Looking at the best cryptocurrency tax software

Last updated: March 2020 (Koinly has been added to the list)

Cryptocurrency based income is not tax-free. The court granted IRS authority to serve summons to Coinbase to gather its customer information for transactions that took place from 2013 to 2015. This was a John Doe summons which means – IRS does not have to identify specific customers, it only has to identify the conditions and Coinbase will have to dish out information related to customers who fit in that group.

The condition laid out in the summons indicates “with at least the equivalent of $20,000 in any one transaction type (buy, sell, send, or receive) in any one year during the 2013—2015 period”.

A Cryptocurrency tax software will help you manage and file your taxes thus reducing your burden. Before we get on with our Best Cryptocurrency Tax Software picks for 2020, let’s quickly examine all the things that took place in 2019 (and we haven’t even finished the year yet).

All these developments indicate one thing: taxpayers with cryptocurrency transactions can no longer hide under a rock and hope for the best. YOU NEED TO PAY CRYPTO TAXES. A crypto tax software will help you streamline your taxes and file them.

All of these transactions trigger a taxable event

Many taxpayers who have received the IRS tax letter were surprised. Taxpayers who assumed that crypto to crypto transactions were outside the purview of the IRS capital gains tax were among those who were served these letters.

All of the below transactions trigger a tax event:

Selling or exchanging cryptocurrency for another cryptocurrency (or for FIAT)

Buying goods or services using cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency received through a hard fork creates a tax event

Cryptocurrency received through airdrops creates a tax event

Receiving wages in cryptocurrency is a taxable event

Receiving rental income, royalties, tips, commissions, or any type of income received in cryptocurrency is a taxable event

Any exchange of value using cryptocurrency instead of fiat creates same taxable event as if fiat was used

Do you need a cryptocurrency software?

If all of your cryptocurrency transactions were in one or two exchanges, like Coinbase, that provides clean tax documents with all your transactions, then you may not need a crypto tax software.

However, trouble creeps in when you have:

transactions over multiple exchanges

movement of crypto funds from one exchange to another

received hard forks

traded extensively in cryptocurrencies during the year

moved funds from wallet to exchange or vice-versa

We have observed that whenever you have transactions in more than one crypto exchange, it is a big time saver to use crypto tax software.



Problem with the information available on exchanges

Even those who want to be compliant face a bigger issue. How does one track 100s (and in some cases 10s of 1000s) of transactions without losing their mind?

Few exchanges, like Binance, do not show history beyond 90 days, few do not let you download information in any meaningful format, some do not comply with tax rules, some do not capture transaction fees and each exchange has some or other limitation.

How do you track your transactions in the midst of these hurdles?

Thankfully, there are many crypto tax software solutions available in the market that address these issues. Before we compare them side-by-side, let us look at different features that you need to look at before picking the right tax software that fits your needs.

Also Read:

Every US taxpayer in Crypto should be aware of what’s unfolding

All you need to know about the Crypto Taxes in 2019



Top 5 Best Practices for Filing Crypto tax Returns

Key attributes to look for in your cryptocurrency tax software

For the purpose of our comparison, we will be looking at the following aspects for each crypto tax software and then we will compare them against each other.

Exchanges supported and wallet imports : If you have dealt with multiple exchanges and wallets during the year, you want to make sure that the crypto tax software that you pick has the best coverage, even if this means you have to shell out a few extra $$s. Trust us, from our own experience we can say, it is worth the peace knowing that the software does the job for you.

Tax computation methods : First In First Out (FIFO) or Last In First Out (LIFO) are the most popular tax methods in the US with FIFO considered most conservative. There is also another option to identify specific coins for specific transactions but that requires meticulous documentation. Most crypto tax softwares support FIFO and LIFO along with other methods that may be used by other countries. Make sure you consult a tax professional to ensure you are picking the right tax method for you and the one that is allowed by the tax authorities.

Tax forms support: The IRS requires taxpayers to differentiate between their short-term and long term capital gains. These are reported on different sections of the Form 8949. Crypto tax software that can sort the information on the proper forms is the one you want to use. Also, some crypto tax software facilitate the direct import of these transactions to tax platforms like TurboTax.

Pricing options : Bear market has killed a million dreams in the crypto space. Last thing people want is to shell out too much dough on buying a tax software. However, as much as it is important to keep track of your gains, it is equally important to keep track of your losses so you can offset them on a future gain. Best crypto tax software for your situation will depend on how many exchanges you have used, number of transactions, losses you have incurred during the year, scams you have endured and many such factors.

