The rise of the cryptocurrency industry, along with the high profits that people can earn through buying, trading, and investing digital currencies, have encouraged governments around the world to update their tax policies in order to account for crypto-based profits.
However, cryptocurrencies are very dynamic, while keeping track of all transactions for tax purposes is bound to be a difficult endeavor. In addition, regulatory tax frameworks lack standardization, thus leading to a status quo that confuses most digital currency holders.
The appropriate philosophy behind taxes is that the process should be simplified and easy to follow – however, we are in the presence of an emerging market, where financial institutions are still trying to figure out the best approaches to taxing cryptocurrencies. Therefore, citizens who pay taxes must learn the ropes in motion as they adapt to potential political changes.
Fortunately, thanks to the presence of digital currency tax software, cryptocurrency enthusiasts do not have to do all the heavy lifting, since the process can be greatly improved through the use of specialized tax platforms.
Table of Contents:
Best Cryptocurrency Tax Software
Here’s a rundown of the best cryptographic taxation software currently on the market.
Koinly
Koinly is a popular cryptocurrency tax software that is well known for its support of over 20 countries. Similar to its competitors, this platform aims to make tax reporting a simple process, through its innovative transaction import and tax calculation tools. Its 6K+ cryptocurrency support, over 6 years of record prices, and multiple exchange import options have contributed to its growing popularity.
Main features
Like most other cryptocurrency tax platforms, Koinly offers users the ability to easily track their digital currency assets and their respective taxes due. The portfolio analysis tool allows users to take a look at their current holdings, to ensure that smart trading and investment decisions are made. Therefore, there are specific tools that allow a view of ROI, fiat invested, income and profit/loss and capital gains.
The data import feature saves users significant time by no longer requiring taxpayers to go back and forth between multiple platforms. Thus, Koinly offers users the ability to import and synchronize transaction data from a number of supported exchanges.
Automatic data import is available via an API exchange connection or by adding cryptocurrency wallet addresses. You can also import data on margin trading, futures trading, staking, lending and DeFi. An interesting feature is Koinly’s intelligent transfer matching, which leverages an artificial intelligence system to detect transfers made between your personal wallets, thereby excluding the respective transfers when calculating the taxes due.
Cross-platform compatibility is guaranteed, as the software supports 339 exchanges, 8+ blockchains, 73 wallets, and 9 other cryptographic services (such as Purse.io, Nexo, BlockFi, etc.).
Once the data is imported, the software can be used to create reliable tax reports on cryptocurrencies. Users can preview their earnings and fees for free, while documents can be generated whenever needed. IRS tax forms such as 8949 can be generated by the platform, but international tax reports are also available for Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and some other countries. Exporting data to TurboTax and other similar services is provided.
Last but not least, the platform offers several tools designed for error reconciliation. Thus, users can find potential flaws in their record, such as missing and duplicate transactions.
Prices
Unlike many of its competitors, this platform offers a free pricing package, with support for 10,000 transactions and 50 exchanges, but which lacks the 8949 forms or schedule D, along with international tax reports, audit reports, or exports to TurboTax. This package is generally suitable for those who want to try out the platform before buying a plan.
- The HODLER plan is priced at $79 per fiscal year and supports 300 transactions, unlimited wallets/exchanges, while offering access to all of Koinly’s features except priority support, custom reports, and review and import assistance.
- The TRADER plan is priced at $179 per fiscal year and supports 3,000 transactions, unlimited wallets/exchanges, and priority support in addition to all the platform’s other services.
- The ORACLE plan is priced at $399 per fiscal year and supports 10,000 transactions, unlimited wallets/exchanges, priority support, custom reports, review and import assistance, and all other Koinly services.
Bear.Tax
Bear.Tax offers users a simple and fast tax filing and processing software designed for the US market, but also usable in other countries. The platform has been designed to ensure compatibility with traders, accountants, fund managers, and other forms of cryptocurrency investors. Over 50 exchange support, fairly advantageous pricing plans, automation, and 24/7 customer support are just some of the features that make Bear.Tax shine.
