Did you sell, exchange or trade Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies?
If so, you may owe money on your taxes.
As Bitcoin is becoming mainstream, more and more people got involved, and some of them even made huge amounts of money by trading and HODLing Bitcoin.
Guess what? If you’re making money with cryptocurrency, the Government also wants its cut.
As Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes.
Whether you use Bitcoin as an investment or as a currency, you may need to pay taxes on it. Failing to report your gains (and losses) could result in interest on unpaid taxes and penalties.
However, keeping track of all the historical price data for all your coin-to-coin trades for tax filing can be a nightmare. Calculating your cryptocurrency gains and losses by hand is no fun. It’s an extremely time-consuming process.
Not only that, crypto tax laws, filing obligations and regulations may vary by country. Paying bitcoin and other crypto taxes can be confusing. And improperly filing your taxes could end up costing you more than you owe.
Fortunately, there are plenty of crypto tax tools to help you out.
Here are 6 best crypto tools to help you keep records of your crypto transactions, calculate your crypto taxes, minimize your tax liabilities, and simplify your filling, no matter which country you‘re in.
Best Bitcoin and Crypto Tax Softwares
Crypto Tax Tools CoinLedger Token Tax Koinly CoinTracker Supported Countries International International 100+ countries International No. of Integrated Exchanges 400+ 64+ 350+ 300+ Tax Loss Harvest ✓ ✓ X ✓ Key Features TurboTax and TaxACT Integrations TurboTax Integration Support 6,000 + crypto
Crypto wallet tracker and tax calculator $0, Free Forever Plan ✓ X ✓ ✓ Tier Plans (per tax year) $49
(Use CRYPTOTAX10 for 10% OFF any plans)$65 $49 $59
But before we go into that, let’s cover the basics of cryptocurrencies and taxes first.
- How to calculate taxes on cryptocurrency?
- How much taxes do you pay for Cryptocurrency?
- What’s taxable and what’s not?
How much is crypto taxed?
Do you really have to pay taxes on cryptocurrency?
All crypto investors, traders or HODLers have to pay capital gains tax when they sell, liquidate or exchange cryptocurrencies.
Crypto taxes are treated differently from country-to-country.
For example, in the U.S. cryptocurrency is taxed as property, not currency.
Calculation: Realized Capital Gain = (Proceed) — (Cost Basis)
- Proceed refers to how much your coin was worth at the time of sale.
- Cost Basis refers to how much you paid to acquire the coins.
Example: If you purchase 1 BTC for $10,000 USD (your cost basis) and sell it for $20,000 USD (proceed), your capital gain would be $10,000 USD ($20,000 — $10,000).
The amount of taxes you have to pay depends on two main factors:
- Your income/profit
- How long the crypto was owned before selling: long-term vs short-term
Long-term vs Short-term Capital Gains
If you’re holding your coins for more than 1 year before you sell, then it’s considered a long-term capital gain. And if you own the coins for less than 1 year, it’s treated as short term capital gain.
Short-Term: You buy 1 BTC on January 1st, 2020 for $7,000 USD. You sell the 1 BTC on January 15th, 2020 for $8,800 USD. You have realized a short-term gain of $1,800 USD, which is subject to your short-term capital gains tax.
- Short-Term Tax Rates: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, or 37% [dependent on income and filing status]
Long-Term: You buy 1 BTC on January 1st, 2019 for $3,500 USD. You sell the 1 BTC on January 15th, 2020 for $8,800 USD. You have realized a long-term gain of $5,300 USD, which is subject to your long-term capital gains tax.
- Long-Term Tax Rates: 0%, 15%, or 20% [dependent on income]
Generally, long-term capital gains are taxed at a more favorable rate than short-term capital gains. You can pay less taxes and get the most tax savings by holding crypto for 1 year or more.
If you live outside the US, you can find more information about the specifics of your country’s taxation rulings here.
Which Type of Cryptocurrency Events are considered taxable?
