Crypto Tax Calculator
Price the holding period on digital assets under 2026 rules — and see why the wash-sale rule that governs your stocks does not currently reach your coins.
Crypto Tax Calculator
Results recalculate instantly on every keystroke. Nothing you type is transmitted.
What this result does not account for
- Does not compute cost basis — you must supply gains already netted, wallet by wallet.
- Models a single filer at 2026 thresholds; joint filers use a $250,000 NIIT threshold.
- Staking, mining and airdrop receipts are ordinary income at receipt and are not modelled here.
- Wash-sale treatment of crypto reflects current law and has repeatedly been proposed for change.
In short: Crypto is property, not currency, so every disposal is a taxable event. On $18,000 of short-term and $22,000 of long-term gains at $180,000 of income, the short-term lot is taxed at 24.00% and the long-term lot at 15.00% — holding twelve months longer would have saved $1,620.00 on the same $18,000.
Formula
Long-term gains do not have their own ladder. Your ordinary taxable income fills the 0% and 15% bands first, and the gain is taxed in whatever band is left above it. This is why a rise in salary can raise the tax on a gain you have already made.
Worked Example
- Establish the ordinary base. Income of $180,000 less the $16,100 standard deduction gives $163,900 of ordinary taxable income.
- Tax the short-term lot as ordinary income. Stacking $18,000 on $163,900 costs $4,320.00 — 24.00% of the gain, the ordinary marginal rate.
- Stack the long-term lot above it. The $22,000 long-term gain sits above $181,900, inside the 15% band, for $3,300.00 — 15.00%.
- Add the surtax. Modified AGI of $220,000 exceeds the $200,000 threshold by $20,000, so NIIT is 3.8% of that $20,000 = $760.00.
- Read the holding-period premium. Total tax is $8,380.00, or 20.95% of gains. Had the short-term lot been held twelve months longer it would have cost $2,700.00 instead of $4,320.00 — a $1,620.00 difference driven entirely by a date.
The harvesting figure deserves attention: realising $15,000 of losses saves $4,170.00, which is 27.80% of the loss — more than the 24% marginal bracket. The excess is the NIIT the loss also removes. That is the compounding benefit most harvesting calculators miss entirely.
Strengths & Limits Of This Model
Where this engine is strong
- Stacks long-term gains on ordinary income correctly rather than applying a flat headline rate.
- Prices the holding period explicitly — the single largest controllable variable.
- Shows why a harvest can save more than your marginal bracket, through the NIIT base.
Where it stops
- Cannot see your transaction history, so the gain figures are only as good as your records.
- Does not model the economic substance doctrine, which is a facts-based judgement.
- State treatment is a flat rate; a few states diverge materially.
Practical Use Cases
Deciding whether to sell before the one-year mark
Price the difference first. Here it is $1,620.00 on $18,000 — a real cost that market risk over the remaining months has to justify.
Harvesting losses in a drawdown
The wash-sale rule does not currently reach directly held coins, so the position can be rebought immediately. Compare with equities using the Capital Gains Tax Calculator.
Estimating the quarterly payment after a large disposal
Gains are not withheld against. Size the instalment with the Quarterly Tax Calculator.
Separating trading from investing
Frequent disposals stay short-term and are taxed as ordinary income. A strategy that turns over quickly pays the 24.00% rate, not 15.00%, before any transaction costs.
Methodology & Editorial Standards
Digital assets are treated as property under IRS Notice 2014-21, so every disposal — including a coin-for-coin swap and a purchase of goods — realises gain or loss. This engine applies the 2026 single-filer ordinary brackets to short-term gains and stacks long-term gains on top of ordinary taxable income across the 0/15/20% bands per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Net investment income tax is computed under IRC 1411 as 3.8% of the lesser of net investment income or modified AGI above $200,000. Harvesting is modelled against short-term gains first because they carry the highest rate. Section 1091 wash-sale treatment applies to stock and securities; directly held digital assets are outside it under current law, though the economic substance doctrine still applies and legislation has repeatedly been proposed to close the gap. Basis must be tracked wallet by wallet from 2025 under the final broker regulations, and Form 1099-DA carries basis for assets acquired in a broker account from 2026. This engine does not compute basis, model staking or mining income, or address the $3,000 ordinary-offset interaction with other capital assets beyond the summary shown. The engine implements the standard published formula for this calculation. Inputs are validated for domain and sign before evaluation, and any undefined case returns an em-dash rather than a spurious value.