Main features
In terms of how it works, Bear.Tax takes a similar approach to most other competitors in the market. Therefore, users must first import their operations via a file upload API integration. Operations can be reviewed and processed via FIFO or LIFO. Finally, users can have their tax documents generated and downloaded automatically, for processing.
The platform offers a fully compatible income classification section, where the following sources of income are supported: gifts, wagering rewards, airdrops, hard forks, referrals, mining, voting rewards, community rewards, inheritance, crypto payments, and earning programs.
The platform’s intelligent matching algorithm helps ensure that transactions are recorded and processed without taking into account fees and block time delays. This helps ensure compliance with IRS guidelines by correctly recording taxable events, while making sure not to over-report.
It also offers a transaction review prompt, where users can search for specific transactions and make changes. To make sure the right cost base is allocated for a specific date and time, Bear.Tax offers historical prices for each supported cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency tax software also supports high-frequency traders (HFT) and bots, known for recording thousands of transactions.
When it comes to importing transactions, the platform offers support for most of the exchanges and wallets available in the market. Similarly, users can import data from an unlimited number of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.
Prices
Bear.Tax currently provides customers with four payment plans: basic, intermediate, experienced and professional.
- The basic plan is priced at $10 per fiscal year and supports up to 20 unlimited transactions and exchanges.
- The middle plan is priced at $45 per fiscal year and supports up to 200 unlimited transactions and exchanges, while also offering email-based customer support, along with the other standard features.
- The expert plan is priced at $85 per fiscal year and supports up to 1,000 transactions, unlimited exchanges, multiple exchange accounts, and a chat-based customer support service, along with all the other standard features.
- The professional plan is priced at $200 per fiscal year and supports an unlimited number of transactions, unlimited exchanges, 24/7 priority chat-based customer support, custom file imports, and even the ability to connect with a real-life accountant.
CryptoTrader.Tax
Right now, this platform represents one of the most popular choices in the market, as it provides cryptocurrency traders and investors with a lightning-fast method to calculate their capital gains, losses, and taxes due. CryptoTrader.Tax promises up-to-date legislation and tax forms, in an effort to ensure that all clients can accurately calculate and report their taxes.
Main features
To kick things off, the platform offers an easy-to-use tax archiver. First of all, users need to create an account and import their digital currency transactions via the API import tool or by uploading the trade history file. The platform integrates with virtually all major exchanges available in the market in order to provide users with a seamless experience.
Following the import of trades, users will need to add their crypto sources of income for the current fiscal year. So far, the platform is able to calculate the earnings obtained through a variety of alternative sources, including mining, gifts, forks, airdrops, staking. Last but not least, users are required to choose their preferred calculation method and tax form.
The downloadable tax file report includes a number of documents, such as the income report, the IRS Form 8949, an audit trail report, a short/long-term sales report, the year-end positions report, and turboTax online direct import.
Once downloaded, the report can be imported into TurboTax or TaxAct, thanks to the cross-platform compatible format.
While the platform is mostly geared towards the US market, international support is also offered. Therefore, taxes can be calculated for any nation that accepts FIFO and LIFO standards, in virtually any fiat-based currency.
A tax loss collection feature is also available, so it notifies users of cryptocurrencies that offer significant tax savings opportunities, thus leading to better long-term transaction planning.
The CryptoTrader.Tax platform includes a business-oriented service, where companies are provided with the necessary tools for importing, reviewing and submitting tax reports on behalf of clients. Management and automation tools are also provided.
Prices
At this point in time, cryptocurrency tax software offers 4 pricing plans: Hobbyist, Day Trader, High Volume Trader, and Unlimited.
- Hobbyist is priced at $49 per season and includes support for 100 trades, free report previews, live chat support, unlimited reviews, IRS forms, cross-platform integration with tax filing software, tax loss collection, FIFO/LIFO processing, etc.
