Tracking Cryptocurrency Transactions for Tax Compliance

I was surprised to see today a survey result that 46% of cryptocurrency traders don't plan to report the transactions for income tax purposes (TeamBlind survey - see 4/17/18 article in The Wealth Advisor). There is, of course, no reason for not reporting income. The IRS is well aware that people have virtual currency transactions. It is also an agenda item for the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS per their 2017 annual report.

To help track crypto transactions, there are a few software tools readily available.  A recent entry to this market is CryptoTrader.Tax.  Here is information from their recent press release (with permission of the company):

"CryptoTrader.Tax released a web-based tool developed with the intention of helping users calculate the capital gains and losses associated with their cryptocurrency investment endeavors. The tool is currently in the ‘beta’ phase of development, and can be accessed from their website at, www.CryptoTrader.Tax. CryptoTrader.Tax aims to provide its users with an easy and accurate tool to use when it comes time to do their taxes. It properly considers the user’s set time zone, trades across all exchanges, and the sale of their uploaded cryptocurrency income.

CryptoTrader.Tax uses a safe, streamlined workflow to gather the data needed to accurately calculate gains and losses. Users upload trade data via exported .csv files from supported exchanges or manually using the provided template. They can also upload several types of cryptocurrency income, such as mining, gifts, etc. The tool then generates detailed reports using the uploaded information. User’s can view an IRS 8949-esque form showing gains and losses for each sell of a coin or view a detailed breakdown of each sell with even more information. There are also views for income items and coins still being held at the end of the year. Future updates planned for the tool include: population of IRS forms, automatic trade importing from a wide variety of exchanges, and more."

You can find a few others out there as well. What is important is to check these out and use one. 

What do you think?




source http://21stcenturytaxation.blogspot.com/2018/04/tracking-cryptocurrency-transactions.html