Does Coinbase Report to the IRS?
Learn about what Coinbase reports to the IRS, including Coinbase 1099 forms, and what the latest impending regulatory changes for crypto exchanges to issue the new 1099-DA form mean for Coinbase IRS reporting.
Key points
Coinbase reports income from crypto over $600 to the IRS via Form 1099-MISC.
Whenever Coinbase issues a 1099 form, both you and the IRS will receive it.
The IRS has previously issued a John Doe summons to Coinbase, compelling Coinbase to hand over customer transaction data. This information was used to send out warning letters to investors.
From 2026, Coinbase will issue Form 1099-DA to the IRS to report all capital gains and losses.
Does Coinbase report to the IRS?
Yes, Coinbase may report your transactions to the IRS if you have more than $600 in rewards in a financial year.
From 2026, Coinbase will also issue Form 1099-DA, which reports gains and losses from disposals of crypto.
What does Coinbase report to the IRS?
Coinbase issues Form 1099-MISC to US users with more than $600 in income in a given financial year. This form is sent to both the user and the IRS.
What counts as income on Coinbase?
Whenever you're earning new tokens on Coinbase from a variety of transactions, this may be classified as taxable income. This could include transactions such as staking rewards and Learn and Earn rewards.
Read our crypto taxes guide for more information on what counts as income from crypto.
When will I receive my Coinbase 1099 Form?
The US financial year runs from 1 January to 31 December, and Coinbase tax reporting happens after the end of the financial year and before the filing deadline on April 15. If you're going to receive a 1099-MISC form from Coinbase, you'll receive it by the end of February of the following financial year at the latest.
How do I get my 1099 Form from Coinbase?
You can download your 1099 by going to documents, in your Coinbase tax center.
What do I need to do if I receive a 1099-MISC Form from Coinbase?
If you receive a Coinbase 1099 Form, you must report it (and all other crypto income) on your tax return. You should:
Review your form details. Check that your Coinbase 1099-MISC includes your the personal details, as well as accurate information about the value of your transactions.
Calculate your tax lialbity. You’ll pay Federal and State Income Tax (where applicable) on any income from crypto based on the fair market value of your tokens in USD at the point you received them.
Report your income. Generally speaking, you’ll report any income from crypto on Schedule 1 (Form 1040). Self-employed persons may need to report income on Schedule C.
Keep good records. Investors should keep detailed records of their transactions, including any 1099 Forms, which may help if the IRS ever audits them.
It's important to remember that your Coinbase 1099-MISC only includes miscellaneous income, and you are still required to report any capital gains or losses from crypto, as well as any other income, from Coinbase and all other crypto exchanges and wallets you use.
Does Coinbase share other information with the IRS?
Even if you don’t receive a 1099 Form from Coinbase, you are still required to report all cryptocurrency transactions to the IRS every tax season, and they might know about your Coinbase investments anyway. Back in 2016, the IRS won a John Doe Summons case against Coinbase, forcing them to share customers' KYC data.
In this instance, the IRS asked for records on individuals engaging in transactions of $20,000 or more in a financial year, and more than 10,000 Coinbase customers were contacted, warning them they had failed to report additional income or gains.
Does Coinbase report conversions to the IRS?
No. Your conversions of crypto, whether that's converting crypto to another crypto or selling crypto for USD, won't be included in your 1099-MISC form. However, Coinbase may share this data with the IRS via other means upon request, for example, from John Doe Summons.
As well as this, from 2026, Coinbase will report gains and losses from conversions of crypto to the IRS via Form 1099-DA.
What does the IRS do with the information Coinbase provides?
The IRS has previously used information provided through both 1099 Forms and John Doe Summons to send warning letters to crypto investors it believes have failed to accurately report any gains or income from investments.
Suffice it to say, discrepancies between what's reported in your tax return and what is reported to Coinbase will increase the risk of a crypto tax audit and subsequent penalties.
Read next: Received IRS Letter 6173 or 6174? Here's What To Do
What information does Coinbase send to the IRS?
Information included in a Coinbase 1099-MISC Form includes:
Income information: The value of transactions classified as income, such as staking rewards from Coinbase.
User information: The name, address, and taxpayer identification number (TIN) provided when completing the KYC verification process.
Can I use my Coinbase 1099-MISC for tax reporting?
It depends on your investments. Coinbase 1099 forms only describe any income (rewards) an investor has made, and only those generated through the Coinbase platform, so it won't include any capital gains or losses you've made on Coinbase. For traders who use multiple exchanges, a 1099 from Coinbase is not enough to report crypto taxes accurately.
How do I report my Coinbase taxes to the IRS?
You must report any gains, losses, or income from your Coinbase transactions to the IRS using Form 8949 and Schedule D for gains/losses, as well as Schedule 1 for income (for Schedule C for self-employed persons).
As Coinbase only issues forms for specific users with more than $600 in income, the easiest way to calculate and report your Coinbase taxes is with a crypto tax calculator like Koinly.
