In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about how Coinbase transactions are taxed. But first, let’s cover an easy way to report your complete Coinbase transaction history to the IRS in minutes.
You can generate your gains, losses, and income tax reports from your Coinbase investing activity in minutes by connecting your account with CoinLedger.
There are two different ways to connect your account and import your data:
Automatic upload: Automatically sync your Coinbase account with CoinLedger via read-only API. This allows your transactions to be imported with the click of a button.
CSV upload: Upload your Coinbase Transaction History CSV file to CoinLedger. You can download your Transaction History CSV directly from Coinbase and import it into CoinLedger.
Both methods will enable you to import your transaction history and generate your necessary crypto tax forms in minutes. You can file these forms yourself, take them to your tax professional, or import them into your preferred tax filing software like TurboTax or TaxAct.
Interested in getting started? Create a CoinLedger account today.
Just like other forms of property, cryptocurrencies are subject to both capital gains and income taxes. You will be required to report taxable events on your tax return.
You’ll incur capital gains or losses if you sell your cryptocurrency, trade it for other cryptocurrencies, or use it to buy goods and services.
Meanwhile, earning cryptocurrency through staking, mining, or interest rewards should be reported as personal income and will be taxed accordingly.
For a complete and in-depth overview, please refer to our Complete Cryptocurrency Tax Guide.
To do your cryptocurrency taxes, you need to calculate your gains, losses, and income from your cryptocurrency investments in your home fiat currency (for example, US Dollars).
Once you have your calculations, you can fill out the necessary tax forms required by your country. For more information, check out our guide to reporting your crypto taxes.
Currently, Coinbase issues Form 1099-B and Form 1099-MISC to users.
Coinbase will begin issuing Form 1099-DA in 2026.
If you’ve earned more than $600 in staking/interest rewards, Coinbase will issue Form 1099-MISC to you and the IRS.
If you’ve traded Futures via Coinbase Finance Markets, you’ll receive Form 1099-B outlining your capital gains and losses.
Starting in 2026, all major exchanges operating in the United States will be required to issue Form 1099-DA outlining all capital gains and losses from your cryptocurrency transactions.
Form 1099 is designed to report non-employment income — income that you received outside of your job.
If the IRS receives a 1099 detailing income that you did not report on your tax return, you will be retroactively charged penalties and interest on your tax payment.
Learn more about how Coinbase reports to the IRS.
In the past, Coinbase issued Form 1099-K to customers. However, this form was designed to be used by payment processors, not cryptocurrency exchanges. As a result, the form caused confusion for both customers and the IRS — which led Coinbase to stop issuing it.
In short, it depends.
You may not have to “pay” taxes if you only had capital losses (i.e. you lost money on all of your crypto investments); however, you still have to report your crypto activity on your taxes yearly—even if you only had losses on your tax return.
If you had capital gains or crypto income for the year, you will need to pay taxes on your earnings.
Many cryptocurrency investors use additional exchanges and platforms outside of Coinbase. Unfortunately, this can cause issues from a tax reporting perspective.
Coinbase's reporting only extends as far as the Coinbase platform. If you use additional cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges, DeFi protocols, or other platforms outside of Coinbase, Coinbase can't provide complete gains, losses, and income tax information.
Coinbase states that their tax calculators won't be accurate if you:
Earlier, we noted some of the tax forms that Coinbase issues to the IRS. It’s also important to note that Coinbase allows you to download a csv file of your transaction history.
The Coinbase Transaction History CSV file contains a record of all of your buys, sells, transfers, and investment activity that occurred within your Coinbase account.
You can use this file to calculate your gains, losses, and income, or you can import this report directly into crypto tax software like CoinLedger.
It’s also important to note that Coinbase allows you to connect to CoinLedger directly — allowing you to import your transactions with the click of a button!
As noted earlier, Coinbase does issue tax forms to the IRS.
Additionally, the IRS has used a John Doe Summons to force Coinbase to hand over customer transaction data.
You should report income from all of your cryptocurrency transactions on your tax return. Remember, failure to report could lead to fines and penalties.
1099-MISC forms contain the taxpayer’s name, the amount of income they earned, and their account number. Failing to report this information to the IRS will likely increase the likelihood of a cryptocurrency tax audit.
In the past, the IRS has sought more detailed information from Coinbase. In 2016, the IRS issued a ‘John Doe Summons’ to Coinbase to request the data of more than 13,000 customers.
In this case, the IRS received each customer’s name, address, birthday, taxpayer ID, as well as a complete record of their transaction history with the platform.
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