FBAR support: The US Treasury has confirmed that foreign cryptocurrency exchanges need not be disclosed under the Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) regulations on FinCEN Form 114 . However, there is a catch regarding having transferred any fiat during the calendar year to any foreign crypto exchange that could trigger a FBAR filing requirement.

Customer support: You also want to pick the crypto tax software that responds to your needs in case you run into any trouble.

Having looked at the key attributes, let’s look at popular crypto tax softwares on the market:

Following review is an opinion. We presented the criteria that we would personally look for in a crypto tax software based on our needs. Your needs may be different. We have not used all of these software, and where applicable, we have formed opinions based on information available publicly. We may be compensated for the referral links, no other financial arrangement exist between these companies and us.

In our opinion, Cointracking continues to be one of the most popular crypto tax software. It offers most number of tax computation methods in the market. It can get easily overwhelming to see the number of options available, however, not all options are relevant to the US and being a global crypto tax software tool – making these options available is important for other jurisdictions.

From a mere updates and staying ahead perspective, Cointracking has no rival in our opinion. For instance, Cointracking already has the ability to support Binance US, supports Kraken’s credit transactions, and much more. However most taxpayers may not need as savvy a product as Cointracking if they only dealt with one or two exchanges and have few transactions.

Exchanges supported and wallet imports: Cointracking probably has one of the most comprehensive list of exchanges and wallet imports. It supports almost all exchanges and wallets, including hard wallet imports from Trezor.

Tax Computation methods: Cointracking supports FIFO, LIFO, Adjusted Cost base (Canada), HMRC (UK only) along with eight other methods, totalling to 12 methods. For US tax purposes, the most common methods used are FIFO and LIFO.

Tax Forms support: Cointracking generates multiple tax reports for you to use depending on your need, including, 8949 PDF, 8949 CSV download, excel & PDF download of transactions itself, etc., In addition, Cointracking has direct export option to export data to TaxACT, TurboTax and Drake tax software.

Pricing options: Cointracking offers multiple price options depending on your needs. For instance, if you have less than 200 transactions, you can use their FREE option. If you have less than 3500 transactions, their PRO version that costs $118 for 1 year, $201 for 2 years and $369 for lifetime. For traders with transactions exceeding 3500, an unlimited version is available that costs: $251 for 1 year, $402 for 2 years and $2837 for lifetime; Most unique feature about Cointracking is that you can pay the fees with 50 different altcoins in addition to PayPal, credit cards, wire transfers, etc., Users who pay the fees using Bitcoin receive a 5% discount (talk about facilitating adoption!).

Cointracking.info Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Pro 1 Year 3500 $118 Pro 2 Years 3500 $201 Pro Lifetime 3500 $369 Unlimited 1 Year Unlimited $251 Unlimited 2 Years Unlimited $402 Unlimited Lifetime Unlimited $2837

*As of October, 2019

FBAR support: Cointracking does not offer FBAR support. However, if you have never transferred FIAT into a non-US crypto exchange, you may not have an FBAR reporting requirement, as clarified by the FinCEN.

Customer support: You can quickly raise a support ticket on Cointracking portal. We are not sure how we feel about the customer support with Cointracking. They don’t list a phone number and since its a ‘reporting’ tool, there is no real need for an ‘emergency’ line, so it may not be a big deal in our opinion. Rating: OK.

Lifetime plans make this unique offering

Price options that fit most needs

Comprehensive solution

Multiple tax calculation methods that meet multiple jurisdiction requirements

No FBAR support

Customer support connectivity is not as good as other platforms

CryptoTrader is our new favorite only next to Cointracking. Their import functionality is simple and the system is built carefully with customer experience in mind. System walks you through the simple 6 step process to help you import data from various exchanges.

CryptoTrader also publishes guides on various aspects of cryptocurrency taxes.

Their customer care is amazing. They check in on you after you sign up and take your feedback seriously.

One of the unique features of CryptoTrader is that it helps you go back to previous tax years to pull information if you are looking to amend your previous year tax returns to report crypto transactions.

We had the unique opportunity to talk to David Kemmerer, CEO of CryptoTrader.Tax, about their platform. In his own words, “CryptoTrader.Tax is simply the most accurate crypto tax calculator on the market. This is a direct result of the years that we’ve spent developing our historical pricing engine. It puts us far ahead of the competition, and our users notice.”

If we were to choose between Cointracking and CryptoTrader for customer support alone – we would pick CryptoTrader. And if you have less than 1500 transactions during the year – CryptoTrader is a clear winner from the price point, in our opinion.

