Crypto taxes in 2026: rates and how it works
Maya KosoffMaya Kosoff is a writer, editor and content strategist based in Brooklyn, New York. She previously worked at Vanity Fair and the New York Times. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, traveling, securing a win for her recreational skeeball team, and hanging out with her cat, Carmichael.
Krislyn ChanKrislyn is Chief Growth Officer at Keeper. At Keeper, she strives to make expert-level tax strategies that used to require a traditional CPA accessible to all. Prior to Keeper, she was at Curology, where she helped bring custom, prescription-grade skincare out of the dermatologist's office to millions of faces.
Key takeaways
- The IRS treats crypto as property. Selling it, trading it for another coin, or spending it is taxable. Buying and holding isn’t.
- Crypto held for one year or less is taxed like regular income, at 10% to 37%. Held for more than a year, it’s taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%.
- Crypto you earn is income: staking rewards, mining, and crypto you’re paid for work are taxed at their value when you receive them.
- New for 2025 returns: crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood now send Form 1099-DA, so the IRS sees your crypto sales.
- You report sales on Form 8949 and Schedule D. File with Keeper, and a tax pro reviews your return.
How the crypto tax calculator works
Enter what you paid and what you sold for. The calculator finds your gain, decides whether it’s short or long-term, and adds it on top of your other taxable income to find the federal and state tax on it.
| Input | What to enter |
|---|---|
| What you paid (cost basis) | What you paid for the crypto, including fees. For crypto you earned, use its value on the day you received it. |
| What you sold it for | The cash you got, minus fees. For a trade or a purchase, use the value of what you got. Your Form 1099-DA shows this as gross proceeds. |
| How long you held it | One year or less makes it a short-term gain; more than a year makes it long-term. |
| State and filing status | Where you lived when you sold, and how you file your return. |
| Annual taxable income | Your taxable income for the year, not counting this sale. |
Sold the same coin several times? Add up what you paid and what you got for each holding period, and run short and long-term sales separately.
Let’s see an example
A single filer has $60,000 of taxable income. They bought $5,000 of bitcoin and sold it in 2026 for $15,000, a $10,000 gain. Here’s the federal tax on that gain, depending on how long they held it:
| Held for | Rate | Federal tax on the gain |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year or less (short-term) | Ordinary income rates | $2,200 |
| More than 1 year (long-term) | 15% | $1,500 |
Holding for more than a year before selling would save them $700.
What’s taxable and what isn’t
| Taxable | Not taxable |
|---|---|
| Selling crypto for dollars | Buying crypto with dollars |
| Trading one coin for another, including stablecoins | Holding crypto, even as it goes up in value |
| Spending crypto on goods or services | Moving crypto between wallets or accounts you own |
| Earning crypto from staking, mining, airdrops, or work | Giving crypto as a gift (large gifts may need a gift tax return) |
Selling, trading, or spending creates a capital gain or loss: the value you got minus what you paid. A loss isn’t taxed, but you still report it, and it can lower your tax.
2026 crypto tax rates
Short-term crypto gains are taxed with your wages and other income at 10% to 37%. See our tax bracket calculator for the 2026 brackets. Long-term gains get lower rates, based on your total taxable income, including the gain. Part of a gain can fall in one rate and the rest in the next.
| 2026 filing status | 0% rate | 15% rate | 20% rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | Up to $49,450 | $49,451 to $545,500 | Over $545,500 |
| Married filing jointly | Up to $98,900 | $98,901 to $613,700 | Over $613,700 |
| Head of household | Up to $66,200 | $66,201 to $579,600 | Over $579,600 |
| Married filing separately | Up to $49,450 | $49,451 to $306,850 | Over $306,850 |
For crypto you sold in 2025, which you report on your 2025 return, the thresholds were:
| 2025 filing status | 0% rate | 15% rate | 20% rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | Up to $48,350 | $48,351 to $533,400 | Over $533,400 |
| Married filing jointly | Up to $96,700 | $96,701 to $600,050 | Over $600,050 |
| Head of household | Up to $64,750 | $64,751 to $566,700 | Over $566,700 |
| Married filing separately | Up to $48,350 | $48,351 to $300,000 | Over $300,000 |
The 3.8% net investment income tax
If your modified adjusted gross income is over $200,000 (single or head of household), $250,000 (married filing jointly), or $125,000 (married filing separately), you pay an extra 3.8% on the smaller of your investment income or the amount you’re over. Crypto gains count. The calculator includes it.
