What is a crypto tax calculator?
A crypto tax calculator like Koinly helps you calculate your gains, losses, income, and more, to generate accurate tax reports.
Our free calculator is a simplified version of Koinly to give you a quick estimate of your tax owed. If you’re looking for more comprehensive reporting, use Koinly.
Koinly connects to 1,000+ exchanges and wallets to give you a complete and accurate overview of your entire crypto portfolio. You can use it to track realized and unrealized gains and losses, crypto income like mining rewards in USD, P&L from derivatives and margin trades, investments in DeFi protocols, and to generate IRS tax reports like Form 8949 and Schedule D.
How to use our free crypto tax calculator
Choose whether you’re calculating a single trade or multiple and enter your figures.
Enter your personal details, including your filing year, filing status, state, income, and how long you've held your asset for.
See your estimated crypto tax bill.
How accurate is this crypto tax calculator?
Our calculator estimates your crypto tax bill using the information you provide, including your filing status and location. It applies the relevant federal and state tax rates and calculates short- and long-term capital gains proportionally across tax brackets where applicable. Estimates are based only on gains and losses from crypto disposals.
We source tax rates from the IRS, state government websites, and the Tax Foundation. The calculator does not account for prior-year losses, local or city taxes, state-specific deductions, higher-taxed assets, or special state legislation.
What if I don't have the information to use this calculator?
If you don’t know your figures, Koinly can help you figure them out. When you import your trading history to Koinly, it can identify your cost basis and subsequent gains/losses.Â
How do I calculate my purchase price?
Your purchase price is whatever you paid for your crypto, plus any allowable fees. It’s also known as your cost basis.
Why do I need to enter my annual income?
Your total annual income determines the tax bracket you fall into on a state and federal level.
Why do I need to enter my location?
Because state tax rates vary. Entering your location lets our calculator identify your state tax rate.
Why do you need to know how long I've owned crypto?
Short and long-term capital gains are taxed at different rates. Short-term gains from assets held less than a year are taxed at your income tax rate, while long-term gains are taxed at a substantially lower long-term capital gains tax rate of up to 20%.
Why do you need to know my filing status?
Your filing status impacts your federal and state tax rates. There are five different filing statuses: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child. This tool only supports more common filing statutes.
How does the IRS tax crypto?
Crypto is subject to Capital Gains Tax or Income Tax in the US, depending on the transaction. You’ll pay up to 37% in federal income tax, up to 20% in capital gains tax, and any applicable state taxes.
What are capital gains?
You get a capital gain or loss any time you dispose of a capital asset, like cryptocurrencies or stocks. Disposals include selling crypto, trading crypto, and spending crypto.
Anytime you have a disposal, you have a potentially taxable transaction and need to calculate your gain or loss. Any gain is taxable.
Income from crypto
As well as capital gains, some transactions are subject to income tax on receipt, for example, mining rewards, staking rewards, and other instances where you earn tokens as a reward.
What are capital losses?
If you have a loss from disposing of a capital asset, you can offset this loss against any capital gains. If you have no capital gains to offset, you can offset losses against up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year, or carry losses forward to offset against future gains.
How to calculate capital gains tax on crypto
Your capital gains tax rate is calculated based on your total annual income, state, filing status, and how long you’ve held the asset:
Short-term capital gains (from assets held less than a year) are taxed at your federal and state income tax rates.
Long-term capital gains (from assets held more than a year) are taxed at a lower capital gains tax rate of up to 20% and state tax rates.
How tax brackets work
Your tax bracket is based on your total annual income, including wages, capital gains, and other income. The US uses a progressive tax system, so different portions of your income are taxed at different rates. No single rate applies to all your income; only the amount within each range is taxed at that rate. The federal income and capital gains tax rates are shown below.
| Income Tax Rate | Income | Capital Gains Tax Rate | Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $0 – $11,925 | 0% | $0 – $48,350 |
| 12% | $11,926 – $48,475 | 15% | $48,351 – $533,400 |
| 22% | $48,476 – $103,350 | 20% | $533,401+ |
| 24% | $103,351 – $197,300 | ||
| 32% | $197,301 – $250,525 | ||
| 35% | $250,526 – $626,350 | ||
| 37% | $626,351+ |
When do I owe crypto taxes?
Anytime you have a capital gain or income from crypto, you’ll owe tax on it. You’ll need to include this in your annual tax return by April 15 and pay any tax due (and depending on your circumstances, you may also need to pay estimated quarterly taxes).
State and local income taxes on crypto
State taxes apply to both capital gains and income from crypto, but there are exceptions. States with no income tax, like Texas and Florida, do not apply additional taxes, and other states, like Missouri, have exempted capital gains from state income taxes.
Other states allow for sizeable deductions of up to 50% on capital gains, and some have lower tax rates specifically for long-term capital gains.
In some instances, local income taxes may also apply to crypto depending on your state laws.
How to reduce crypto taxes
Most investors opt for two simple strategies: hold assets and utilize losses.
Crypto held for more than one year is taxed at lower long-term capital gains rates. Tracking how long you’ve held each asset helps you decide what to sell, and when, for a better tax outcome.
Capital losses can offset gains and reduce your tax bill. If losses exceed gains, you can also offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year. Identifying unrealized losses lets you see how realizing them could lower your taxes.
Koinly offers a tax optimization and asset maturity dashboard to help with both.