Exchanges supported and wallet imports : CryptoTrader supports a lot of exchanges and where a crypto exchange is not supported, they allow CSV imports, so you are covered even if a direct API import is not available. They support over 35 leading Exchanges (and for the exchanges that they do not have native support, you can manually upload the CSV template) and almost all wallets.

Tax computation methods : They support LIFO and FIFO methodology. They also support Adjusted Basis method for Canada taxpayers.

Tax forms support: CryptoTrader supports 8949 functionality for the US taxpayers and it also has TurboTax Integration on all its plans. 1 year money-back guarantee they offer shows the confidence they have in their product.

Pricing options : From a price point of view, Cointracking and CryptoTrader are in similar ball park when it comes to its Unlimited transactions plan. For taxpayers with less than 1500 transactions, CryptoTrader is a no-brainer, in our opinion.



Cryptotrader.tax Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Hobbyist 1 Tax Year 100 $49 Pro Trader 1 Tax Year 1500 $99 High Volume Trader 1 Tax Year 5000 $199 Unlimited 1 Tax Year Unlimited $299

*As of October, 2019

FBAR support: CryptoTrader does not offer FBAR support. However, if you have never transferred FIAT into a non-US crypto exchange, you may not have an FBAR reporting requirement, as clarified by the FinCEN .

Customer support: The team responds to questions quickly. They even check-in to see how you are doing during the early days of subscription. Messages on the chat window on their website get answered in under 5 minutes (we tested this on a weekend, and still got a response). Rating: Excellent.

Excellent customer care

Simple to use solution

Their unlimited pricing option is on par with CoinTracking.info

1 year money back guarantee No FBAR support

Not as comprehensive Exchange API list as other solutions Cointracker.io Over 10 BILLION in transaction volume has been tracked on Cointracker. They boast a massive $200 Million losses claimed through their platform. Unlike other tools on this list, Cointracker made it easy to access the data from the exchanges. We tried to connect Coinbase account and instead of asking for API and other complex process, it simply asked us to login to Coinbase account and that’s it. Definitely easier way to connect exchanges to the account. Cointracker also provides PREVIEW TAX IMPACT feature where you can check the tax impact before you execute a transaction. They are working on integration of non-crypto accounts to the platform and provides tax loss harvesting and dollar cost averaging features. Exchanges supported and wallet imports Cointracker helps you sync with over 300 exchanges and supports many wallets including hard wallets like Trezor and Ledger. Cointracker supports over 2500 cryptocurrencies. When we tried to connect Coinbase. Tax computation methods : Cointracker offers FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, Adjusted Cost Basis, Share pool methods to calculate capital gains. Tax forms support: Cointracker supports Form 8949 reporting as well Sch D. In addition, TaxAct and TurboTax exports are available as well. Pricing options : Pricing ranges from $49 to $999. They do not have an unlimited plan. Cointracker.io Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Hobbyist 1 Tax Year 100 $49 Trader 1 Tax Year 1500 $199 Pro 1 Tax Year 5000 $499 Satoshi 1 Tax Year 15000 $999

*As of October, 2019 FBAR support: Cointracker offers FBAR/FATCA support.

Customer support: They have a chat widget on their portal and promise to respond within a day. We did not find a direct customer care line on the main site or inside the login area. Rating: OK. Experience of over 10 Billion in transaction volume

Over 300 exchanges supported No immediate customer support

Pricing options are bit expensive, in our opinion Bitcoin.Tax Bitcoin Tax is what big things come in small packages. It is a simple, almost archaic, interface. Offers affordable pricing options for individuals with simple transactions. Exchanges supported and wallet imports : Bitcoin.Tax offers support for over 20 exchanges, with the option of uploading data from any exchange using a CSV format. Tax computation methods : Bitcoin.Tax offers FIFO, LIFO, average cost methods to calculate capital gains. Tax forms support: Forms 8949, 8824 are supported in addition to direct import to TurboTax and TaxAct. Pricing options: For individuals, price starts at $29.95 and for traders price starts at $99. Bitcoin.tax Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Individual 1 Tax Year 10,000 $29 to $49 Trader 1 Tax Year 1,000,000 $99 to $399

*as of October 2019 FBAR support: No FBAR support on the platform.