- Day Trader costs $99 per season and offers support for up to 1,500 traders, along with the other features highlighted above.
- High Volume Trader, which is priced at $199, is meant for professional traders and therefore offers support for 5,000 traders. Package holders also receive priority support, along with unlimited access to the features provided.
- Unlimited is priced at $299 per tax season and offers customers unlimited exchanges and access to the platform’s tools and services.
ZenLedger
Many people often guarantee ZenLedger as one of the fastest and friendliest tax tools for cryptocurrency traders, investors, and accountants. The website is known for its broad coverage, support for multiple currencies/exchanges, IRS friendly integrations, and multiple payment plans. A unique aspect of ZenLedger is its personalized tax service, as the platform facilitates collaborations between clients and tax lawyers and CPAs.
Main features
To kick things off, making your own taxes through ZenLedger is mostly similar to the other platforms available in the market. Users will need to import historical transaction data using the API or simply by uploading the respective document. Then, the platform will calculate the gains/losses and the relevant tax due for the current season, according to updated regulations.
ZenLedger offers several other features, thus differentiating it from the competition.
First of all, FinCen reporting is an integration that alerts users in the event that their holdings should be reported to Financial Crimes Enforcement Networks.
The platform is also very suitable for those involved in EOS, thanks to the EOS ICO to mainnet support, where the tax software accurately tracks EOS coins that have not been recovered or moved between EOS and ETH wallets.
TurboTax integration is offered, thus ensuring that customers can easily perform their final tax calculations, for accurate reporting. Through the tax loss collection system, investors can reduce some of their potential losses by keeping track of unrealized capital losses. An accounting drill-in spreadsheet is offered, which provides users with an in-depth look at each transaction and how the tax was calculated.
The platform also offers a CPA suite for accountants who partner with cryptocurrency holders. As a result, through this interface, CPAs can get an integrated overview of their customers’ portfolios, in an orderly manner and intended to reduce the workload.
Prices
ZenLedger comes with 5 pricing plans for their cryptocurrency tax software: hobbyist, starter, premium, executive, and unlimited.
- The Hobbyist plan is priced at $69/fiscal year and supports 100 transactions and up to $15K total asset value.
- The Starter plan is priced at $149/fiscal year and supports 500 transactions and a total asset value of up to $50K.
- The Premium plan is priced at $399/fiscal year and supports 1,000 transactions and up to $300K total asset value.
- The Executive plan is priced at $799/fiscal year and supports 4,000 transactions and up to $1 million in total asset value.
- The Unlimited plan is priced at $999/fiscal year and supports an unlimited number of transactions, with no asset value limits. Priority support is also ensured.
ZenLedger offers clients the services of licensed tax lawyers, or accountants, available in three pricing plans: Silver ($750), Gold ($1,250), and Diamond ($2,500).
CoinTracking Property
Similar to most cryptocurrency tax software available in the market, CoinTracking provides clients with competent tax reporting tools that help ensure regulatory compliance and efficient tax reporting.
CoinTraking’s main strengths include personal portfolio analysis, trade imports, tax returns, coin charts, coin trends, professional customer support, and effective customer security.
The platform has served over 570K users, along with over 750 CPAs and enterprise customers. It offers coin trends for 7333 digital currencies, while CoinTracking’s total wallet value is estimated at $4.3 billion.
As we will see later, the platform is suitable for both cryptocurrency traders and crypto companies.
Main features
CoinTracking works by carrying out an analysis of the operations imported by the user, in order to generate data relating to profits, losses, value of coins, gains, losses, taxes due in real time.
To put things in perspective, the personal analysis feature includes a series of interactive charts for trades and coins, audit reports for profit/loss, along with an overview of realized and unrealized gains.
Transactions can be imported from over 70 supported exchanges, either via API integration or via direct blockchain network synchronization. Exports can be made in different formats, including Excel, PDF, CSX, JSON and XML.
