Crypto tax is levied by the government on transactions done using cryptocurrencies be it digital assets or not.
Crypto tax gives owners a headache when they realize they have to document their virtual transactions along with their regular ones.
That’s where the use of Crypto tax services comes in, to find out exactly what you’re being taxed for, which tax software will suit your specific ledgers, and a few services that could save you a lot of trouble.
The digital age has ushered in the use of virtual currency “Cryptocurrency” which will in the long run replace physical money.
Being digital assets, it is sometimes easy to forget that cryptocurrency is still a currency and is liable to taxation by the government.
The process of tax filing and reporting can sometimes be an arduous one, especially for big buck-earning crypto traders lacking knowledge of when you’ll be taxed, why you’re being taxed and loopholes in taxing could be a major cause of frustration which is why crypto tax services were designed to take a huge load off your back.
While cryptocurrency is quite similar to regular currency, there are differences in the taxation of the currency so a little insight into crypto tax is in order before we get to tax services.
What is crypto tax?
Crypto tax is money owed to the government on transactions dealing with cryptocurrency as this digital asset is being treated like stocks, gains, loss e.t.c so the use of them in transactions will incur a tax.
Why is cryptocurrency being taxed?
It’s simple when you make a profit, there is a certain percentage of that amount being taxed. Likewise in cryptocurrency, for example, if the value of the crypto coin rises from your initial cost basis there is potential for tax on it
When do users get taxed?
Events that incur tax are called ‘taxable events’ and those that do not are called ‘non-taxable events’. So getting to know the instances you will be getting taxed and when you will not is the first step here.
Taxable events
- Purchasing goods and services using crypto
- Selling your cryptocurrency for money
- Exchange a coin for another
Purchasing goods and services using crypto: It’s crazy but even the littlest thing you buy with cryptocurrency will mean tax being owed because when you break it down you’re trading your digital money.
Selling your cryptocurrency for money: If you bought a coin and the value increases, it is only normal you’d want to sell it for fiat money. It means you’ve made a gain and owe tax.
When it comes to selling your crypto, short or long-term gains usually affect the rate of your tax as in a short-term period of less than a year, if you sell your currency you could be looking at tax with rates between 0%- 37%, but with a long-term of over a year, the rates move between 0%-20% depending on your income.
Exchange of a coin for another: Switching coins entails selling your assets before purchasing a new coin and that can be taxed.
Other events are receiving income as crypto, crypto mining, or staking.
Non-Taxable events
- Purchasing crypto with fiat money and holding it
- Moving crypto between wallets
- Gifting or receiving crypto as a gift
Purchasing crypto with fiat money and holding it: When you buy and hold onto your crypto you cannot be taxed until you choose to either dispose of or sell that currency.
Moving crypto between wallets: Transferring your assets from one wallet to another will not incur tax.
Gifting or receiving crypto as a gift: Any assets given without the intention of receiving goods in return can be considered as gifting and both the giver and receiver will not be taxed in such an event.
Now that we’re familiarized with Crypto tax, let’s get into tax services.
Crypto tax services
Crypto tax services are software that assists a user in calculating gains or losses on crypto activities and then reflecting the information on a virtual tax ledger.
Software like this has proven to be a huge help to greenhorns and even experienced crypto traders when they want to file their taxes.
While these apps are a big help they aren’t foolproof and have their problems
How do crypto tax services work?
There are varieties of crypto tax software that can help compute your tax, but variety comes with differences in functions across these different apps.
From the way, they can sync with wallets and gain transaction information, to interpreting things like airdrops, wallet activities, and so on.
How are Crypto tax services used?
Before you select a tax service you should also be familiar with the nature of your assets and transactions whether you mostly use wallets or you have various blockchains of different transactions and so on.
Some of these services operate as Saas “Software as a service” which is tax reporting via internet software. After registering online, the user provides information on their transactions and the system computes your crypto tax.
This is suitable if you have very few transactions and are very stressful for bulky and complicated transactions.
Wallet transactions prove to be rather complicated especially if you’re d a user that has different wallets, some software will request an xpub address which is like a big folder that can store all your transactions of your various crypto coins, once the main address is input it will relay all your activities across all your currencies.
Other software may just require the address of a particular coin to process the tax on that coin.
A lot of crypto coin applications have a feature called API access which if enabled can give secondary apps access to your crypto activities, this method is rather effective as new transactions and old are instantly fed to the software for processing.
The software will then read the information given and act on it.
Then there is tax software that will require you to download your transaction as a CSV and upload them manually into the software, but this is a bit tricky because if the format of the files does not match that of the software you may have to edit them (quite the tall task too).
This software will then arrange this information stating: the name of the currency, date of purchase, date of sale/transaction/trade, cost basis, profit or loss from the event, and total gain or loss of every crypto event and then put it in a tax report
Tax computation time
It all depends on the number of blockchain to be processed if there’s a small amount to report and little complexity in the accounts then it could take minutes.
List of crypto tax services provider
While there are a lot of options to choose from when it comes to tax services, there are a few very good ones to recommend. Below is a list of some crypto tax services provider.
1. Jackson Hewitt
2. Turbo Tax
3. Tax Slayer
4. Koinly
5. Accointing
6. TaxAct
7. Tax Bit
8. Zen Ledger
9. H&R Block
10. CoinTracking
Crypto tax subscription cost
Depending on how many tax years are unprocessed and the extent of your transactions, on special occasions, some tax services could do it free for you (if your transactions are below their threshold limit) while the pricing starts around 50 dollars or euro (or a bit lower) for that tax year.
How to report taxes on Cryptocurrency
Once the software is done processing the data, the report can then be filed to whichsoever tax office, the report is usually submitted on a form that has two sections for short-term cryptocurrency and long-term cryptocurrency where the capital gain and losses are listed.
Conclusion
One constant thing with tradeable assets is tax. Cryptocurrency and the rules around the taxation of digital money might be a relatively fresh concept and bring about confusion, but these tax services if used properly can help make tax reporting easier and quicker.
