Section 285BAA

Section 285BAA — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 285BAA, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• CBDT Guidance Note on crypto-asset reporting CBDT Circulars & InstructionsHelps departmentJudgment not reachable
  Do I have to list every crypto trade separately in Schedule VDA, or can I report the net gain?
  Every trade separately. Schedule VDA requires transaction-wise disclosure — type of VDA, date of acquisition, date of transfer, sale consideration, cost of acquisition, income from the transfer and the s.194S TDS — and consolidating gains across transactions is treated as a compliance error. Alongside that, crypto-asset service providers have their own duty to report crypto transactions in the prescribed form and to run due diligence to identify reportable persons.
• Statutory position — section 285BAA: the crypto-asset reporting entity's statement, and why section 115BBI is a different thing entirely CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  Our exchange has been told it is a 'reporting entity' for crypto-assets. What does section 285BAA actually require, and is section 115BBI part of the same regime?
  Section 285BAA, inserted by the Finance Act 2025 with effect from 1 April 2026, requires a prescribed reporting entity in respect of a crypto-asset to furnish information about transactions in such crypto-assets in a statement, for such period and within such time, form and manner and to such income-tax authority as prescribed. If the authority thinks the statement defective it must intimate the defect and allow thirty days or longer to rectify, failing which the Act applies as if inaccurate information had been furnished; if no statement is filed the authority may serve a notice requiring one within not more than thirty days; and a reporting entity that later discovers an inaccuracy must inform the authority and furnish the correct information within ten days. The Central Government may prescribe registration of reporting entities, the nature and manner of maintaining information, and the due diligence for identifying crypto-asset users and owners. Section 115BBI is NOT part of this regime: it is a thirty per cent charge on the 'specified income' of certain funds, trusts, universities and hospitals under s.10(23C) and s.11, and has nothing to do with virtual digital assets.
• CBDT Notification 19/2026 on crypto reporting CBDT Circulars & InstructionsHelps department
  Do I have to report my crypto holdings now, or does the exchange do it for me?
  The platform does. Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Providers — Indian exchanges, custodians, wallet providers, broker-dealer platforms and offshore providers servicing Indian users — must report crypto-asset transactions in Form 167 under rules 241 to 244. The compliance burden is placed on the platforms, not on individual investors.
• Statutory position — section 2(47A): what is a virtual digital asset, and what the Government can take out of it CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysSuperseded by amendment
  The notice says my client dealt in a 'virtual digital asset'. What actually falls inside that definition, and are vouchers, reward points and NFTs inside it?
  Section 2(47A), inserted by the Finance Act 2022 with effect from 1 April 2022, defined a virtual digital asset in three limbs for AY 2023-24 to AY 2025-26 — a fourth sub-clause (d) has since been added, which this entry does NOT set out because it could not be read (see the editor note) — (a) any information, code, number or token, not being Indian or foreign currency, generated through cryptographic means or otherwise, providing a digital representation of value exchanged with or without consideration, with the promise or representation of having inherent value, or functioning as a store of value or a unit of account, and capable of being transferred, stored or traded electronically; (b) a non-fungible token or any other token of similar nature; and (c) any other digital asset the Central Government notifies. A proviso lets the Central Government notify EXCLUSIONS from the definition, subject to conditions, and the Explanation makes 'non-fungible token' itself mean only such digital asset as the Government notifies, and imports the FEMA meanings of 'currency', 'foreign currency' and 'Indian currency'.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.