Does Coinbase Report to the IRS? (2025)

Coinbase reports taxable income to users and the IRS. 

In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about Coinbase’s tax reporting policies.

What tax forms does Coinbase send to the IRS?

Does Coinbase send income forms to the IRS? 

Currently, Coinbase issues Form 1099-MISC to customers who’ve earned $600 or more of income through staking, interest rewards, and Coinbase Learn and Earn rewards. 

Does Coinbase send capital gain forms to the IRS? 

Coinbase issues Form 1099-B to customers who’ve done futures trading on the platform. 

At this time, Coinbase doesn’t send tax forms detailing capital gains and losses to most customers. This will change in the near future. Starting in 2026, American exchanges will be required to issue Form 1099-DA — detailing all gains and losses from digital assets. 

It’s important to remember that your gain/loss calculations on your 1099 forms may be inaccurate in some scenarios (more on this later).

Does Coinbase hand over customer information to the IRS? 

In the past, Coinbase has shared customer information with the IRS. In 2016, Coinbase was required to hand over data on over 8 million transactions after being served a John Doe Summons.

What does the IRS do with the information Coinbase provides? 

The IRS uses the information provided by Coinbase to verify that you reported any income generated from the platform on your tax return.

The IRS has also used the information from 1099 forms to send warning letters to Coinbase users. It’s reasonable to assume that discrepancies between Form 1099 and a taxpayer’s return can increase the risk of a cryptocurrency tax audit. 

Experts believe that mandatory 1099-DA reporting will lead to more warning letters and more audits.

How do I report my Coinbase taxes to the IRS? 

Crypto tax software like CoinLedger can automatically import your transactions from Coinbase and other platforms, helping you generate a complete tax report in minutes. 

Here’s how you can report your Coinbase taxes with CoinLedger. 

1. Log in to your CoinLedger account. 
2. Connect your Coinbase account in the ‘Import’ Step. 
3. Let the platform automatically calculate your gains, losses, and income.

And that’s it! Once you’ve completed these steps, you can connect your other exchanges and wallets in just a few clicks!

What is the Coinbase gain/loss form? 

Coinbase provides all customers with a gain/loss report — a summary that details every cryptocurrency disposal made on Coinbase that resulted in a capital gain or a loss. 

It’s possible that your gain/loss form will be inaccurate if you’ve transferred crypto into or out of Coinbase (more on this below). 

At this time, Coinbase doesn’t provide a record of your gains and losses to the IRS. However, Coinbase will likely begin reporting these transactions to the IRS starting in the 2025 tax year — when the crypto provisions of the infrastructure bill are scheduled to go into effect. 

What are 1099 forms? 

1099 forms are designed to provide information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about certain types of income from non-employment-related sources. Put another way, 1099 forms are designed to report income that you received that wasn’t from your employer. 

As noted earlier, Coinbase sends Form 1099-MISC and Form 1099-B. Starting in 2026, Coinbase will also issue Form 1099-DA.

When will Coinbase send a 1099 form? 

If you’ve met the requirements for receiving Form 1099-MISC from Coinbase, you’ll receive it by the end of February of the following year at the latest. 

Will Coinbase send me a 1099 for 2024? 

If you had more than $600 of ordinary income earned on Coinbase in the 2024 tax year, the platform will issue Form 1099-MISC to you and the IRS. At this time, Coinbase does not report capital gains and losses via Form 1099. 

What happens if I didn’t receive a 1099 form from Coinbase? 

Even if you didn’t receive a 1099 form from Coinbase, you are required to report all of your taxable income from cryptocurrency. Not reporting your income is considered tax evasion.

Why are my 1099 forms inaccurate?

In some cases, your 1099 form from Coinbase may be inaccurate.

Because cryptocurrency is so easily transferable, investors often move their coins between different wallets and exchanges. As a result, it’s difficult for exchanges to provide their customers with accurate tax reporting information. 

Consider the following scenario. 

In this case, David’s capital gain should be $0. 

However, Coinbase has no way of knowing David’s original cost basis. As a result, it’s likely that his cost basis will be ‘n/a’ on Form 1099-DA. 

In this case, the burden of proof will be on David to prove that he bought his Bitcoin for $10,000. Otherwise, he may be on the hook for a capital gain of $10,000.

To avoid situations like this, you should keep records of your crypto transactions across all of your wallets and exchanges.

Does Coinbase report small-time crypto traders? 

Currently, Coinbase will issue Form 1099-MISC to you and the IRS only if you’ve met the minimum threshold of $600 of income during the year. In the future, Coinbase will issue Form 1099-DA to report all gains and losses from cryptocurrency for US users.

Does Coinbase report to the IRS if you didn’t sell? 

If you did not have taxable income during the year, it’s unlikely that Coinbase will report your cryptocurrency activity to the IRS. Simply holding cryptocurrency or transferring it between wallets you own is not considered a taxable event. 

Still, it’s important to note that there are some situations where you may incur a tax liability even if you don’t ‘cash out’ to fiat currency. Two examples are earning cryptocurrency interest and trading your crypto for another cryptocurrency. 

Does Coinbase send a 1099-B? 

Currently, Coinbase issues Form 1099-B to customers who have traded futures on the platforms. 

Starting in 2026, Coinbase and other major exchanges will be required to issue Form 1099-DA to all customers — a similar form designed to report gains and losses from digital assets specifically.

Does Coinbase send a 1099-K? 

Coinbase stopped issuing Form 1099-K to customers after 2020. 

While Form 1099-K once was a popular form for reporting cryptocurrency transactions, most exchanges have stopped issuing the form. 

Because Form 1099-K was designed for payment processors and not cryptocurrency exchanges, the form shows gross transaction volume instead of gains. The tax forms seemed to show that investors who had accurately reported their taxes had severely underreported their tax liabilities. 

For more information, check out our article on why Coinbase stopped issuing Form 1099-K.

How to access my Coinbase tax forms 

If you’re looking for a copy of your Coinbase transactions for your own records, here’s how you can get started. 

1. Log in to Coinbase on desktop. 
2. Click ‘More’ on the left hand side.

3. In the dropdown, click ‘Taxes’. 

4. In the ‘Documents’ tab, select the type of form and the date range you would like to download. 

Alternatively, you can connect your Coinbase account to CoinLedger to automatically import your transactions and handle all of your tax reporting! 

How crypto tax software can help

Cryptocurrency tax software like CoinLedger can help take the stress out of your tax season. The platform automatically connects with exchanges like Coinbase and blockchains like Ethereum to help you report your taxes in minutes!

Sign up for an account for free, import all of your historical trades and transactions, and automatically generate tax forms like 8949 with the click of a button. The whole process takes around 15 minutes! 

Get started with a free preview report today.