How to declare crypto in Switzerland.

Most crypto tax problems start with fragmented data. One exchange has buys, another has sells, a wallet has transfers, and staking income may be buried in a separate earn or reward export. A good declaration workflow starts by collecting everything before calculating anything.

1. Export your full transaction history

Download CSV or Excel exports from every exchange, broker, wallet app, and platform you used. Include trades, deposits, withdrawals, rewards, staking, interest, fees, and conversions. If you only upload the year you are declaring but acquired assets earlier, disposals may not have enough cost basis history.

2. Classify each transaction

Transactions should be grouped into practical tax categories: buys, sells, transfers, staking/rewards, fees, and unsupported or ambiguous rows. Transfers between your own accounts should not create artificial gains, but they still matter for tracing acquisition history.

3. Convert values to CHF

Swiss reporting needs CHF values. Some Swiss platforms export CHF values directly. Other exports may require currency conversion or market references for the transaction date or year-end valuation. The report should document how values were derived so the numbers can be reviewed.

4. Prepare the annex

A useful crypto tax annex should include year-end holdings and values, staking or reward income, realised FIFO results, transaction counts, notes about missing history, and a transaction ledger. This lets you attach structured supporting documentation instead of a raw spreadsheet.

5. Review before submitting

Always check that all exchanges and wallets are included. If the report flags unmatched disposals or missing acquisition history, resolve those issues before relying on the realised gain/loss section. For professional trading, DeFi, legal entities, or large balances, get a Swiss tax advisor involved.