The IRS has published answers to most of the questions a US holder actually has, and this page carries them as sentences rather than as a summary. Every quote below sits on one of two pages (the virtual currency FAQ and the digital assets hub), both read on 8 September 2026, and where the IRS says nothing on a point, this page says that instead of filling the gap.
Selling, swapping and spending are all disposals
The FAQ answers the three separately and answers each the same way. On selling: “When you sell virtual currency, you must recognize any capital gain or loss on the sale, subject to any limitations on the deductibility of capital losses.” Q16 recognises a gain or loss on exchanging it for other property, “including for goods or for another virtual currency”. Q14 treats paying for a service the same way.
Being paid in crypto is income, and it goes on a different form
The digital assets page separates the two halves of a return. Received digital assets: as “Payment for property or services provided”, as “A reward or award”, or from “Mining, staking and similar activities”. Any of those make the Yes box on Form 1040 apply. For the income itself the page says: to report income from forks, staking, mining and so on, use Form 1040 Schedule 1. Disposals go elsewhere, on Form 8949 and Schedule D.
The holding period decides short-term from long-term
Q6 draws the line at a year: one year or less before selling or exchanging gives a short-term capital gain or loss, more than a year a long-term one. It is precise about the clock too: the period “begins on the day after you acquired the virtual currency” and ends on the day of disposal. The FAQ states no rate, pointing to Publication 544.
A gift received is not income until you dispose of it
Q31 is one of the few clean noes in the FAQ: receive virtual currency as a bona fide gift and “you will not recognize income until you sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of that virtual currency.” An airdrop after a hard fork is the opposite. Q24 makes it ordinary income at fair market value when received, once you have dominion and control. Same asset arriving for free, two different answers.
No threshold, and no 1099 needed to owe the report
Q42 removes the two excuses a holder most often reaches for. You must report income, gain or loss from all taxable transactions involving virtual currency on your federal return for the year of the transaction, “regardless of the amount or whether you receive a payee statement or information return”. A missing 1099 is not an exemption, and neither is a small trade.
Questions people ask about crypto taxes
Does the IRS publish a crypto tax rate?
Not on either page read here. The FAQ distinguishes short-term from long-term capital gain and sends the reader to Publication 544 for the treatment; it states no rate, and the digital assets hub page states none either. That absence is recorded on this site rather than filled with a number from somewhere else.
Which form does a crypto disposal go on?
Q43 names them: report most sales and other capital transactions on Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets, and summarise capital gains and deductible capital losses on Form 1040 Schedule D. Ordinary income from mining, staking or forks goes on Schedule 1 instead.
Is there a filing deadline on these pages?
No. The digital assets hub page says which form each kind of transaction goes on and that income from digital assets is taxable, but gives no filing date, so this site records the deadline as not published on the guidance it read rather than quoting one.
Does the IRS guidance cover DeFi?
Neither page uses the words decentralised finance or DeFi. The FAQ's own scope note limits it to taxpayers holding virtual currency as a capital asset. HMRC, by contrast, has a whole manual section on it, which is why the two columns of the index look different on that row.