
Ask HN: How do I pay taxes on crypto/token trading - beedrillzzzzz
From what I have read and can assume, in the USA trades between tokens should be treated as tax events to apply short&#x2F;long term capital gains and not like-kind exchanges - tax should be paid immediately (current tax cycle), rather than when exchanged back to fiat.<p>Does anyone have any useful resources or authoritative info &amp; suggestions on how to go about calculating and reporting taxes on crypto and ethereum tokens?<p>Thank you in advance.
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PhrosTT
This is pretty awesome:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/7p9a2t/cry...](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/7p9a2t/cryptocurrency_a_guide_to_common_tax_situations/)

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aryzle
thank you!!!

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kumarski
[http://zenledger.io](http://zenledger.io)

My friends and I have been building out tech in this space. (no we're not
doing an ICO= we've been asked if we are by so many people, jesus)

The 1031 laws change things for people, feel free to ping me if you have
deeper questions.

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nodesocket
Zenledger is a nice startup idea. I thought that Coinbase is sending out 1099
(K's or MISC) to users and the IRS though already?

I wonder how many US citizens will just ignore their tax obligations thinking
crypto trades, profits are untraceable.

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goodoldboys
I use bitcoin.tax and it's made things so much easier. You can import trading
history from the major exchanges and for any non-major exchange trading you
can import manually or with a CSV.

It's free for up to 100 "events" (trades, mining, gifts, income, etc) and a
reasonable $20 per year for anything above that.

I'll be taking the output from that software to give to my accountant and go
from there.

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colecut
Here are some links I have come across

My favorite summary: [https://qz.com/1156706/a-guide-to-paying-taxes-on-
bitcoin-in...](https://qz.com/1156706/a-guide-to-paying-taxes-on-bitcoin-
investments/)

This was linked from a message on GDAX: [https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-
drop/n-14-21.pdf](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-21.pdf)

And some additional tax tips: [https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-tax-tips-
to-start-2018...](https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-tax-tips-to-
start-2018-right)

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bitthrow
I don't think it's quite as straightforward as people are making it out to be
here, especially when considering forks. If you bought BTC a year ago and sell
BCH (or BTC) today, what was your purchase price?

There are currently a couple of dozen Bitcoin forks, each with arguably equal
claim to be the true successor. So it's difficult enough if you bought before
all the forks and are selling all of your BTC in one go now, but lord help you
and your accountant if you've bought or sold any inbetween some of the forks.

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dahdum
At least for USA exchanges, only Bitcoin Cash has a marketplace so it's the
only one I tracked. I put a cost basis of $0 at the time of fork, and paid
short term capital gains on the sale.

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crazypyro
Could you argue that the cost basis of your bitcoin was changed because BCH is
similar to a stock dividend that is reinvested?

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dahdum
Maybe, but I've read CPA advice on just declaring as income. Seems to be the
most conservative approach and didn't change the tax substantially for me.

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nlombardi
I actually just wrote an article on this:
[https://medium.com/@nkmlombardi/the-complicated-landscape-
of...](https://medium.com/@nkmlombardi/the-complicated-landscape-of-
cryptocurrency-taxation-fde0e1baca99)

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throwaway011114
I don't think it has to be such a headache as long as you keep records. What I
plan on doing is calculating my gains and losses using
[https://bitcoin.tax/](https://bitcoin.tax/) and bringing the report to a CPA
to check over.

Not sure about the "paid immediately" part. That's news to me actually. Can
anybody else weigh in on this?

Edit: [https://www.irs.gov/faqs/estimated-
tax](https://www.irs.gov/faqs/estimated-tax) suggests you do if you expect to
owe more than $1,000 in taxes.

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beedrillzzzzz
To clarify: paid immediately as in the current tax cycle, and not when
liquidated to fiat as another reply suggests is law in Canada.

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philipodonnell
The tax accounting isn't that complicated. I don't have anything specific to
point you to, but for the most part, cryptocurrency assets will be treated
like any other asset like a stock or bond. If you sell it for more than you
bought it for then you owe taxes on the difference in the tax year you made
the sale.

The only reason it seemed complicated is people were trying to gimmick their
way out of it by making complicated arguments for preferential tax treatment.
This is always the way it was headed IMHO.

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companyhen
I'm using [http://cointracking.info](http://cointracking.info) \- great
support so far when I run into issues.

10% off with my Affilate link -
[https://cointracking.info?ref=Z106753](https://cointracking.info?ref=Z106753)

(^ if this is not allowed I can remove it)

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aryzle
From Bluecobra, thought it was really good and worth repost

[https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-12-21/tax-f...](https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-12-21/tax-
free-bitcoin-to-ether-trading-in-u-s-to-end-under-gop-plan)

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beedrillzzzzz
Article gives me the impression it was never a "lucrative tax break" and just
a point of confusion, and coin-to-coin exchanges have always been subject to
capital gains.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

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kruhft
Capitol Gains when converted to cash, in Canada.

Keep your records.

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coralreef
What about crypto to crypto conversion? Taxable event?

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Bluecobra
Yes:

[https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-12-21/tax-f...](https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-12-21/tax-
free-bitcoin-to-ether-trading-in-u-s-to-end-under-gop-plan)

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flignats
[https://bitcoin.tax/](https://bitcoin.tax/)

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throwaway481516
Do you know what is the tax situation for non-residents using an US exchange
to convert to fiat? Should non-citizens, non-residents also pay capital gain
tax?

