Do I have to report crypto I hold in my own wallet?
Holding without an intermediary does not put a holding outside the reporting regimes, but it does change how they apply. Several of those rules are written around accounts and the institutions that keep them, so a wallet you control yourself sits awkwardly inside them. The answer turns on how the holding is characterised and whether the rule in question reaches property as well as accounts. What changes for certain is the evidence. Nobody is going to send you a statement, so the record you keep is the record that exists, and it should be built as you go rather than at the year end.
Is a hardware wallet a foreign account?
A device is not an account, and that is usually where the analysis starts rather than where it ends. Rules written for accounts look for an institution holding something for you, and self-custody by definition has no such institution. But the regimes do not all stop at accounts, and some reach property generally, wherever it sits and whoever holds it. So the question is which rule is being asked about. Take the position, write down why, and keep the working. A position recorded at the time is worth considerably more than the same position explained after a query has arrived.
How do I prove what I paid for coins in self-custody?
From the chain and from your bank. The record on the chain shows when a holding arrived at an address you control and what came with it; the bank record shows what left your account and when. Between the two, most acquisitions can be evidenced without a platform statement. Where coins were acquired before you started keeping records, the cost base is reconstructed and the method used is stated on the schedule. The habit worth forming is a note at each acquisition: the address, the date, the consideration and the source. It takes a minute then and hours later.
Does moving coins from an exchange to my own wallet trigger tax?
Moving a holding between places you control is generally a change of custody rather than a change of ownership, and a transfer to yourself is not the same event as a sale. The difficulty is evidential rather than legal. On a schedule built from platform exports, an outgoing transfer looks exactly like a disposal, and it will be read as one unless the matching receipt at your own address is shown beside it. So the pair should be recorded together, with both addresses and the dates, at the time it happens.
Who reports a wallet that two people control together?
Control and beneficial ownership are different questions, and reporting usually follows the second. A shared key arrangement can mean two owners, one owner with a second signatory, or a holding on trust for someone else entirely, and those produce different reporting for different people. Because nothing about the arrangement is written down anywhere by default, the documentation is yours to create. We set out who contributed what, who bears the risk, and what each party is entitled to, and then report on that footing rather than on who happens to hold the device.
What records should I keep for a wallet with no statements?
Addresses, dates, counterparties where they are known, the consideration on each side, and the reason for each movement. Keep transfers between your own addresses labelled as such, because an unexplained outgoing transaction reads as a disposal. Keep the source of any valuation used, including which market you took it from. Keep the original acquisition evidence even when the holding has since moved on. The test to apply is a simple one: could somebody who has never seen your wallet follow the schedule from the first acquisition to the year end without having to ask you a question.
Do I have to file in both countries?
Frequently yes, and the two filings do different jobs. The country where the income arises taxes it at source; the country where you are resident taxes your worldwide income and then gives credit for the tax already paid. Filing only one side is what leaves relief unclaimed — the credit has to be asked for on a return. We prepare both sides so the numbers agree. See dual filing.
Is the sale of foreign property taxable where I live?
For a resident, yes — worldwide gains are taxable, and the gain is computed in your own currency, so the exchange rate at purchase and at sale changes the number even when the local-currency price did not move. The country where the property sits usually taxes it too, often with a withholding or clearance step before closing, and that tax becomes a credit. A principal residence relief may apply to a home abroad on the same terms as one at home. See principal residence and foreign property.
