose money on one trade, you can use that loss to reduce the taxes owed on a winning trade. Not in India. Losses on crypto cannot be offset against gains, and they cannot be carried forward to future tax years.
