Crypto Tax Loss Harvesting: Ultimate 2023 Guide

Crypto tax loss harvesting can help you pay less tax on your crypto investments. It’s totally legal and many investors do it - but there are some tricky rules you need to know around wash sales - depending on whether you're tax loss harvesting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or other investments like stocks. That's why we've put together our tax loss harvesting crypto guide to help you pay less tax on your crypto!

What is crypto tax loss harvesting?

Crypto tax loss harvesting is an investment strategy that helps reduce your net capital gains and, in turn, reduce your tax bill for the financial year. When tax loss harvesting, an investor sells crypto at a loss to create a capital loss to offset it against their capital gains and reduce their overall tax bill. They may then buy the asset back at the reduced price to hold it for later gains. Here’s the basics of how crypto tax loss harvesting works:

• You have a capital gain from selling, swapping or spending crypto - for example, Bitcoin.
• You need to pay Capital Gains Tax on that gain, which you don't want to do.
• You have an unrealized loss from crypto in your portfolio as its value has dropped since you acquired it.
• You realize your loss by disposing of your Bitcoin by selling, swapping or spending it.
• You can offset this capital loss against your capital gain.
• You pay no Capital Gains Tax on that gain as a result.
• You may also be able to buy back the Bitcoin you tax loss harvested - so your loss is artificial.

Now let's get into the specifics.

How to tax loss harvest crypto

Tax loss harvesting is easiest to understand with an example, so let's take a look at a couple of different tax scenarios with and without tax loss harvesting.

Liam is a crypto investor who bought 1 BTC for $20,000 and 1 ETH for $1,000 throughout the financial year. The price of ETH rises to $3,000 and the price of BTC falls to $18,000. Liam wants to realize his gain on ETH, so he sells at $3,000.

Without tax loss harvesting, Liam is liable to pay Capital Gains Tax on his $2,000 gain from ETH.

But he doesn't want to do that, so decides he'll tax loss harvest his crypto in order to pay less tax. To do this, Liam sells his 1 BTC, at a loss for $18,000, giving him a $2,000 capital loss. He can offset this capital loss against his capital gain from ETH, meaning he'll pay no Capital Gains Tax on his gain.

We'd mentioned earlier that investors may buy back their asset - but this all depends on where you live, because many tax offices have what's known as a wash sale rule to prevent investors from creating artificial losses.

Read next: What's a crypto wash sale?

When should I sell crypto for tax loss harvesting?

All investors know the crypto market is volatile and not all your investments are going to reach the moon. Experienced investors use these dips in the market to sell their assets at a loss, knowing they can offset them against their net capital gains. They may then choose to buy that same asset back for the lower price creating an artificial or paper loss.

To know when to sell - you need to track both your realized gains and losses and your unrealized losses and gains. You only have a realized gain or loss the moment you dispose of your crypto by selling, swapping or spending it.

Before this point, you have an unrealized gain or loss. This means the price of your crypto has appreciated or depreciated since you acquired it - but you haven’t yet sold it so you haven’t realized your gain or loss. By tracking your unrealized losses and your realized gains, you can keep an eye on your taxable gains throughout the year and look for opportunities to create losses to offset them with.

How often should I tax loss harvest crypto?

Many investors opt to harvest crypto losses annually. As the end of the financial year (EOFY) looms, they’ll check through their crypto portfolio to identify any unrealized losses they can utilize to reduce their tax bill for that financial year.

But investors who want to make the most of crypto tax loss harvesting make the most of market volatility throughout the year. They track unrealized losses strategically throughout the year and know to buy in the dip. With a crypto tax calculator and portfolio tracker like Koinly - you can track your tax liability and your unrealized losses, allowing you to spot opportunities for tax loss harvesting crypto throughout the financial year.

What are the benefits of crypto tax loss harvesting?

Besides the obvious benefit of paying less Capital Gains Tax - tax loss harvesting crypto comes with a few other perks. In the US in particular, you can offset up to $3,000 each year in capital losses against ordinary income, allowing you to reduce your overall tax liability.

As well as this, if you only have losses, you can also carry these forward to offset against gains in future financial years, helping you pay less tax in the future.

What are the risks of crypto tax loss harvesting?

Provided you stick to the wash sale rules and don't fall foul of the economic substance test, you don’t need to worry about a visit from the tax office. Crypto tax loss harvesting is legal.

However, it does have some downsides. Lots of sales and purchases of crypto mean more transaction fees. For some exchanges, this is up to 4% per transaction. So you’ll need to fit this into your calculations to ensure the savings you’re making on your tax bill aren’t being outweighed by the transaction fees. 

As well as this, if you're buying your asset back, you may end up with an even bigger Capital Gains Tax bill later down the line if you reduce your cost basis at the time you repurchase.

Is there a limit to crypto tax loss harvesting?

Before you decide to sell all your underperforming crypto at a loss - you need to know that there are some capital loss offset limits.

What we mean by this is that each financial year you can only offset a certain amount of capital losses against your net capital gain. This varies depending on the country you live in, but we’ll quickly cover a few countries' capital loss rules.

