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Explore community questions and practical answers about cost basis.
I regularly transfer coins between my personal wallets, hardware wallets, and exchanges for security or organisation. Is this still a non-taxable event in both the US and UK? How do I ensure cost basis carries over correctly if the IRS or HMRC ever audits me?
I've earned staking rewards, liquidity provider fees, and yield from platforms like Aave, Uniswap, and Lido. Are these treated as income when received, capital gains when sold, or both? Any reliable methods or software for tracking cost basis in DeFi, especially across chains?
With Form 1099-DA fully starting for 2026 transactions (including cost basis reporting by brokers), how should individual taxpayers prepare? Will exchanges accurately report cost basis for transferred assets, and what should I do if their numbers don't match my own records? Any tips for avoiding penalties?
Long story short: I have an old hardware wallet from 2018-2019 with some BTC and ETH that I can't access anymore (seed phrase lost, device bricked). The coins are still sitting there, worth a decent amount now. For UK tax purposes, is permanent loss of access treated as a disposal allowing me to claim a capital loss (at current FMV)? Or is it only when the keys are truly irrecoverable and I have evidence? I've searched HMRC guidance but it's vague on "lost private keys." Has anyone successfully claimed this before, and what proof did HMRC accept? Thanks for any experiences!
I've done a lot of bridging this year (ETH → Solana, Arbitrum → Base, etc.) using official bridges and some DEX aggregators. My tax software keeps treating bridge transfers as taxable disposals, which I know isn't correct in the UK (usually no gain/no loss if same asset). Has anyone found a good way to clean this up? Manual CSV edits? Specific tools that handle bridges better? It's turning into a nightmare trying to reconcile everything accurately before year-end. Any tips much appreciated!
I keep everything on a Ledger hardware wallet and trade across multiple chains (ETH, Polygon, Solana, etc.). Looking for tax software that integrates well with Ledger Live exports and handles UK capital gains rules properly (same-day/bed-and-breakfast rules, pooling, etc.). I've tried CoinTracker and Accointing in the past, but ran into missing transactions on certain chains. What are people using successfully in 2025 for accurate UK reports? Bonus if it handles staking and DeFi reasonably well. Thanks!
I've been staking ETH directly through my wallet since the Merge and received quite a few rewards throughout 2025. From what I've read, rewards are treated as income at fair market value when received (UK perspective), and then you get a new cost basis for future disposals. Has anyone found a reliable method or tool to automate this? I've tried Koinly and ZenLedger, but the staking reward handling still requires manual tweaks. Also curious if the recent IRS guidance on PoS rewards changes anything for non-US residents filing in the UK. Any recommendations welcome!