Customer support: Bitcoin.Tax has FAQs listed on their website and if the question you are looking for is not answered, they give you an option to email them which they revert back within 2 business days. Simple interface

Great option for people with fewer transactions

Budget solution Heavy reliance on CSV imports

Customer care is not one of the best (compared to others on this list), in our opinion. Koinly.io Perfect for new and experienced investors alike, Koinly offers extensive support without complicating the reporting process. Offering coverage in over 20 countries, support for thousands of listed cryptocurrencies, and portfolio tracking capabilities, Koinly is one of the best crypto tax tools to turn to when tax season rolls around and you need to get your taxes done quickly and efficiently. Exchanges supported and wallet imports: No matter which cryptocurrencies you deal with or exchanges you use, Koinly has you covered. With support for over 300 exchanges, 10 blockchains, and over 6,000 cryptocurrency assets (not to mention the ability to easily import data through API keys, public keys, and CSV files), there’s nothing stopping you from reporting. The platform even supports margin trading! Tax Computation methods: As stated on their website, Koinly supports all countries that utilize FIFO, LIFO, and Average Cost accounting methods. They also offer support for countries that aren’t listed directly on their website (although users will have to contact them directly to learn more about coverage in their country). Tax Forms support: Koinly offers downloads for Form 8949, Schedule D, K4, and FBAR, with the website suggesting that they offer more forms than those listed publicly. Additionally, Koinly supports exports to major tax software providers like TurboTax, TaxAct, and Xero. Pricing options: Koinly has three main pricing structures (with the ability to create a custom solution if need be). The first is the Hodler plan, which costs $79 per year and allows individuals to import up to 300 transactions and receive the basic features of the platform (income and capital gains report, tax report for any year, all exchanges and wallets import capabilities, etc.). The second is the Trader plan, which costs $179 per year, offers support for up to 3,000 transactions, and includes priority support. The final plan listed on their website is the Oracle plan, which costs $399 per year, offers support for up to 10,000 transactions, and review and import assistance as well as early access to new features. It’s important to note that Koinly is free until you need to download your report. After which, you will purchase one of the plans listed above. Koinly.io Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Oracle 1 Year 10,000 $399 Trader 1 Year 3,000 $179 Hodler 1 Year 300 $79 *As of February 2020 FBAR support: As we stated in the “Tax Forms support” section, Koinly offers FBAR support, amongst other forms of support that you may not see on similar tax platforms. Customer support: Koinly offers two contact methods: live chat and email. Both are sufficient given the fact that their tool is simple to use and that users who purchase the two most expensive plans receive priority support and other forms of assistance. Overall, customer support leaves little to be desired. Margin and futures support for Binance, Bitfinex and others

Affordable plans for all kinds of users (with the option for custom plan building)

Extensive coverage across hundreds of countries

Easy import for thousands of assets and hundreds of exchanges

Comprehensive tax preparation for multiple jurisdictions

Easy to use platform with portfolio tracking capabilities

Free trial until you download your forms Koinly doesn’t support Uniswap and Kyber transactions atm so you have to do some manual work to get these in correctly. The team did assure us that this will be added in 2020.

TokenTax offers a crypto only as well as fully assisted service models. Within the fully supported service model, users can take the help of the tax accountants who can help with tax returns including crypto transactions.

Exchanges supported and wallet imports: Token Tax boasts support to a massive list (over 260) of crypto exchanges and where an API is not supported, they have the CSV upload option.

Tax computation methods: According to this demo video, TokenTax supports 4 types of tax methods: FIFO, LIFO, Minimization and Average Cost.

Tax forms support: Form 8949 is supported and Direct export to TurboTax is available as well.

Pricing options: Price depends on whether you choose a self serve model or CPA assisted model. The price range starts from $65 and goes up to $1999. The gold option includes IRS audit assistance.

Tokentax.co Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Basic 1 Tax Year 500 $65 Premium 1 Tax Year 3000 $199 VIP (CPA Assisted) 1 Tax Year 20000 $1499 Bronze

(Full tax filing) 1 Tax Year 3000 $499 Silver

(Full tax filing) 1 Tax Year 3000 $999 Gold

(Full tax filing) 1 Tax Year 20000 $1999

*as of October 2019

FBAR support: TokenTax offers FBAR assistance, for the basic and premium plans there is an additional charge of $50, other plans carry unlimited FBAR support.

Customer support: Probably the only site that actually lists a phone number on the website and their chat boasts to answer messages in under 5 minutes. Rating: Excellent.

CPA assistance available

IRS audit assistance in premium plans

Customer care that includes chat and phone options

Pricing options are bit expensive, in our opinion

No unlimited transaction plans

Demand for ZenLedger has soared compared to last year. Teeka Tiwari, one of the most popular figures in the crypto space, recommended ZenLedger to his followers. That may have something to do with the shift in price tiers at ZenLedger.

The tool offers a full range of support from audit report to calculating crypto income to mining/donation capture, ICO/Airdrops support, Tax Loss Harvesting (tracking losses in crypto and offsetting them against regular stock trades, and loss carry forward).

