What Cryptos Are Taxed?
The IRS currently treats crypto as property, not currency. If you are familiar with stock taxation, crypto taxation should be intuitive for you.
According to the IRS, "Digital Assets” include, but are not limited to:
Virtual currencies (e.g., bitcoin and ether)
Stablecoins
NFTs (non-fungible tokens)
Taxable Events in Crypto
The IRS states the below events in digital assets trigger a taxable event:
Selling a digital asset.
Exchange digital assets for property, goods or services.
Swapping one digital asset for another.
Receiving digital assets as payment.
Digital assets received from staking or mining crypto.
Crypto received from an airdrop.
Paying for goods or services with crypto.
Non-Taxable Events in Crypto
The below events do not trigger a taxable event in crypto:
Holding cryptocurrency in your account without selling it.
Transferring crypto between accounts or wallets.
Purchasing crypto using fiat currency (US Dollars).
Crypto: Short vs Long Term Capital Gains
Crypto is taxed similarly to stocks when it comes to capital gains.
Crypto and Short-Term Capital Gain
Profits in crypto held for under one year are treated as short-term capital gains. Short-term capital gains are taxed as ordinary income
Crypto and Long Term Capital Gains
Profits in crypto held for over one year are treated as long-term capital gains. Long-term capital gains provide preferential tax treatment when compared to short-term capital gains.
Read here to learn more about short-term and long-term capital gains.
Taxation and Crypto Losses
Crypto losses must also be reported to the IRS. Reporting crypto losses to the IRS is very advantageous as these losses can be used to offset up to $3,000 in capital gains.
Crypto Tax Reporting Process
There are three steps crypto participants must take when reporting their crypto taxes:
Determine your profit and losses for the coins/tokens you trade. You can look up all your ether and ERC20 token transaction history by entering your address in Etherscan.
Complete IRS tax Form 8949. You can find this 8949 form from the IRS here
Include your Form 8949 with your Form 1040 Schedule D. This latter form reports all of your capital gains and losses to the IRS. Don’t forget to include and income (interest) you received from your crypto.
Crypto Tax Services
There are several services out there that can help you simplify the process of doing your crypto taxes. Here are a few.
Still have questions? Reach out to us at support@tastycrypto.com
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