In the US, there is no limit on how many capital losses you can offset against your capital gains. However, if your capital losses exceed your net capital gains - you can offset a maximum of $3,000 in capital losses against ordinary income. You can carry capital losses forward indefinitely.

Which cost basis method for crypto tax loss harvesting?

Picking the right cost basis method when tax loss harvesting can make a big difference - and US investors are fortunate as they have multiple methods to choose from.

The IRS allows for several different cost basis methods when calculating your crypto taxes, provided you can specifically identify the assets. This includes:

• FIFO (First In First Out)
• LIFO (Last In First Out)
• HIFO (Highest In First Out)
• Spec ID (Specific Identification)

US investors should carefully consider which cost basis method will work best for their crypto tax strategy. Koinly can help you do this as you can change your cost basis method in settings and see how it changes your capital gain and loss calculations for the year.

Let’s look at some other quick frequently asked questions around crypto tax loss harvesting.

Is tax loss harvesting crypto a form of tax evasion?

Nope. Tax loss harvesting crypto is legal. But make sure to stick to the wash sale rules in your country to ensure you can actually offset your capital losses. You can learn more about what is illegal in our crypto tax evasion guide.

What about short vs. long-term gains when tax loss harvesting crypto?

In the US, you'll pay a different rate of Capital Gains Tax on short-term gains and long-term gains and this is important because the IRS says you should offset gains and losses of a similar kind against each other in order. So, you'll offset short-term losses against short-term gains first, and long-term losses against long-term gains first, and so on. However, if you then have any capital losses remaining, you can use these to offset capital gains of the other type.

This is why it's really important to know how long you've held crypto that you're considering disposing of for tax loss harvesting purposes, as you may be able to make significant savings on your tax bill by getting strategic.

Can I tax loss harvest NFTs?

You sure can - and should! Many investors have significant losses from the NFT market since the hype died down. We've got an entire guide on NFT tax loss harvesting for you to sink your teeth into, including tips on how to dispose of NFTs in illiquid markets.

How do I report crypto capital losses?

This very much depends on where you live - but in the US, you'll report your losses as part of your annual tax return. It's important you report losses, even if you have no gains for the year as you can carry these forward to future financial years to offset against future gains.

We've got guides on how to report your crypto gains and losses around the world, as well as guides on how to report with TurboTax, TaxAct, and H&R Block.

Can I offset my crypto capital losses against gains from stocks and other assets?

Yes. In the US, you can offset gains and losses of a similar kind (so generally in the same tax rates). So if you have gains from stocks and losses from crypto, you'd be able to offset your crypto capital losses against capital gains from stocks.

Can I tax loss harvest Bitcoin?

Yes, you can tax loss harvest Bitcoin. It doesn't matter on the specific cryptocurrency you're tax loss harvesting - it's all the same from a tax perspective.

Can I claim losses back on crypto?

Yes. You can claim many losses as capital losses to reduce your tax bill - but it depends on the kind of loss. If you've disposed of your asset by selling, swapping, or spending it, you can claim this back as a capital loss on your taxes and offset it against your gains.

However, if you have a loss due to theft or an exchange collapsing, you may not be able to claim this as a capital loss. As well as this, if you have a loss from a wash sale from crypto, while you can claim these currently in the US, this is likely to change under new legislation focused on closing crypto tax loopholes.

What’s the crypto tax loss harvesting deadline?

You need to realize your losses (by selling, swapping, or spending your crypto) ahead of the end of the financial year (EOFY) in order to offset them against your gains that financial year. In the US, the financial year is the same as the calendar year, so you have until December 31st to realize your losses in order to offset them. Any transactions after this will count toward the next financial year. You then have until April 15th to file your tax return and report your gains and losses.

Can you deduct crypto losses from taxes?

Yes. You can deduct crypto losses from capital gains from crypto, or any other capital gain. You can also offset an additional $3,000 each year in losses against ordinary income.

How do I get started with tax loss harvesting crypto?

Use Koinly.

All you need to do to get started with Koinly is set up your free account and sync all the crypto wallets and exchanges you use. Once you’ve done this, Koinly calculates your short and long-term capital gains, your capital losses, your crypto income and any expenses. You can see all of this in your tax report page in the summary - giving you a complete picture of your tax bill for the financial year.

Not only does Koinly calculate your crypto taxes for you - but you can head over to the dashboard to track your unrealized gains and losses too. You’ll be able to see how each of your crypto assets is performing and identify opportunities for tax loss harvesting. 

Koinly sets up the cost basis method based on your location. For example, the share pooling cost basis method for UK users or the average cost basis method for Canadian users. For countries where you have a variety of cost basis methods available, like the US and Australia, Koinly uses FIFO by default. But you can also select the cost basis method you’d like to use in settings.

Finally, when it comes to tax time - just head to your tax report page and pick the tax report you want to download. Koinly offers specific tax reports based on where you live. For example, the IRS Schedule D and Form 8949 for US taxpayers or the HMRC Capital Gains Summary for UK taxpayers.

Koinly makes crypto tax easy. Get started for free today.