Compute US federal tax owed on crypto trades. Enter your proceeds and cost basis; the calculator separates short-term and long-term and applies 2026 brackets.
Total federal tax on crypto activity
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Long-term gain (held > 1yr)
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Short-term gain (held ≤ 1yr)
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Staking/mining (ordinary)
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NIIT (3.8%)
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The IRS treats your tokens like a stock certificate
Since the 2014 guidance in Notice 2014-21, the IRS has classified virtual currency as property, not currency. That single sentence drives almost everything on your return. You do not owe tax for holding Bitcoin while it doubles. You owe tax the moment you dispose of it, and a disposal includes far more than cashing out to dollars. Selling for USD, swapping ETH for SOL, paying for a laptop with crypto, and bridging into a wrapped token can all be taxable events. Each one is reported on Form 8949 and summarized on Schedule D, exactly like a brokerage trade.
This calculator splits your year into the four buckets the tax code actually cares about: long-term capital gains on coins held more than a year, short-term gains on coins held a year or less, ordinary income from staking or mining, and the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax that high earners pay on top. It then stacks them in the right order, because long-term gains are not taxed in a vacuum. They sit on top of your ordinary income and fill the 0%, 15%, and 20% brackets from there.
Holding period is the lever you control
The difference between a 366-day hold and a 364-day hold is often the difference between paying 15% and paying your full marginal rate. A trader in the 24% bracket who flips a coin at a short-term gain hands over 24 cents on the dollar. Wait past the one-year mark and that same gain is usually taxed at 15%. The clock starts the day after you acquire the coin and runs through the day you dispose of it. For 2026 a single filer pays 0% on long-term gains until taxable income reaches $48,350, 15% up to $533,400, and 20% above that.
A mixed crypto year, traced through the brackets
Take a single filer with $90,000 of ordinary taxable income. During the year they realize a $30,000 long-term gain (bought one ETH lot for $20,000, sold for $50,000) and a $2,000 short-term gain (bought for $8,000, sold for $10,000 inside six months). No staking. Here is how the tool builds the bill.
| Component | Amount | Tax |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term gain (added to ordinary, 22% marginal) | $2,000 | $440 |
| Long-term gain (stacked above $92,000, lands in 15% band) | $30,000 | $4,500 |
| Net Investment Income Tax (income below $200,000) | $0 | $0 |
| Total federal tax on crypto activity | $32,000 gains | $4,940 |
That is a 15.44% effective rate on $32,000 of gains. The short-term slice is punished at the ordinary 22% rate while the much larger long-term slice rides at 15%, which is exactly why patient holders keep more.
The mistake almost every new trader makes
Crypto-to-crypto swaps feel free because no dollars leave your wallet, but the IRS sees a sale of the first asset at fair market value followed by a purchase of the second. Trade $15,000 of appreciated Bitcoin for Ether and you have realized a gain on the Bitcoin even though you never touched cash. People who traded heavily on a DEX in a bull run are routinely shocked by the tax owed on gains they reinvested and then watched evaporate. Keep a running log of date acquired, cost basis, date disposed, and proceeds for every leg. Starting in 2025, the new Form 1099-DA reporting from US exchanges makes the IRS far better at catching mismatches.
Who should use this calculator
It is built for the active retail trader or long-term holder who wants a fast federal estimate before filing, not for a token-by-token accounting of hundreds of transactions. Aggregate your long-term proceeds and basis into one pair of fields, do the same for short-term, and add staking separately. Pair it with portfolio-tracking software for the line-level Form 8949 detail your return requires.
Can I deduct crypto losses?
Yes. Capital losses first offset capital gains of the same character, then the other character, and any remaining net loss can offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income per year. Losses beyond that carry forward indefinitely. A losing year is worth harvesting precisely because those losses shelter future gains.
Does this estimate include state tax?
No. The figures here are federal only. Most states tax capital gains as ordinary income with no preferential long-term rate, so a resident of California or New York should expect a meaningful additional bill. States with no income tax, such as Texas, Florida, and Washington, leave crypto gains untaxed at the state level.