Wallet and exchange records the CRA expects to see

Crypto records are the paper trail that lets a person explain, years later, what happened to each coin. The Canada Revenue Agency publishes guidance on books and records for crypto-assets, and it treats the trail as the taxpayer's job to keep. The reason is practical. A blockchain shows transfers between addresses, but it does not say who owns an address, what a transfer was for or what a coin was worth in Canadian dollars on that day. An exchange account shows trades, yet the account can be closed or the site can disappear. Records kept by the owner fill those gaps. This page walks through what the agency lists for wallets and exchanges, in the order a person would collect it.

For each transaction, the agency lists several details. These are the date and time, the number and type of units, the Canadian-dollar value, the nature of the transaction and the other party, even if that party is only an address. The nature of the transaction is the short note on why it happened, such as a sale, a trade for another asset, a payment for goods or a transfer between two wallets of the same owner. The agency also asks for the wallet addresses involved. Writing these items next to each entry as it happens is far easier than rebuilding them from raw data. A plain spreadsheet with one row per transaction and one column per detail is enough to hold all of it. Use one date format throughout, so the file still reads clearly years later.

Consider a made-up case. A freelance designer named Priya holds some crypto in a software wallet and uses an exchange account to trade. At the end of the year she opens the exchange, downloads the full history of trades, deposits and withdrawals, and saves the file with the year in its name. She then copies each wallet address into her spreadsheet and notes the starting and ending balance of each wallet, with the cost of every asset it holds. Next she matches each withdrawal from the exchange to a deposit in a wallet, so that a transfer between her own wallets is not mistaken for a sale. Two months later the exchange changes its website. Her files are still on her own drive.

Several things can go wrong. The first is relying on the exchange to keep the history. The agency suggests downloading original data from exchanges or software regularly, because access can end without warning and old data may not reload. The second is recording only trades and forgetting deposits and withdrawals, which leaves transfers unexplained. The third is leaving out wallet addresses, so a movement of crypto cannot be tied to its owner. The fourth is tracking only the final balance. The agency asks for each wallet's beginning and ending balances with cost for every asset, every year, and a final balance alone cannot show how it was reached.

A short checklist helps. Is there a dated export of the trade, deposit and withdrawal history from every exchange used? Does each transaction row hold the date and time, the units, the Canadian-dollar value, the nature of the transaction and the other party? Are all wallet addresses listed, with beginning and ending balances and cost for each asset? Are the files copied to a second place, such as an external drive, so that one failed device does not erase them? Finally, how long will they stay? According to the Canada Revenue Agency, records should be kept for at least six years after the last tax year they relate to.

Mistakes in earlier years are not the end of the story. According to the Canada Revenue Agency, errors can be corrected by amending the return or through the Voluntary Disclosures Program. This page does not say which route fits a particular case, and it does not decide how any transaction is taxed. The agency's own pages on income from crypto-asset transactions and on reporting income when carrying on a business explain how different activities are treated. A tax professional or the agency itself can answer questions about a specific situation. This page is general education, not tax, legal or financial advice. The sources below give more detail.

• List date and time, units, Canadian-dollar value, nature and other party for every transaction, plus wallet addresses
• Download exchange and software data regularly and store copies in a second place
• According to the CRA, keep records for at least six years after the last tax year they relate to