Cryptocurrency and your taxes: What you need to know

The Street

Get up to speed on important rules about crypto and other alternative investments for this tax season with CPA and TurboTax expert Lisa Greene-Lewis.

Transcript

00:00So tax season is upon us, and you can't talk about tax season without talking about cryptocurrencies.

00:11Lisa Green Lewis, CPA and TurboTax expert is here with us to decipher all of it.

00:16So Lisa, I think there's a big misconception out there that people think there's no tax

00:20implications with cryptocurrencies, and that is, you know, unequivocally wrong, right?

00:25So tell us what we need to know as we file our taxes for 2024.

00:31The first thing you need to know.

00:32So in 2024, especially towards the end, we saw a crypto surge.

00:38That was one trend that we saw.

00:41And so people that sold crypto, they may have made some huge gains.

00:46But one thing to keep in mind, if you have any losses, just like with stock, you can

00:51offset those losses against your gains.

00:54And then if you have a net loss, you can offset up to $3,000 against your ordinary

01:01income like from W-2 wages.

01:03And then if you still have a loss, you can carry that forward to the next year's taxes.

01:08And I always encourage people to remember that.

01:11A lot of people forget about their carry forward losses, and that can reduce your taxes.

01:16Yeah, well, that's one of the perks of using a software, right?

01:20It remembers it for you, thankfully.

01:22So let's talk about the reporting of this, though.

01:25The place where my cryptocurrency is held should send me tax docs, right?

01:31Because these trades have to be reported.

01:35Crypto platforms and brokers were not required to report this, although a lot of them were

01:40still reporting.

01:42Now starting in 2026 for your 2025 taxes, they will be issuing you a new form.

01:49It's called a 1099-DA for digital assets.

01:54And so you will be seeing that form and on that form, they're going to be required to

01:58report your sales transaction and your cost basis.

02:02So it was really important by January 31st, you were supposed to report your cost basis

02:10to your crypto platform or your broker, since you can select what cost basis you want to

02:16use.

02:17Yeah, and that's key for keeping track going forward.

02:20So if you haven't done that, maybe reach out and try to get that on so that your reporting

02:25is good for next year.

02:26And in closing here, let's talk about like, you know, alt investing is all the rage these

02:30days, alternative investing, basically.

02:33What do people need to know about that come tax time?

02:36Yeah, another trend we're seeing is Gen Z, they are doing these alt investments.

02:41And what that is, they're investing in things like gold or silver.

02:46And what they need to know is, you know, how you account for that.

02:52If you sell it, it's the same as if you do a stock transaction and sell or a crypto sale.

03:00TurboTax allows you to automatically import up to 20,000 crypto transactions and 10,000

03:06stock transactions.

03:08And then you can easily do your taxes yourself with TurboTax, or you can hand your taxes

03:14off to our TurboTax Live full service experts.

03:18Everything gets reported to Uncle Sam, bottom line here, Lisa Green-Lewis, CPA and TurboTax

03:23expert.

03:24Thank you for shedding light on all of that.

03:26Thank you for having me.

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