Report your Coinbase taxes with Koinly
Koinly can automatically import your Coinbase transaction data via SSO, API, or by uploading a CSV file. Once it has your data, Koinly calculates your gains, losses, income, and more, before generating your crypto tax reports to help you easily file with the IRS.
Learn more about how to generate your how to do your Coinbase taxes with Koinly.
FAQs
What's a Coinbase 1099 form?
1099 forms are tax forms that provide information about non-employment-related income to the IRS. The 1099-MISC form reports miscellaneous income to the IRS.
When Coinbase issues a 1099-MISC form, it will include information about specific miscellaneous income a user has made on Coinbase exchange (including Coinbase Pro prior to the closure of the platform). This would include transactions classified as income by the IRS crypto tax guidance, like staking rewards, airdrops, and referral rewards.
However, Coinbase will only issue a 1099-MISC if you have more than $600 in miscellaneous income in a single financial year (January - December).
Prior to issuing a 1099-MISC form, Coinbase issued a 1099-K form.
Why did Coinbase stop issuing 1099-K forms?
Up until 2021 Coinbase issued 1099-K forms before switching to 1099-MISC forms.
Coinbase stopped issuing 1099-K forms as it was creating confusion for users and IRS agents. 1099-K forms are most commonly used by payment settlement networks, and the form details the transaction volume of processed payments to the IRS.
So instead of reporting capital gains and losses, which are the calculations investors generally need for crypto tax reporting, 1099-K instead details your entire transaction volume and reports that figure to the IRS. As you can probably guess, this meant that Coinbase 1099-K forms often hugely inflated the supposed taxable income from crypto transactions.
As a result of Coinbase 1099-K forms, a significant number of investors received CP2000 notices from the IRS incorrectly.
Does Coinbase provide 1099-Bs forms?
No. Coinbase does not issue Form 1099-Bs. As part of the Infrastructure Bill, it was originally thought crypto brokers (including centralized exchanges like Coinbase) would have to start issuing 1099-B forms to the IRS in the future. However, the latest IRS crypto reporting requirements confirm both centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges - including Coinbase - will be required to issue the new 1099-DA form instead.
Will I get a Coinbase 1099 form?
You may receive a 1099-MISC from Coinbase if:
You are a Coinbase customer AND
You are a US person for tax purposes AND
You earned $600 or more in rewards through Coinbase Earn, USDC rewards, or staking rewards throughout the previous financial year.
Do all Coinbase customers receive IRS forms?
No. Only selected US customers may receive a 1099-MISC form from Coinbase if they meet certain criteria. International customers, as in, non-US residents, will not receive a Form 1099.
Does Coinbase report to the IRS if you don't sell?
No, it's unlikely Coinbase report to the IRS if you don't sell, swap, spend, or earn any crypto on the exchange. If you've held crypto throughout the financial year but made no disposals or income, the IRS will not be interested in your crypto investment activities. However, if your information was included in the data Coinbase shared with the IRS as a result of the John Doe Summons, the IRS may still have your details.
When does the IRS send a B-Notice?
Coinbase customers may receive an IRS B-Notice if there are any discrepancies with your tax identification number (TIN) and legal name used by Coinbase to file Forms 1099 with the IRS. The B-Notice will:
Prescribe what information is needed to resolve the B-Notice.
Inform you if you are required to provide any additional information beyond updating or correcting your name or TIN
To correct your TIN and/or name, customers will need to contact Coinbase Support. Find out more about the IRS B-Notice.
What happens if you forget to file Coinbase taxes?
The IRS has made it very clear all crypto investments must be reported, and will inevitably be increasing audits as in 2022, the office received a huge budget increase in order to tackle tax evasion, with crypto being singled out as a key focus. Find out more about the penalties for crypto tax evasion.
Can the IRS see my Coinbase wallet transactions?
In short, yes. While your Coinbase wallet is non-custodial and does not require ID verification, any transactions you make using Coinbase Wallet will be publicly visible on the given blockchain. Anyone with your wallet address and a blockchain explorer will be able to view your transactions.
Of course, the IRS may not be able to associate you with your wallet address. However, given you need to on and off-ramp fiat and this is almost always achieved using a centralized exchange like Coinbase, it is not wise to attempt to hide your non-custodial wallet transactions from the IRS.
What is the Coinbase gain/loss form?
The Coinbase gain/loss form is a summary of every disposal of crypto on Coinbase and the resulting capital gain or loss. This form is provided to all Coinbase investors but is not issued to the IRS.
However, if you've transferred crypto to or from Coinbase, your gain/loss form may be inaccurate, as Coinbase will be unable to track your cost basis to calculate your subsequent gain or loss accurately.
From 2026, Coinbase will be required to report capital gains and losses to the IRS using Form 1099-DA.
Is there a Coinbase tax calculator?
Yes. Koinly is a Coinbase tax calculator. Not only can Koinly import your Coinbase transaction history directly from Coinbase itself, but Koinly can also calculate your Coinbase taxes in a format that makes sense for the IRS.
Are Coinbase withdrawals taxable?
Withdrawing your crypto or fiat currency from Coinbase to your own wallet or bank account is not a taxable event.
