From the 2025 tax year, US crypto brokers report your transactions to the IRS on Form 1099-DA. The first of those forms arrived in early 2026. It is a genuine improvement and it is not a complete record of what you did, which is the part worth understanding before you assume the numbers on it are right.
Form 1099-DA
Digital asset brokers now report proceeds from your dispositions, and for assets acquired on or after 1 January 2025 they report cost basis as well. Before that date the broker generally does not know your basis, because the asset may not have been acquired there.
| Situation | What the form will show |
|---|---|
| Bought and sold on the same platform after 2025 | Proceeds and basis. This is the case the system was designed for and it usually works. |
| Bought before 2025, sold after | Proceeds, often with no basis. You supply the basis from your own records. |
| Deposited from a wallet, then sold | Proceeds, with no basis, because the platform has no idea what you paid. |
| Traded entirely onchain | Nothing. Decentralized exchanges are not brokers in this sense and report nothing about you. |
Where crypto lands on a return
| Form | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Form 8949 | Each disposal listed individually: what it was, when acquired, when sold, proceeds, basis and gain or loss. |
| Schedule D | The totals from 8949, split into short term and long term. |
| Schedule 1 or Schedule C | Crypto received as income, depending on whether it is other income or a business. |
| Schedule B | Interest, where a platform reported it that way. |
| The digital asset question | A yes or no question near the top of Form 1040 that has appeared since 2019 and asks whether you received, sold, exchanged or disposed of digital assets. |
Why your numbers will not match theirs
They are answering different questions. The broker reports what happened on its own platform. Your return has to reflect everything, across every platform and every wallet, including the parts nobody reports. Expect a difference, be able to explain it, and keep the working that produces it.
The mismatch that generates letters is the opposite case: proceeds reported to the IRS that do not appear anywhere on the return at all. A number that is reported and unexplained is the one that gets noticed, which is another argument for filing a loss year rather than skipping it.
Common questions
What is Form 1099-DA?
The form US digital asset brokers use to report your dispositions to the IRS, in effect from the 2025 tax year with the first forms issued in early 2026. It reports proceeds, and cost basis for assets acquired on or after 1 January 2025.
My 1099-DA shows no cost basis. Do I owe tax on the whole amount?
No. A blank basis means the broker does not know what you paid, usually because you did not buy it there. You report the real basis from your own records.
Does a DEX report my trades?
No. Trading through a decentralized exchange produces no form. It is still reportable by you, and it is all permanently visible on the blockchain.
Where to go next
Confused about your own records?
We cannot prepare your return and we can help you understand what your transaction history actually says, so the conversation with your accountant is a short one.