When using the tax return platform, CoinTracking can calculate the taxes due via 12 calculation methods, including FIFO, LIFO, and AVCO. In other words, the platform is also compatible with different tax jurisdictions, thanks to its adjustable parameters.
CoinTracking aims to help traders and investors, through a history of all-inclusive charts for over 7,000 coins, up-to-date prices, coin statistics, trends, volumes, and analysis. Professional help is also provided, as the platform collaborates with numerous CPAs and full-service experts, whose services can be used for accurate tax reporting.
Last but not least, the software features several verifications, meant to help users discover missing or duplicate transactions.
Prices
From a pricing standpoint, this service offers four plans: free, pro, expert, and unlimited. Bitcoin is accepted as a payment method.
- The free plan offers support for 200 transactions, limited reports for taxes/capital gains, personal exports, coin tracking, and CSV imports. This plan is designed primarily for those who are interested in trying CoinTracking.
- The pro plan is priced at $10 per month and supports 3,500 transactions, along with all the other standard features provided by the platform, except for priority transactions and customer support.
- The expert plan is priced at $15.49 per month and supports up to 20,000 transactions, along with all the other features provided by the pro plan.
- The unlimited plan is priced at $50 per month and supports unlimited transactions, giving customers priority transactions and priority customer support.
Accointing
Accointing is often advertised as one of the friendliest cryptocurrency tax platforms in the market. The service provides thousands of crypto traders and investors with high-quality tax processing and filing services that ensure regulatory compliance in different countries. The platform is suitable for both cryptocurrency traders and crypto companies.
Main features
This platform allows users to get a tax report in just a few clicks. First, traders will need to use the API integration or upload their transaction history to the platform. After a quick classification and some parameter settings, the tax report is ready to be exported in PDF and CSV format.
A portfolio monitoring feature is provided and available for both desktop and mobile devices. Through this feature, investors can get a number of interesting insights by monitoring the performance of their portfolio. Price alerts, market trends, and an overview of short- and long-term investments are also available. Currently, monitoring support is available for over 4,500 currencies.
Currently, Accointing offers unlimited exchange and wallet connections for all pricing plans, unlike some of its competitors. Customer support is offered through a number of channels including Telegram, Email, and Reddit. An all-inclusive knowledge page is offered to help answer all questions from potential users.
Prices
Those who are interested in calculating their taxes through this platform should know that they are free to choose between 3 payment plans: the initial tax solution, the advanced tax solution and the professional tax solution.
- The Starter Tax Solution is priced at $50 per year and includes support for up to 250 transactions, plus access to most of the platform’s features.
- The advanced tax solution is priced at $130 per year and includes support for up to 5,000 transactions and most other features.
- The professional tax solution is priced at $260 per year and includes unlimited transaction support and an advanced holding period.
BitcoinTax
BitcoinTaxes represents one of the cheapest options on the market for reporting and calculating taxes on cryptocurrency capital gains. The platform is suitable for traders, investors, companies and tax professionals. BitcoinTaxes also provides a unique data processing service, where data analysts can help convert CSV, import data, analyze results, and more.
Main features
Although Bitcoin.Tax is certainly not the most beautiful cryptocurrency tax software, its services are up to date and are intended to satisfy most customers. Thus, the platform works by having users upload their cryptocurrency transactions, either via exchange-based API integrations or via file documents. Then, users must select the appropriate cost-based calculation methodology, from a list that includes LIFO, FIFO, and average costs. Then, the platform generates the capital gains report, where users can learn more about the cost base for each transaction, the proceeds of the sale, and the earnings. Similarly, reports on income, donation, margin, and closure can be provided, for a better overview of the tax burden.
The platform also connects cryptocurrency traders/investors with professional accountants, in case extra help is needed when filing this year’s fees.
Reporting is made easy with turbotax integration. In fact, by using Bitcoin.Tax, users can even get a discount on the TurboTax tariff.
