IRS, read September 2026
Spending crypto on goods or services in United States
What IRS publishes about spending crypto on goods or services in United States, quoted verbatim from IRS - Frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions, read September 2026.
- the authority quoted here
- IRS
- of the authorities read publish on this question
- 7/16
- the day these pages were read
- 2026-09-08
The authority's own words
Q14. Will I recognize a gain or loss if I pay someone with virtual currency for providing me with a service? A14. Yes. If you pay for a service using virtual currency that you hold as a capital asset, then you have exchanged a capital asset for that service and will have a capital gain or loss. For more information on capital gains and capital losses, see Publication 544, Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets .
That sentence is the whole of what IRS publishes on this point on the page cited. It is reproduced here for reporting and comment; it is not tax advice, and nothing on this page is our reading of it.
The same question in other jurisdictions
| Jurisdiction | What the authority says |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a gain when you ‘dispose’ of cryptoasset tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) by: selling them exchanging them for a different type of cryptoasset using them to pay for goods or servicesHMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets, read September 2026 |
| Germany | the transfer of the acquired asset to a third party for valuable consideration constitutes a sale. An exchange of crypto-assets for units of a government-issued currency (such as euros), for goods or services or for other crypto-assets is therefore a sale.BMF - Individual questions on the income tax treatment of certain crypto assets (BMF circular of 6 March 2025, the ministry’s own English version), read September 2026 |
| France | Constituent des opérations imposables au sens de l' article 150 VH bis du CGI les cessions à titre onéreux d'actifs numériques ou de droits s'y rapportant, réalisées à compter du 1 er janvier 2019, en contrepartie : - de monnaie ayant cours légal ; - de l'échange d'un bien autre qu'un actif numérique ; - de l'échange avec soulte d'un actif numérique ; - d'un service.DGFiP - Actifs numeriques - BOFiP BOI-RPPM-PVBMC-30-10 (champ d application), read September 2026 |
| Ireland | Later in the year, Dave used crypto-assets to purchase goods in a local café. This use of crypto-assets is a disposal for CGT purposes upon which Dave must calculate the gain arising, declare the gain to Revenue by filing a tax return and pay any CGT arising.Revenue - Taxation of crypto-asset transactions, read September 2026 |
| New Zealand | Disposing of cryptoassets Ways of disposing of cryptoassets can include: selling cryptoassets for money exchanging one cryptoasset for another type of cryptoasset using cryptoassets to pay for goods or services giving away cryptoassets to another person.IRD - Buying and selling cryptoassets, read September 2026 |
| Japan | 暗号資産を売却又は使用することにより生ずる利益については、事業所得等の各種所得の基因となる行為に付随して生じる場合を除き、原則として、雑所得に区分され所得税の確定申告が必要となります。NTA - 暗号資産に関する税務上の取扱いについて, read September 2026 |
Side by side, each in its own authority's words. Where two jurisdictions differ, the difference is between the two quotations; it is not our characterisation of either.
Where this comes from
This quotation was taken from IRS - Frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions on September 2026, and the text of that page as it read that day is kept so the quotation can be checked. IRS answers 12 of the questions on this site and publishes nothing we could quote on 4 of them.
Cite or embed this figure
IRS on spending crypto on goods or services in United States: “Q14. Will I recognize a gain or loss if I pay someone with virtual currency for providing me with a service? A14. Yes. If you pay for a service using virtual currency that you hold as a capital asset, then you have exchanged a capital asset for that service and will have a capital gain or loss. For more information on capital gains and capital losses, see Publication 544, Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets .” (Taxooor Crypto Tax Index).
Cite as: "Taxooor Crypto Tax Index: Spending crypto on goods or services, United States", updated 2026-09-08, https://taxooor.com/tax/united-states/spending/.