Schedule OS and Crypto Income

Not every crypto event lands in Schedule VDA. Coins that arrive without a purchase are treated in practice as income on receipt at your slab rate, and that income is reported in Schedule OS, income from other sources.

Key highlights

What goes here, and what does not.

Slab

Rate on the value when the reward lands

Income from other sources

Then VDA

The later sale is a separate transfer

Section 115BBH

No TDS

On the credit itself, so nothing in Form 26AS

Rewards and airdrops

What Belongs in Schedule OS

Airdrops, staking rewards, referral and promotional credits, and rewards from DeFi protocols. Each is valued in rupees on the day it arrives, and that value is the income figure. It is also the cost basis for the eventual disposal, so recording it accurately does double duty.

Salary paid in crypto is the exception in this group. It is salary, reported in Schedule S with the employer deducting under Section 192, and it never touches Schedule OS.

What Is Not Settled

Slab rate on receipt is where most practitioners land, and CBDT has issued nothing confirming it. Mining sits further out again, because Section 115BBH(2)(a) allows the cost of acquisition and nothing else, and a mined coin has no acquisition cost, which points at the whole consideration being charged at 30% on sale instead.

DeFi carries the same uncertainty with one more on top, since depositing into a pool may itself be a transfer depending on what you receive back. This page states the practice and marks the gap rather than filling it with a number.

Two Stages, Two Schedules

A reward is taxed twice over its life and the two events use different rates. The arrival is slab rate in Schedule OS. The disposal is a flat 30% with 4% cess in Schedule VDA, computed on the gain above the value already taxed.

Getting the receipt value wrong therefore costs twice: once on the income figure, and again on the cost basis that the later disposal runs against.

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions this term raises most often.

As income from other sources in Schedule OS, at the rupee value on the day the tokens arrived. The later sale is reported separately in Schedule VDA, with only the gain above that value charged at 30% plus cess.

Not on receipt, on the reading most practitioners follow. The reward is ordinary income at your slab rate when it lands, and the 30% applies to the gain when you later sell it. CBDT has not confirmed the receipt-side treatment.

No. Nothing is withheld on the credit itself, so nothing about it appears in Form 26AS. The 1% applies when you transfer the tokens.

This page states the law and what CryptoKar computes from your trade history. It is not tax advice. Judgment calls belong with a chartered accountant. Sections and dates here were read against the source on 21 August 2026.

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