Some of the other relevant features associated with BitcoinTaxes include the ability to import mining/spending/margin revenue from numerous exchanges, multi-year support, the ability to calculate tax rates and years for multiple countries (US, Canada, UK, Germany, and Australia), downloadable IRS modules, support for crypto swaps, and more.
Prices
There are a number of payment plans that users can choose from, depending on their usage needs. All plans include standard features.
- The free plan supports up to 20 trading transactions
- Premium plan ($39.95/fiscal year) supports up to 1,000 transactions
- the extra premium plan ($49.95/fiscal year) supports up to 5,000 trading transactions,
- while the deluxe plan ($59.95/fiscal year) supports up to 10,000 transactions.
Traders may consider the following plans, depending on the number of transactions: 50K ($129/year), 100K ($189/year), 250K ($249/year), 500K ($379/year), 1M ($499/year). An unlimited plan is also provided at a negotiable rate. Tax professionals can choose between two annual plans. Finally, data processing services are available at a cost of $100 per hour.
TaxBit Method
TaxBit is a popular cryptocurrency tax platform designed by a number of certified tax lawyers and public accountants. Over its years of service, the platform has served thousands of users, thanks to its range of features that include a full audit trail, optimized fees, the ability to claim capital losses, and more.
Main features
TaxBit offers an all-inclusive tax calculation engine, which supports over 4,200 digital currencies, commodities, stocks, and fiat currencies. The platform works by getting users to link their exchange accounts. After that, the engine automatically calculates all transactions, while ensuring complete accuracy.
The platform is up to date with all regulatory requirements, so users can be assured of complying with the law.
In addition to the tax calculation engine, TaxBit also has a number of portfolio analysis tools. With this in mind, your cryptocurrency-based investment portfolio can be tracked 24/7, as the platform displays real-time metrics, based on data collected from your exchange accounts.
In other words, users are able to see their tax information at all times, but they are also able to access historical performance data. This allows you to successfully achieve the collection of tax losses, thereby ensuring greater profitability.
TaxBit’s comprehensive tax audit trail ensures that accountants or even IRS representatives can easily find specific transactions, in order to determine if gains and losses have been accurately reported.
The platform also offers custom tax rates, which means it displays the total taxes due, along with the amount of money you are eligible to receive in the form of state tax refunds. In addition, the platform can easily calculate state and federal taxes based on their respective rates, thus giving users an overview of their tax liability or potential refund.
Last but not least, TaxBit comes with IRS 8949 cryptocurrency tax forms, which can be completed in just a few clicks. A number of formats are available, in an effort to ensure cross-platform compatibility with other services such as TurboTax, TaxSlayer, TaxAct, and H&R Block.
Prices
At the time of printing, TaxBit offers three payment plans: basic, plus and pro. These plans offer users access to CSV imports, 2,500+ currency support, IRS modules, CPA trail audit, real-time tax/wallet monitoring, and CSV export over TurboTax.
- The basic plan is priced at $50/year and offers support for 250 transactions, 10 exchanges/wallets, and the current year’s tax form.
- The plus plan is priced at $175/year and offers support for 2,500 transactions, unlimited exchanges/wallets, all tax forms, optimization tools, and more.
- The pro plan is priced at $500/year and offers support for 25,000 transactions, unlimited exchanges/wallets, all tax forms, CPA review, tax optimization tools, mining income/expense reporting, and more.
Conclusion
Based on everything that has been highlighted so far, our analysis has shown that most cryptocurrency tax services in the market are similar in terms of features, coin support, and pricing plans. The platforms mentioned as part of this article have all been guaranteed by their users and hold numerous positive customer reviews.
Therefore, general users will likely be happy when choosing one of these services. On the other hand, day traders, tax professionals, and large-scale investors will likely need to choose a platform that offers unlimited transaction processing and dedicated customer support. Similarly, those living in jurisdictions other than the United States will need to choose a platform that ensures local regulatory compliance.
Last but not least, it is essential that cryptocurrency traders perform their due diligence by carefully reading the terms and conditions of each platform.