How to do your Coinbase taxes with Koinly
More than 68 million people are using Coinbase to buy, sell, stake, and store their cryptocurrency assets. Whatever your crypto strategy on Coinbase, Koinly can help you do your Coinbase taxes safely, quickly, and accurately.
- Sign up to Koinly and choose your country and currency
- Connect Coinbase with Koinly to import all your Coinbase trades safely and securely
- Koinly categorizes Coinbase transactions into gains, losses, and income
- Koinly calculates your Coinbase Capital Gains Tax and Coinbase Income Tax
- Download your Coinbase tax report from Koinly
- File your Coinbase taxes online or with your crypto tax accountant
How to do your Coinbase taxes fast
How do I file my Coinbase taxes?
If you’ve made any income or capital gains from Coinbase, you will need to notify your country’s tax office. Generally, it will be included as part of your annual tax return.
There are a couple of ways you can identify what needs to be included in your tax return. You can either calculate it manually by yourself or you can use a crypto tax calculator like Koinly.
If you choose to do it manually, you need to identify your taxable transactions, calculate your net capital gain or loss, and the fair market value of any crypto income.
On the other hand, if you use a crypto tax calculator your taxable income will be calculated for you, and your Coinbase tax report will automatically be generated, ready to file with your tax office.
Koinly works by importing your Coinbase transaction data to analyze what's taxable, and what's not. Let's look at an example - here are some transactions in a Coinbase account.
You can import your Coinbase transaction history via Koinly's API integration or by uploading CSV files of your Coinbase transaction history into Koinly. Once you've done this, you'll be able to see your Coinbase transactions in Koinly - like this.
This lets you manage all your crypto transactions - from Coinbase and any other exchanges you use - from one single platform, making crypto tax simple. Here's how to import your Coinbase transaction data.
Koinly lets you manage all your crypto transactions - from Coinbase and any other exchanges you use - from one single platform, making crypto tax simple. Here’s how to connect Koinly & Coinbase.
How to connect Koinly and Coinbase using API
On Koinly
- Sign up or log in to Koinly and go to the wallets page
- Select add new wallet: Coinbase
- Select set up auto-sync
- The previous step will take you to the Coinbase website, sign in and authorize access for Koinly
Important
1. Coinbase & Coinbase Pro are merging soon. If you've previously used Coinbase Pro, you'll still need to sync your Coinbase Pro account separately with Koinly in order to get your complete transaction history - see how here.
2. The Coinbase API now supports the new 'advanced trade' transactions.
How to integrate Koinly and Coinbase using CSV
You'll need to start by downloading a CSV file with your full trading history from Coinbase before you can upload it to Koinly - here's how.
How to download and export your transaction history CSV file from Coinbase
- Sign in to your Coinbase account
- Head to your profile in the top right corner and select reports
- Select generate report
- Next to CSV report, select generate report
How to upload your Coinbase CSV to Koinly
Now you've got your Coinbase CSV file, here's how to upload it to Koinly.
- Sign up or login into Koinly and head to the wallets page
- Add a new wallet: Coinbase
- Select import from file
- Upload your Coinbase CSV file
Important
1. If you've set up 2-factor authentication, your Coinbase account may ask you to verify after you've selected send request. In some instances, it may take a couple of days for your email and attached CSV file to come through, so don't panic if you don't see it straight away.
2. Your Coinbase CSV file will not contain transactions to and from Coinbase Pro, so you'll need to import a separate CSV file with your Coinbase Pro transactions. If you are using both wallets, it's normal to see transactions from Coinbase Pro to Coinbase, even if you never sent those funds. This is because whenever you transfer crypto from Coinbase Pro, internally it arrives at your Coinbase account first, before being sent on. These transfers aren't taxable events and Koinly should recognize this automatically.
How do I troubleshoot my Coinbase integration to Koinly?
Having issues with your Coinbase data import? We have lots of helpful resources:
- Head over to our help center
- Hit up our discussion boards - we might have already answered your question
- Ask us on social media - we're on Twitter or Reddit
- Contact us by email or live chat
- Got a feature request? Give us feedback on Canny
Calculate your Coinbase taxes
Sign up free today to calculate your Coinbase taxes
Does Coinbase send tax forms?
The only tax document Coinbase provides users with currently is the 1099-MISC Form. This form is for US residents only, with more than $600 in income. Find out more about Coinbase 1099 forms. Otherwise, you'll need to use your Coinbase transaction history to generate your Coinbase tax documents.
How do I get Coinbase tax documents?
The good news is, while you won’t receive tax forms and documents from the exchange, you can easily connect to crypto tax software via API or by uploading a CSV file of your Coinbase transaction history. Your Coinbase taxes will be calculated for you and your Coinbase tax documents automatically generated.
Do you get a 1099 from Coinbase?
Yes, some users will receive IRS 1099 Forms from Coinbase. Currently, Coinbase only issues 1099-MISC forms to US residents with more than $600 in income on the exchange in a single financial year.
Does Coinbase provide financial or end of year statements?
No, Coinbase won't provide you with an EOFY statement automatically, but the exported CSV file of your Coinbase trade history works as a Coinbase end of year statement. You can follow the instructions above to generate this statement. Remember, you'll need to download both a Coinbase trade history and a Coinbase Pro trade history CSV file.
Do I have to pay taxes on Coinbase?
Yes - if you have capital gains or income as a result of your Coinbase investment activities, you'll need to report these to your tax office and pay taxes on them. Don’t try and avoid paying your taxes - the penalties for tax evasion are steep and you may face fines or even jail time.
What does Coinbase report to the IRS?
The IRS issued Coinbase with a John Doe summons and won back in 2016 - forcing the exchange to share customer data, though it’s not clear precisely what data was shared. Find out more in our guide on Coinbase & the IRS.
How to report Coinbase rewards on taxes
If you’ve earned new coins through Coinbase rewards, it’s likely these will be viewed as additional income by your tax office and you’ll need to pay Income Tax upon receipt based on the fair market value in your fiat currency at the point you received the rewards.
Does Coinbase have Proof of Reserves?
Coinbase is unique compared to other exchanges as it is publicly listed on the Nasdaq. This means they have to regularly report their assets and liabilities to the market - proving their users’ deposits are held 1:1 by conducting regular audits by an external third party every quarter. See a list of their financial statements here.
For more information, read our post about Proof of Reserves and why it matters to you as a crypto investor.
Does Coinbase report to HMRC?
Yes, Coinbase reports to HMRC as it is required to by the Finance Act. In 2022, Coinbase contacted customers with more than £3,000 in crypto to tell them that Coinbase would share account information with HMRC, and again in 2023, Coinbase contacted UK customers who received payments of more than £5,000 in fiat currency to tell them that Coinbase would share account information with HMRC.