HelenC1
Expert Alumni

Retirement tax questions

If you hold Bitcoins or other digital currencies as a capital asset, you must treat them as property for tax purposes. If you sold them for profit, you must report earnings regardless of whether you received a 1099-B.

Additional informationBitcoin and Cryptocurrency Help Center

Capital gains are reported as part of Schedule D. Schedule D is included in TurboTax Premier, Self-Employed, and TurboTax Live (online versions) and in Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business (CD/Download versions).

(If you're in Free Edition or Online Deluxe, you will have to upgrade to Premier.)

We'll automatically generate and fill out Schedule D when you report 1099-Bs and other capital asset sales.

Here's what you need to have ready:

  • When you acquired the coins and how much you paid.
  • When you sold the coins and how much you received.

These amounts must be in US dollars.

You must do this for every trade you made. If you bought coins at different prices or sold partial amounts, then you must keep track and record the difference of what you sold.

Once you have your figures:

  1. Open (continue) your return in TurboTax.
  2. In the search box, search for investment sales and then select the "Jump to" link in the search results.
  3. Answer Yes to the question Did you sell any investments?  (If you land on the Here's the investment sales we have so far screen, select Add More Sales.)
  4. Continue following the onscreen instructions and we'll calculate the gain or loss from the sale. Note: There isn't a specific section for digital currency, but if you answer the questions related to sales, we'll be able to do the proper calculation.
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