2025-12-31 11:26:26

The 2026 US tax season is approaching, and crypto investors need to prepare psychologically—new rules are really coming.

Industry insiders are calling this change a "watershed" moment for crypto taxation, with a series of new policies taking effect during 2025 trading and 2026 tax filing.

The most immediate impact comes from Form 1099-DA. Starting in 2025, licensed centralized exchanges and other regulated institutions will need to report users' crypto asset sales and dispositions to the IRS, with the first issuance of this form in 2026. At first glance, there’s no big problem, but the devil is in the details—initially, the form typically only shows the sale amount and does not include the cost basis.

What does this mean? If you don’t report clearly yourself, the IRS might automatically assume your cost basis is zero and send you a tax notice accordingly.

The IRS also requires each trading platform account or self-custodied wallet to track costs separately, and when selling, only match the assets in that specific wallet. This poses the biggest challenge for users trading across multiple platforms, using DeFi, or managing private keys themselves.

Tax advisors are all saying the same thing: reconstructing historical ledgers and organizing all on-chain and off-chain transaction records is a one-time but extremely tedious task. Although the IRS provides a transition period from 2024 to 2028, the compliance window is actually quite tight, and not many investors have truly completed it.

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SmartContractWorker

· 5h ago

This is the end, the IRS is really coming to audit, what should I do about my multi-chain operations... Cost prices are not even displayed? This is just trying to trick us. I already said that multi-chain transactions would have issues, and now it's too late to regret. It will probably take me a month to sort out my DeFi records, it's really unbelievable. In 2026, I will have to rely on a tax advisor, this money can't be saved. Has anyone started organizing their historical ledgers? Looking for some ideas. These new rules are a disaster for retail investors. The exchanges have dodged it, but we still have to bear it ourselves.

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screenshot_gains

· 5h ago

I urge you to organize your accounts quickly, or you'll be crying next year. Damn, you directly attack me with zero cost? Is the IRS trying to take a chunk of my money? Multi-chain DeFi users have given up; anyway, there's no escaping. It's really intense; I have to reconcile with each platform again. Who can handle this? The IRS is really ruthless this time; it feels like most people will be caught in the trap. Why does it have to be so complicated? Would a unified solution really be the end of the world? I've long needed to organize everything, but I'm still stuck in procrastination hell. 2026 is really coming for taxes; what about my excess gains?

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StableGeniusDegen

· 5h ago

Here comes the pump and dump again, IRS is serious this time This will make multi-chain players cry, they have to go through their ledgers one by one Zero cost directly counts as all profit? Laughing out loud, IRS what are you thinking Hurry up and file honestly, brother. IRS's automated notices are more painful than a market crash DeFi users are probably trembling now, how can cross-chain tracking be figured out Such a short transition period, probably not many people have completed it Assuming zero cost, isn't this openly encouraging non-compliance? Don't wait until 2026, now is the time to review and organize past transactions, or you'll really get caught With this policy coming out, the dream of financial freedom in the crypto world might be further away IRS's move is too ruthless, they are literally performing surgery

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OvertimeSquid

· 5h ago

Damn, are you just counting the costs as zero? IRS is really trying to cheat us. We need to get our books in order quickly.

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consensus_whisperer

· 5h ago

Oh my god, IRS this time is really ruthless, issuing orders with zero cost? I'm stunned. Brothers with multi-chain wallets are going to get hit this time, having to reconcile wallet by wallet. I've been saying to keep records for a long time, now it's too late to regret. This transition period feels like a sham; only a few are truly prepared.

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