Staking rewards arrive in tokens, but for Canadian tax they are generally measured in dollars on the day you receive them. This calculator replays a stake on your own daily price file or a scenario path, values every payout on its own day, totals the income by tax year, and compares it with what the reward tokens are worth at the end. It also shows how far the price fell during the network's unstaking wait.
How to use it
- Choose the Network; this sets the exit wait, payout timing and compounding from the network's documentation.
- Choose a scenario path or paste or upload your own daily CAD prices for the token.
- Enter the tokens staked, the Reward rate before commission (your estimate; none is quoted here) and the Validator or platform commission.
- Check “Days to exit (unbonding)”, tick “Rewards are restaked automatically” if your setup compounds, and enter your marginal tax rate.
- Read the income by tax year, the rewards' value at the end against the income you reported, and the worst fall during an exit wait.
Two numbers that drift apart
Each reward has two values that matter. The first is its CAD value on the day it arrives: that is the income figure, and it also becomes the reward's cost for any later sale. The second is what the reward tokens are worth at the end. If the price falls after you receive rewards, you can owe income tax on more than the rewards are now worth, and selling them then gives a capital loss that can only offset capital gains.
The chart plots both lines: the dashed line is the income you would report, and the shaded area is the market value of the reward tokens. The “Income by tax year” table splits the income across calendar years, because rewards received in December and January land on different returns.
Worked example: a falling price across two tax years (illustrative)
Suppose you stake 10 tokens on 2025-07-01 at $3,000 each, the price falls in a straight line to $2,000 by 2026-07-01, the reward rate is 3% (your estimate) and the commission is 10%, so the net rate is 2.7%. Rewards are credited daily and not restaked.
You receive 0.2700 tokens, worth $674.63 on the days they arrived: $371.99 in tax year 2025 and $302.64 in 2026. Their average value at receipt was $2,498.63 a token, but at the end they are worth $2,000 each, or $540.00, which is $134.63 less than the income they created. At a 30% marginal rate, the income tax is about $202. Meanwhile the 10 tokens you staked lost $10,000 of value: rewards at this rate offset a price fall of only 2.6%.
| Tax year | Tokens received | Income (CAD when received) | Tax at 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 (from July 1) | 0.1354 | $371.99 | $112 |
| 2026 (to July 1) | 0.1346 | $302.64 | $91 |
| Total | 0.2700 | $674.63 | $202 |
The exit wait is a price risk
On most networks you cannot sell staked tokens the moment you decide to. Polkadot's unbonding is 28 days; Ethereum has no fixed period, only an exit queue and a withdrawal sweep, so the 7 days the tool uses is a placeholder; Avalanche delegations are locked for the term you choose, at least two weeks; Cardano has no lock-up. The tool reports the worst fall over your exit wait anywhere in the price path you replay.
For example, on an illustrative path where the price is flat at $3,000, then drops 30% in a straight line over 10 days, then stays at $2,100, the worst 2-day fall is 7.9%, the worst 7-day fall 23.1%, and any wait of 10 days or more takes the whole 30%. The longer the wait, the more of a sudden drop you sit through without being able to sell.
How CRA treats rewards, briefly
CRA's mining and staking page says rewards from staking on a centralized crypto-asset exchange platform are generally income when they are credited to your account. It does not address staking from your own wallet, delegating on-chain or liquid staking tokens, and whether staking is a business depends on your facts. Many people apply the same income-on-receipt approach to all rewards; that is the approach this tool uses, as an interpretation.
Record each reward as “Reward / income” in the ACB calculator so its value is added to your cost base. Rewards often arrive daily, so download the CSV here and keep your platform's reward history.
What the replay simplifies
The reward rate is constant over the whole period; real rates change with total stake and network activity. Rewards are credited on a fixed cadence (daily for ETH, SOL and DOT, every 5 days for ADA, at the end of each 14-day lock for AVAX). The price history is the file you supply or a simplified scenario path, one value per day. Slashing, missed rewards, platform failure and the gap between a liquid staking token and its underlying coin are not modelled. The 32 ETH minimum for a solo Ethereum validator means smaller amounts are usually staked through a platform or pool, whose cut belongs in the commission field.
What this means for you
Record each reward's Canadian-dollar value on the day you receive it; that's both your income and the rewards' cost base. Exchanges that pay daily can produce hundreds of small entries a year, which the ACB calculator can read from the CSV.
Before staking, check the exit wait for the network you use and the worst fall your coin has had over that many days. That's the price risk you accept for the yield.
Definitions
- Unbonding period
- The wait after you ask to unstake, during which the tokens earn nothing and can't be sold.
- Commission
- The validator's or platform's cut of the rewards.
- Fair market value
- The price on the day received, used to value rewards as income.