Depend on the crypto activities you perform, you have to file crypto taxes if you:
- Selling cryptocurrency for cash. (For example, sell BTC for USD)
- Exchange crypto for another crypto
- Use crypto to pay for goods or services
- Receive payment in the form of crypto
- Earn crypto via mining, staking or interest rewards
Non-taxable Events for Cryptocurrency
However, not all crypto-related transactions result in tax liability. Here are crypto activities that are not taxable at all:
- Transferring cryptocurrency between wallets you own
- Transferring crypto between cryptocurrency exchanges
- Buying crypto with fiat money (USD, SGD, GBP etc)
- Donating crypto to a qualified tax-exempt charity or non-profit
- Give cryptocurrency as a gift
How to Calculate Taxes on Cryptocurrency in Any Country
Now that you have an overview of how this crypto tax works, you’ll need to figure out the best way to calculate tax exposure from your cryptocurrency trading activity.
This means you’ll need to keep a record of all your crypto trades and determine the cost basis to see if it’s a capital gain or loss.
And it’s fairly simple, because these crypto tax tools do all the heavy lifting for you.
From tracking all your trades across different crypto exchanges to analyzing trades, generating real-time reports on profit and loss, calculate and report taxes on your crypto activities.
It will save you loads of time and frustration, giving you more time to study, think and take your trading decisions.
No matter where you are, your level of trading skill and experience, you can find a tool that will work for you.
Best Crypto Tax Software Calculators
1. CoinLedger (Formerly known as CryptoTrader.Tax)
If you’re just entering the Crypto Market and have little prior knowledge about taxes, CoinLedger can help!
CoinLedger is an affordable yet comprehensive cryptocurrency tax tool that automates the entire tax reporting process for cryptocurrency and NFT.
Just import your trades, add any forms of cryptocurrency income, and generate your auto-filled tax documents in a matter of minutes! You can import your generated reports into tax software like TurboTax, give them to your CPA, or simply file them yourself!
Since CoinLedger is partnered with Turbotax, a popular U.S. tax preparation platform, your data can be directly imported into Turbotax for e-filling without any hassle.
CoinLedger allows traders to directly import data from 400+ major exchanges. If you can’t find your exchange on the list of supported exchanges, you can simply download reports from your exchange account and then download them to CoinLedger.
Once your tax exposure has been calculated, you’ll have the exportable reports:
- Completed IRS Form 8949
- Audit trail report
- Cryptocurrency income report
- End of year positions report
- TurboTax online direct import
To help minimize your losses and maximize your gains, their Tax Harvesting Tool will help you plan your future trades by recommending coins that you should sell to avoid paying unnecessary taxes.
Main features of CoinLedger:
- Support for all Exchanges, NFTs, DeFi, and 20000+ Cryptocurrencies
- Tax Loss harvesting tools to help you offset and reduce your capital gains.
- International Tax Support
- Trusted TurboTax Partner
- Automatically generate different tax reports using the data you provided in minutes, including IRS Form 8949, Audit Trail Report, Cryptocurrency Income Report and more
-
Ensure the accuracy of your crypto tax data using the same methods tax professionals use
-
It comes with Tax Professional Suite to help accountants to easily prepare and file clients’ cryptocurrency taxes
- Reliable and responsive support team
Pricing:
While other crypto calculators require you to upgrade to unlock advanced features like Tax Loss Harvesting, FIFO, LIFO, & Specific Identification, Capital Gains Report, Report Preview and more, CoinLedger doesn’t.
No matter what plan you choose, you can access all the features and tools without hidden fees.
Currently, CoinLedger offers four different pricing packages. Plans vary depending on the total number of your transactions.
- Prices start from $49 per tax year (up to 100 trades)
There are no recurring charges, you only pay for tax reports for a one-time fee.
You can sign up for a free account here and use CRYPTOTAX10 for 10% OFF your tax preparation fees!
2. TokenTax
TokenTax is the most easy and efficient tool for calculating and reporting taxes.
And TokenTax is the only tax software that works with every major crypto exchange. No matter what exchanges you trade on, they will connect directly with the platforms and automatically import all your trading history. You don’t have to worry about your cryptocurrencies not being part of the TokenTax calculation and reporting system.
With all your trading data, they will help you figure out what you may owe and generate all the forms you need to file your cryptocurrency taxes.