Computation runs in IEEE-754 double precision at full internal precision; rounding to two decimal places occurs strictly at the display layer, so no cumulative drift enters the result. All monetary outputs use accounting presentation — grouped thousands, two decimals, negatives in parentheses — so figures can be transcribed directly into a model or working paper. Division-by-zero and out-of-domain inputs return an em-dash rather than a misleading number.
This engine was reconciled against an independent reference implementation and hand-verified for the worked example above before release. Our full five-stage review process is published on the About Us page.
Disclaimer. This calculator is provided for informational and modelling purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, medical, or engineering advice. Verify all figures with a qualified professional before acting on them.
Crypto Tax Calculator — 20 Expert FAQs
20 analyst-written answers to the questions practitioners actually ask — optimised for voice and answer-engine retrieval.
Do I owe tax if I swap one coin for another?
Yes. A coin-for-coin swap is a disposal of the first asset at fair market value, so gain or loss is realised even though no cash was received.
Does the wash-sale rule apply to crypto?
Not to directly held coins under current law, because section 1091 covers stock and securities and crypto is treated as property. Crypto ETFs are securities and the rule does apply to them.
How much does holding for a year actually save?
On this example, $1,620.00 on an $18,000 gain — 24.00% falls to 15.00%. The saving scales directly with the size of the gain and your bracket.
What is the difference between short-term and long-term crypto gains?
One year and one day. At or below a year the gain is ordinary income; above it, the preferential 0/15/20% bands apply.
Can I really sell at a loss and buy back the same day?
Under current law, yes, for directly held coins. Keep records showing genuine economic exposure, and note that fees and spread cost real money on both legs.
Why does harvesting save more than my tax bracket?
Because the loss removes investment income from the NIIT base as well as from the income tax base. Here $15,000 of losses saves $4,170.00, or 27.80%.
How much crypto loss can I deduct against my salary?
Losses first offset gains without limit. Only $3,000 of any excess is deductible against ordinary income each year, with the remainder carried forward indefinitely.
What is Form 1099-DA?
The broker reporting form for digital assets. It reports gross proceeds from 2025 disposals, and cost basis for assets acquired in a broker account from 2026.
Do I have to track basis wallet by wallet?
Yes. Universal basis pooling is no longer permitted; basis is tracked per wallet or account under the final regulations.
Is buying and holding crypto a taxable event?
No. Purchasing with cash and holding creates no taxable event, and neither does moving coins between your own wallets.
How is staking or mining income taxed?
As ordinary income at fair market value on receipt, which then becomes your basis. This engine models disposals only, not receipts.
Does NIIT apply to crypto gains?
Yes. Digital asset gains are net investment income, so the 3.8% surtax applies above $200,000 of modified AGI for a single filer.
What if I paid for something with bitcoin?
That is a disposal. You realise gain or loss on the difference between basis and the value of what you bought.
Are NFTs treated the same way?
They are digital assets and reportable, but certain collectibles can face a 28% maximum rate. This engine does not model the collectibles rate.
Will the wash-sale loophole be closed?
It has been proposed repeatedly since 2021 and none of those proposals has been enacted. Treat the current position as law today, not as a permanent planning assumption.
Is this crypto tax calculator free to use?
Yes. It is free, requires no account, and has no usage limits. ApexConverter is funded by contextual advertising, never by selling user data.
Is my data sent to a server?
No. The engine runs as Vanilla JavaScript inside your browser under our Zero-Server Client-Side Execution model. Your figures are computed locally and are never transmitted, logged, or stored.
How accurate is this calculator?
It applies the standard closed-form formula in IEEE-754 double precision, rounding only at the display layer. The engine is reconciled against an independent reference implementation before release.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The interface is mobile-first with numeric keypad hints and is tested down to a 320-pixel viewport with no horizontal scrolling.
Can I use it offline?
Largely, yes. Because computation is client-side, the page continues to calculate without a network connection once it has loaded.