Worked position · Ungated · Computed live
A mining and staking business choosing what an airdrop is worth
Airdropped tokens arrive with no purchase price. Taking nil basis recognises nothing today — so what does it cost?
The facts
- A mainland company in its first year of trading.
- An airdrop of 2,000 tokens received when the market price was AED 55.
- Own-account mining, plus computational power supplied to a third party for a fee.
- Everything disposed of in the following period, by which time other business income has already used the AED 375,000 band.
The amounts and dates are illustrative. The characterisation, the acquisition lots and the Corporate Tax in both periods are computed live by the same engines the Crypto Receipts and Virtual-Asset Disposals services call.
What the “cautious” choice costs
Nil basis recognises nothing on the airdrop today. Over the two periods it produces AED 9,900 more Corporate Tax than market value at receipt. Basis forgone now is gain recognised later, dirham for dirham — so nil basis never removed the income, it moved it. It moved it out of a period whose AED 375,000 band still had AED 50,000 of room and into a period where AED 800,000 of other income has already consumed the band, so the same money is taxed at 9% instead of nothing. The band is annual. Room unused is room destroyed.
| Basis policy | Period 1 taxable base | Period 1 tax | Period 2 gain | Period 2 tax | Both periods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market value at receipt | AED 325,000 | AED 0 | AED 274,000 | AED 62,910 | AED 62,910 |
| Nil basis | AED 215,000 | AED 0 | AED 384,000 | AED 72,810 | AED 72,810 |
The acquisition lots produced by the receipts engine are fed directly into the disposal engine, so the basis chosen in period one is the basis subtracted in period two. That is why the two rows can differ at all.
Every receipt, characterised
| Receipt | Corporate Tax | Income on receipt | Basis per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airdrop | ASSESS | AED 110,000 | AED 55 |
| Mining — own account | ASSESS | AED 120,000 | AED 300 |
| Mining — for another person | TAXABLE | AED 140,000 | AED 0 |
What this does not decide
It does not decide the basis. The FTA has published no Corporate Tax guide on virtual assets, so both policies are costed and neither is chosen for the taxpayer. What the engine refuses to do quietly is the point: a tool that picked one would be taking a position the filer has to defend.
- Basis policy moves AED 110,000 between periods: taking nil basis recognises nothing now on the receipts whose basis it governs, and adds exactly that much to the gain on eventual disposal. It is a timing and characterisation choice, not a saving.
- 2 acquisition lot(s) were produced for the disposal engine. The receipt date becomes the lot's acquisition date and therefore starts the twelve-month clock in Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025 Art. 2(3)(d) — dating a reward to the wrong day can move a later disposal across the qualifying line.
Authority — 3 citations
- Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, Art. 3 — 0% to AED 375,000, 9% above
- Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023 — a natural person is subject to Corporate Tax only on Business or Business Activity, and only above AED 1,000,000 turnover
- Ministerial Decision No. 229 of 2025, Art. 2(3)(d) — twelve-month uninterrupted holding for "investment purposes" (effective 1 June 2023; repeals and replaces Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023)