Reporting cryptocurrency is similar to reporting a stock sale. You'll need to report your cryptocurrency if you sold, exchanged, spent or converted it. When it comes to hard forks and airdrops, you only have taxable income if it results new cryptocurrency.
You have to do this for every trade you made. If you bought coins at different prices or sold partial amounts, then you have to keep track and record the difference of what you sold. Cryptocurrency exchanges are not required to provide a 1099-B or summary tax statement for cryptocurrency transactions.
You'll receive a 1099-K if you made over 200 cryptocurrency transactions or your proceeds exceeded $20,000. You don't need to enter all the details from this 1099-K in TurboTax. Enter all your sales and trade info to accurately capture all your cryptocurrency transactions and keep the 1099-K for your records.
It’s your responsibility to keep records of your transactions. The most common way to do this is to download your order or trading history from your exchange’s website. You may need to do this a few times throughout the year due to limits on how far back you can get information.
Once you have your figures:
- Open or continue your return.
- Select Federal from the left menu, and Wages & Income from the menu near the top.
- Scroll down and select Show more next to Investment Income.
- Select Start or Revisit next to Cryptocurrency.
- Follow the instructions and we'll calculate the gain or loss from the sale.
There's an upload limit of 2,000 cryptocurrency transactions in TurboTax. If you have more than that, you’ll need a transaction aggregator. We’ll walk you through that in the cryptocurrency section.
