Carel de Jager and Forvis Mazars' Dr Wiehann Olivier discuss why evidence of the original purchase matters when calculating crypto tax.
A crypto sale can be easy to find on an exchange statement, even when the purchase that came before it is buried in an old account. For a South African investor preparing a tax return, that missing record can make a difference to the amount they report.
Carel de Jager and Dr Wiehann Olivier discussed the problem in an interview hosted by David at TalkingCents on 13 October 2026. Olivier, a partner and global co-head of digital assets at Forvis Mazars, explained how incomplete records can lead taxpayers to report too much or too little.
Watch the excerpt: Missing Crypto Purchase Records? Why Your Tax Calculation Could Be Wrong.
The purchase price matters
The difficulty begins with establishing what the investor paid. For an asset treated on capital account, the gain or loss is calculated by comparing the disposal proceeds with its base cost. SARS' base-cost guidance explains the principle.
In a simplified example, an investor who buys an asset for R50,000 and sells it for R150,000 has a gain of R100,000 before other relevant adjustments. A statement showing only the R150,000 sale leaves out the cost of buying it.
Olivier warned that claiming a cost becomes difficult when the taxpayer has no reliable evidence to support it. The outcome depends on the records available and the circumstances. A missing document alone does not establish that the entire sale is taxable.
An incomplete history can cut both ways
Olivier also cautioned that gaps can cause gains to be understated or transactions to be reported incorrectly. His concern was the accuracy of the result in either direction.
That is a practical problem for anyone who has used several exchanges and wallets. The platform used for the sale may have no record of an earlier purchase elsewhere, or of the movements between accounts.
De Jager described how Coinfig brings exchange and wallet records together and flags gaps for users to investigate. A missing acquisition may be a reason to look for another exchange account or an older statement before preparing the report.
What to gather before filing
Under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, crypto service providers have been collecting transaction information since 1 March 2026, and their first returns reach SARS in 2027 (how CARF reporting works). Those returns do not replace the taxpayer's own declaration, or the records needed to support it.
For someone with years of trading history, that starts with listing the exchanges and wallets they have used, including old or inactive accounts. Collecting the available records can help explain where a purchase happened and how the asset reached the account used to sell it. Unresolved gaps can then be taken to a tax practitioner before filing.
Coinfig users can bring their records together on Coinfig.tax and check the data completeness score, free of charge, before paying for a report.
Related reading
- The exchange has closed. What happens to your crypto purchase records?
- Capital or revenue? The question to settle before calculating crypto tax
This article draws on an interview recorded with TalkingCents on 13 October 2026. It is general information, not tax advice.