Crypto Tax Recordkeeping Basics: What to Keep Now That Exchanges Report to the IRS

What changed: brokers now report to the IRS

Most people do not get into trouble because crypto tax is exotic. They get into trouble because the records were never kept. US brokers now send Form 1099-DA to you and to the IRS, so there is a second set of numbers to agree with, and your own records are how you check theirs. This guide is US-focused; the habits apply anywhere.

Gross proceeds: the IRS says brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions effected on or after 1 January 2025. Basis: brokers must report basis on certain transactions effected on or after 1 January 2026. Under the IRS Form 1099-DA instructions, basis reporting applies to covered assets, broadly digital assets acquired after 2025 in an account where the broker provided custody and kept there until the sale. For other assets, such as coins bought earlier or moved in from another wallet, the broker is not required to report basis, so a blank basis box is normal and does not mean your basis is zero.

Per-wallet basis: final IRS regulations apply account-by-account basis rules to acquisitions and dispositions of digital assets on or after 1 January 2025, and Revenue Procedure 2024-28 gives a safe harbor for allocating unused basis to the digital assets held in each wallet or account as of 1 January 2025. In practice, one pooled spreadsheet across everything you own is no longer enough: each wallet or account needs its own trail.

Unchanged: the IRS says digital assets are property, not currency, and that whether or not you receive a Form 1099-DA, you must report all income, gains and losses from digital asset transactions on your federal return. Our walkthrough of the form itself is at /guides/form-1099-da-crypto-broker-reporting.

What crypto records should beginners keep?

For every event, record the date and time with timezone, the asset and exact amount, the specific wallet or exchange account, the fiat value at the time and where you got that value, the fee and the asset it was paid in, the transaction ID or hash, the type of event (buy, sell, swap, spend, transfer, income, gift or loss), and a one-line reason. Rounded amounts break reconciliation, and memory is the weakest link.

The IRS virtual currency FAQs say your basis includes what you spent to acquire the asset, including fees, commissions and other acquisition costs, which is why the fee column matters. A failed on-chain transaction can still cost a network fee (see /guides/crypto-fees-explained and /guides/wrong-network-crypto-sends), so log it too.

The IRS also says taxpayers must keep records sufficient to establish the positions taken on their returns, including purchases, sales and other dispositions, and the US dollar fair market value of digital assets received as income. Treat tax software as an organizer rather than legal advice.

Five habits that keep crypto records clean

Keep one ledger with one row per event; a spreadsheet is enough, with a column naming the source file so every row traces back to evidence. Export on a schedule, because exchanges close accounts, change formats and drop old data. Keep the raw export files untouched in a dated folder and edit only your ledger.

Log wallet-to-wallet transfers with a memo. The IRS FAQs say that moving crypto between wallets or accounts you own is a non-taxable event, even if an exchange sends an information return because of it, but you need records proving both sides are yours. If the receiving side is missing, software can mistake a transfer for a sale, which is a common cause of wrong gain figures.

Reconcile when forms arrive. Compare each Form 1099-DA with your ledger. A mismatch is a question to resolve, not automatically an error: the form only knows what happened at that broker.

What a Form 1099-DA will not show you

A broker can only report what it handles. Plan to document these yourself: purchases from before 2026 and anything transferred in from another wallet, where the basis box may be blank; activity in wallets only you control; transactions through foreign brokers, which the IRS says must still be reported on your return; and rewards and staking payments, which the Form 1099-DA instructions say are not reported on the form.

Income events such as rewards or airdrops need their own record of the date and value when received. Losses from scams or theft need evidence of what happened; see /guides/crypto-scam-recovery-next-steps. How any loss is treated is a question for a qualified tax professional.

How long should I keep crypto records?

The IRS says to keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property. For crypto bought years before it is sold, that can mean keeping purchase records for many years. Keep the raw exports at least as long, and ask a tax professional what applies to you.

Before discarding records you no longer need for tax, the IRS suggests checking whether other purposes, such as insurance or creditors, require keeping them longer.

Do I need crypto tax software?

Disclosure before any link: WildWildCrypto may earn a commission if you sign up for some tools shown after this guide, at no extra cost to you. Ranking is by fit and risk, not payout. A spreadsheet plus your exchanges' own exports is a free alternative.

Software can help people with several exchanges and wallets import history and match transfers. It may not suit you if you have one exchange and few trades, need a professional's judgement, or live in a country the tool does not support. Imports can be incomplete, and software can mis-categorise DeFi, bridged or wrapped assets and transfers, so review every flagged row; a tool's total is not a legal conclusion.

Never connect a wallet or share a recovery phrase to 'fix your taxes'; real tax processes never ask for that. Tax-season impersonation scams are common, so see /guides/crypto-scams-checklist before responding to any unexpected tax message.

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