What makes TokenTax special is its Tax Loss Harvesting tool -allowing crypto traders to save maximum money on tax returns. It’s simple, their minimization algorithm will tell you which coins you should sell first in order to reduce the taxes you pay on your crypto assets.
Not only that, TokenTax has an in-house team of CPAs and filing professionals take care of your full return.
Whether you are a miner, day trader, or HODLer, TokenTax is here to ensure you never overpay in taxes.
Main features of TokenTax:
- Supports any country, in any currency- USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa or any other country
- Built-in Tax Loss Harvesting to save money on taxes
- Advanced tax strategy for crypto traders
- Support for many file types, including forms 8949, TurboTax, FBAR, FATCA, or any other file you might need.
- Support margin trading taxes when you trade on BitMEX, Deribit, or Bybit or Bitfinex.
- Automatically import all your trading data from exchanges and wallets.
- Provide full tax filing specially cater to your tax and crypto situations.
- Excellent customer service
Pricing:
TokenTax offers a wide range of pricing plans, starting from $65 per year. All plans include live chat support, unlimited tax form revisions, Turbotax integration and IRS Form 8949 or International Report.
Each plan rises in price according to the total number of transactions and advanced features that you need. Plus, TokenTax has a Full Tax Filling plan that allows you to work directly with CPA to file your tax return, including crypto!
CoinTracker is a hybrid of cryptocurrency wallet tracker and tax calculator.
Act as a crypto portfolio and tax manager, CoinTracker will securely auto-syncs your transactions from your exchanges or wallets, showcase your cryptocurrency activities and makes filling your crypto taxes a breeze.
First, CoinTracker will connect all your wallets, exchanges and DeFi platforms. Then, it will automatically track fees, margin trading – allowing you to track your entire crypto portfolio all in one place. This way, you’ll have a clear picture of your crypto investment performance and investment ROI over time.
Main features of CoinTracker:
- Support over 2,500 cryptocurrencies
- Easy to use
- Importing of transactions from 300+ major exchanges and wallets
- Mobile apps available on both iOS and Android
- Support CSV uploads
- FIFO, LIFO, LIFO Perpetual, and Average Cost accounting methods
- PDF tax form downloads
- Editable transactions
- A unique interactive “Ledger Tool” for visualizing and editing your transaction data
- An emphasis on security, encryption, and user anonymity
- Full support in US, UK, Canada, Australia, and partial support for every other country.
CoinTracker has a range of pricing packages designed around the number of transactions and custom features you want.
They also have a Limited Free Plan to manage 25 transactions to accurately calculate your cryptocurrency taxes.
- Prices start from $59 per year.
Koinly helps crypto traders, investors and miners calculate their capital gains or loss exposure in minutes.
Their user-friendly interface makes it easy to import your BTC, ETH and other crypto trades directly from the ledger. And you can sync all your exchange trading history in just one-click, making sure you’re paying just the right amount.
Once your tax report is ready, you can easily export your transactions to TurboTax, TaxACT, or other tax software for easy filing.
Plus, Koinly supports over 100 countries globally including USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and Singapore.
Main features of Koinly:
- Easily track your crypto assets & taxes
- View and manage all your transactions in one place
- Support 6000+ altcoins and shitcoins
- Support over 100 countries globally
- Generate crypto tax reports that are compliant with local laws
Pricing:
There is a free forever plan with limited but useful functionality. The free plan helps you to process up to 10,000 transactions and connect with unlimited exchange accounts and wallets.
However, if you’d like to download tax forms, you’ll need to sign up for their paid plans, starting from $49/year.
Conclusion
There you go! The best crypto tax softwares to help you track, calculate and report taxes as well as save maximum taxes on crypto!
Some of the cryptocurrency tools even offer a limited free plan. You have no excuse not to report gains or losses on your crypto holdings.
Say goodbyes to manual spreadsheets and hello to smart crypto tools to take care of your tax matters.
How do you calculate your Bitcoin and cryptocurrency taxes?
Do you use any cryptocurrency tax software to simplify the process? Why or why not?
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Great article