Crypto airdrop and hard fork: taxed at receipt, taxed again at sale

Digital economy · Crypto

Updated 31 Oct 2026. Every paid answer is checked by a CA. Free AI answers are labelled until a CA verifies them.

Facts
Airdrop: Free tokens received as part of a marketing campaign, protocol launch, or community reward. Taxable on receipt at FMV as "income from other sources" at slab rate (not 30%, because it's income, not a gain). When you later sell the airdropped tokens: the difference between sale price and FMV at receipt is taxed at 30% as VDA gain.
Provisions and law
- IT Act, Sec 194 (old 115BBH) | Sec 92(2)(m) (old 56(2)(x)) | CBDT Circular
Analysis
Hard fork: You held 1 BTC before a fork. You now have 1 BTC + 1 BCH. The BCH is newly received, taxable on receipt at FMV as income at slab rate. Future sale of BCH: 30% on gains above FMV at fork date. The complexity: Tracking FMV of airdrops/fork tokens at the exact time of receipt requires historical price data. Most people don't track this. But the IT department will compare your Schedule VDA with exchange data.
Conclusion
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