Provisional taxpayers submit their 2026 tax return to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) by 22 January 2027. If you missed the 23 October 2026 deadline and haven't filed, filing sooner limits the risk of penalties.
Records are usually the hardest part of declaring crypto, whether you file yourself or use a tax practitioner. This guide covers what you need, how to turn it into a tax report, and what to keep. To check your figures before you submit, read our five crypto checks.
What you need
For the 2026 tax year (1 March 2025 to 28 February 2026), you need a record of every:
purchase, with the rand amount and fee
sale, with the rand amount received and fee
swap between crypto assets, with the rand value at the time
reward received, such as savings or staking rewards
transfer in or out of your Luno wallets
Generate your tax report with coinfig.tax
We've partnered with coinfig.tax, a crypto tax calculator built for South African tax. It removes the need to compile these records by hand, and is free for Luno customers.
On the Luno website, go to Security, then API keys, and select Create API key. Choose Read-only access as the permission. Copy the Key ID and Secret, then select the activation link we email you.
Sign in to coinfig.tax, add Luno as a source and paste in the key. Transactions from every Luno wallet import automatically, including wallets with no balance today.
Choose the 2026 tax year and generate your report. coinfig.tax applies South African tax rules to every transaction and calculates your capital gains, losses and reward income.
Review anything the report flags, such as a transfer it can't match, then download the report.
A read-only key lets coinfig.tax see your transactions. It can't place trades or move your crypto.
Prefer not to create a key? You can upload your Luno statements instead. Go to Portfolio, select an asset under Balances, choose Download statement, select CSV, and set a start and end date that cover your full history. Repeat for each asset.
More than one platform
SARS looks at your total position, not one account at a time. If you also used another exchange or a private wallet, add those to coinfig.tax so the report covers everything. Transfers between accounts in your own name usually aren't sales. SARS says this depends on the facts of each transfer, so records that show where the crypto moved are useful.
Keep your reports and evidence
SARS can ask for supporting documents after you file. It requires you to keep them for at least five years after you submit. A complete set includes:
the tax report from coinfig.tax
your Luno transaction history for the tax year
the history from any other exchange or wallet you used
records of transfers between your own wallets
a copy of the return you submitted
Storage that is backed up, such as cloud storage alongside your computer, keeps these easy to find.
Why records matter more from 2026
From 1 March 2026, South Africa applies the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), an international standard. Under CARF, crypto platforms report information about their customers' crypto transactions to SARS each year. The first reporting year ends 28 February 2027. Individuals don't report anything under CARF and continue to declare crypto on their normal tax return. CARF does make complete figures that match your records more important.
What next?
Connect your Luno account at coinfig.tax and generate your free 2026 tax report before 22 January 2027.