Crypto you earn is taxed as income
Crypto you receive, rather than buy, is ordinary income at its fair market value in dollars on the day you get it. That value also becomes your cost basis for when you sell it later.
- Staking rewards are income when you can first sell or transfer them.
- Airdrops are income when the new coins land in a wallet you control.
- Crypto paid for work, as a freelancer or employee, is income just like a cash payment.
- Mining rewards are income when you receive them.
If you mine, validate, or take crypto for work as a business, the income goes on Schedule C, and you also owe self-employment tax on your profit. The upside: you can write off business costs like mining hardware, electricity, and software.
Track and claim every eligible deduction with Keeper
Keeper scans your accounts for write-offs and files your return — with tax pros reviewing every one.
Try it freeForm 1099-DA: the new crypto tax form
Starting with sales in 2025, crypto exchanges and other brokers, like Coinbase, Kraken, and Robinhood, send you and the IRS a Form 1099-DA, much like the 1099-B for stocks.
- For 2025 sales, the form shows your gross proceeds. Brokers don’t have to report your cost basis yet, so it may be blank.
- From 2026, brokers also report cost basis for crypto you bought in that account in 2026 or later. Coins you bought earlier can still show no basis.
- Small stablecoin and NFT sales may not get a form: brokers can skip stablecoin sales totaling $10,000 or less a year, and NFT sales totaling $600 or less.
Wallets you control yourself don’t send a 1099-DA. Whether or not you get one, you have to report every sale. If the basis is blank, use your own records, or the IRS may treat the whole sale price as a gain.
How to report crypto on your tax return
- Answer the digital asset question. Form 1040 asks whether you received, sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of a digital asset during the year. Everyone filing answers it.
- List each sale on Form 8949. The 2025 form has new boxes for digital assets: G, H, or I for short-term sales and J, K, or L for long-term, depending on whether you got a 1099-DA and whether it shows your basis.
- Carry the totals to Schedule D, which attaches to your Form 1040.
- Report crypto income from staking or airdrops on Schedule 1, or on Schedule C if it’s business income.
Keep records of every buy, sell, and trade: the date, the amount, and the dollar value. Since 2025, the IRS requires you to track cost basis separately for each wallet or exchange account.
How to lower your crypto taxes
- Hold for more than a year. Long-term rates are usually much lower than ordinary rates.
- Time sales for low-income years. If your taxable income stays under the 0% threshold, your long-term gains are tax-free.
- Harvest losses. Selling coins that are down offsets your gains, and up to $3,000 of extra loss ($1,500 if married filing separately) comes off your other income. The rest carries forward. The wash sale rule, which stops this for stocks if you buy back within 30 days, doesn’t currently apply to crypto, though Congress has proposed changing that.
- Pick which coins you sell. If you can identify specific units, selling the ones you paid the most for means a smaller gain.
- Plan for the tax on a big gain. No tax is withheld when you sell crypto. If you’ll owe $1,000 or more when you file, you may need an estimated payment. Our quarterly tax calculator can help.
State taxes on crypto
Most states tax crypto gains as regular income. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming don’t tax them. Washington has no income tax but taxes long-term gains over a large standard deduction ($278,000 for 2025) at 7%, and 9.9% above $1 million.
9 sources
- Digital assets · irs.gov
- Frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions · irs.gov
- Instructions for Form 1099-DA · irs.gov
- Instructions for Form 8949 · irs.gov
- Rev. Proc. 2025-32: 2026 inflation adjustments (capital gains rate thresholds) · irs.gov
- Rev. Rul. 2023-14: tax treatment of staking rewards · irs.gov
- Rev. Proc. 2024-28: allocating basis to each wallet or account · irs.gov
- Questions and answers on the net investment income tax · irs.gov
- Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses · irs.gov
This article is for informational purposes only and isn’t tax, legal, or financial advice. Tax rules change and depend on your situation, so talk to a tax professional about yours.