ZenLedger also supports FinCEN/FBAR alert.

Exchanges supported and wallet imports: ZenLedger has focused on US taxpayers from the get go. Their list of exchanges may not be as impressive as Cointracking or TokenTax but most taxpayers do not deal with as many exchanges, and ZenLedger does cover major ones. For the ones that they don’t cover, they offer CSV upload.

Tax computation methods: FIFO and LIFO are the methods that are available, however, they may consider adding specific identification once the rules are clarified by the IRS.

Tax forms support: Zenledger offers 8948, Sch D and FBAR/FinCEN support through their platform.

Pricing options: ZenLedger has picked up a lot of buzz. This becomes evident from their change in fees structure. Last year, they had 3 pricing plans and one of them was FREE. They no longer offer free plan and now have 4 tiers.

Zenledger.io Plan Duration Transactions Supported Cost in USD* Starter 1 Tax Year 500



($50K total asset value) $149 Premium 1 Tax Year 1000



($300K total asset value) $399 Executive 1 Tax Year 4000



($1M total asset value) $799 Unlimited 1 Tax Year Unlimited $999

FBAR support: ZenLedger was among the first ones to provide FBAR/FinCEN alerts. They continue to support the FinCEN alerts in their tool.

Customer support: Like TokenTax, ZenLedger has chat option that promises to reply in under 5 minutes. We tested this and Pat Larsen, CEO , answered our question on the chat. They don’t have a customer support number but there is an email to reach out to the team. Rating: Excellent.

ICO/Airdrop Assistance and Tax Loss harvesting features

US focused

Easy to reach customer support

Limits on number of transactions and asset value

Which crypto tax software to pick based on price?

In our opinion, if price and value is a factor – then Cointracking.info and CryptoTrader.tax emerge as clear choices.

Under 200 transactions CoinTracking at $0

Upto 3500 transactions: CoinTracking at $118 for 1 year ($369 for lifetime)

Unlimited transactions: CoinTracking at $251 for 1 year ($2837 for lifetime)

Unlimited Transactions, excellent customer care and competitive pricing: CryptoTrader.Tax at $299

Which crypto tax software to pick based on complexity & price?

COMPLEX: Taxpayers with multiple exchanges, wallets, and numerous transactions

In our opinion, Cointracking.info and CryptoTrader.Tax still come up at the top purely based on the cost and the tool efficiency. However, TokenTax.co jumps the ranks because of the extensive exchange list and ease of use, not to mention the customer support.

If you dealt with way too many exchanges that are not supported by Cointracking.info or Cryptotrader.tax, the closest best is TokenTax.co in our opinion.



Also read: How to pick right Crypto Tax advisor to help you.

Please consider using the referral links in this article to avail these discounts:

Cointracking Referral gives you 10% Discount and 5% more if you pay with bitcoin.

Cointracker Referral gives you 10$ Discount

Cryptotrader.tax Referral gives you 10% Discount

Zenledger: Referral gives you 10% Discount

Tokentax: use cryptotapas exclusive discount code “CRYPTOTAPAS” for 10% Discount.

Koinly referral.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: The solutions at the top of your list do not support FBAR while others do, why then have you ranked them so high?

A: FinCEN recently stated that they are working on the reporting requirements on FBAR for cryptocurrency and in the interim stated crypto exchanges may fall outside the purview of FBAR reporting with one exception: FBAR reporting requirement, as clarified by the FinCEN . FBAR reporting on its own falls outside the income tax return filing process, and this is the reason – we have not slashed the ranking of some of the solutions on this list.

Q: Have you focused heavily on pricing in assigning these ranks?

A: Yes, because that is what is important for us and so we did consider that as one of the main factors, however, it is not the sole factor as you can see in the review above.

Q: Do you have financial incentive behind these rankings?

A: Where available, we have used the referral links. In most cases, referral links offer discounts to the users which are otherwise not available if you were to visit these platforms directly. Referral rewards are public information and we do not have any other incentives outside of referral rewards.

Q: Should I rely on your rankings?

A: No. These rankings are based on what is important for us and our opinion of it. What is important for us may not be as important for you. For example, if you are an American Trader who has multiple foreign exchanges where you have transferred fiat – in that case, FBAR and FATCA reporting may be of utmost importance to you and our number 1 recommendation may or may not suit your needs. Please consult a professional for your specific needs.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

Everything in this article is an opinion, not an advice of any kind. This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and it is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Please consult with a professional for specific advice.

We do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information and claims made.



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