Lost or stolen crypto claims — how much of this can I do myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: whether the loss is capital or business follows the original characterisation of the holding, and the timing depends on when the asset became worthless or the claim crystallised.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
My exchange collapsed and I cannot withdraw — can I claim the loss?
Not simply because the platform stopped paying out. In most systems there must be a realisation event before anything is claimable, and a frozen balance in an insolvent platform is not by itself a realisation. What usually crystallises the position is a step in the insolvency process: a determination of what creditors will receive, an assignment or sale of the claim, or a point at which the entitlement can be shown to be worthless. Until one of those happens, the holding is an impaired claim rather than a loss. The practical task in the meantime is preserving evidence of what you held and what happened to it.
When can I actually claim crypto locked in a failed platform?
When the claim crystallises, which is a question of fact and timing rather than of how long you have been waiting. Watch the insolvency process for the step that fixes what you are entitled to receive, because that is generally what turns an uncertain claim into a measurable loss. Claiming too early invites the position to be reopened; claiming too late can put the event in a year that is harder to use. Keep the platform statements, the correspondence and the filings from the process as they are issued, dated. Reconstructing that record after a platform's systems go dark is often impossible.
Is stolen crypto a capital loss or a business loss?
It follows the original characterisation of the holding. If the asset was held as an investment, the loss is generally capital; if it formed part of a trading or business activity, it follows that treatment instead. This is decided by what you were doing with the holding before anything went wrong, evidenced by frequency of transactions, intention at acquisition, how the activity was financed, and how it was reported in earlier years. It is not a choice made after the loss, and a position that conflicts with how the same holdings were treated in previous returns is the version most likely to be challenged.
What evidence do I need to prove my crypto was stolen?
Evidence of two things: that you held the asset, and that the event happened. For the holding, that means acquisition records, exchange statements, wallet addresses you controlled and the trail showing how the asset reached them. For the event, it means the on-chain record of the outgoing transaction, timestamps, any police or platform report made at the time, and contemporaneous correspondence. The word that carries the weight is contemporaneous. Material created at the time is what supports the claim; a narrative written months later, however accurate, is weaker precisely because nothing independent fixes it to the date it describes.
I lost my seed phrase and cannot access my wallet — is that deductible?
It is the hardest version of this to evidence, because nothing observable happens. The asset sits at an address that still shows a balance, and the only change is that you can no longer reach it. Where a claim depends on the holding having become worthless or on a realisation event, an inaccessible but intact balance struggles to demonstrate either. What helps is contemporaneous evidence: records establishing that you controlled the address, documentation of the loss at the time it occurred, and a record of the recovery attempts made. Take advice before claiming, because the characterisation and timing are both genuinely uncertain here.
I moved country while my funds were frozen — where do I claim the loss?
That depends on where you were resident when the loss crystallised, which is why the timing question and the residence question have to be answered together. If the event that fixes the loss falls after you became resident elsewhere, the country you left may have no claim to it and the new one may not allow relief for a position that arose before arrival. Establish the likely crystallisation date and your residency dates on the same timeline before filing anything. Clients who file in the country where the platform was located, on the assumption that this is where the loss happened, often file in the wrong place.
Do American citizens living abroad have to pay taxes?
American expats and green card holders need to file US returns for life, and many of them pay little or no US tax once the relief is applied — but the filing is what unlocks the relief, so the two questions have different answers. The exclusion for foreign earned income, the credit for foreign tax already paid and the treaty between the two countries between them usually leave the total at roughly the higher of the two countries' tax rather than the sum. Skip the return and none of it applies. See Americans abroad.
Do NRIs pay tax on money sent to India?
Sending your own funds to India is a transfer of capital, not income, so the remittance itself is not taxed. What is taxable is income the money then earns in India — interest, rent, capital gains — under the rules for the account type it sits in. Sending money out of India is the direction that needs certification before the bank will act. See NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts.
