How our calculators and guides work
This page documents exactly how CryptoTaxAI's calculators and guides produce their numbers: the formulas, the IRS figures behind them, how often they are checked, and what they cannot do. If a number on this site ever disagrees with the IRS source linked beside it, the IRS source is right and we want to hear about it.
How the calculators work
All three tools run entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to a server or stored.
- Crypto Tax Calculator — Gain or loss = proceeds (sell price × quantity) minus cost basis (buy price × quantity, plus fees). If the sell date is more than one year after the buy date — counting from the day after acquisition, per IRS Topic 409 — the gain is long-term and is taxed by stacking it on top of the other taxable income you entered: the part of the stack under the 0% threshold is taxed at 0%, the next part at 15%, the rest at 20%. Short-term gains are run through the ordinary-income brackets the same way. A possible 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax is estimated when total income passes the statutory threshold for your filing status ($200,000 single and head of household, $250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately; these thresholds are set by law and are not inflation-adjusted). You enter taxable income; the calculator does not subtract a standard deduction for you (the 2026 amounts are listed below for reference).
- Tax-Loss Harvesting Estimator — Losses offset gains of the same type first, then gains of the opposite type; a remaining net loss offsets up to $3,000 of ordinary income per year ($1,500 if married filing separately) and the rest carries forward. The estimator compares your estimated federal tax with and without harvesting, using the same 2026 brackets.
- Staking Income Tracker — Simply totals the rewards you log. Each reward is ordinary income at its fair market value on the day you gain control of it; that value also becomes your cost basis if you later sell.
The 2026 figures the calculators use
Every bracket and threshold below is a tax year 2026 figure from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the IRS's annual inflation-adjustment procedure (announced in IR-2025-103). Long-term capital-gains thresholds (taxable income):
| Filing status | 0% up to | 15% up to | 20% above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $49,450 | $545,500 | $545,500 |
| Married filing jointly | $98,900 | $613,700 | $613,700 |
| Married filing separately | $49,450 | $306,850 | $306,850 |
| Head of household | $66,200 | $579,600 | $579,600 |
Ordinary-income brackets are Tables 1–4 of the same revenue procedure. For reference, the 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 (single and married filing separately), $32,200 (married filing jointly), and $24,150 (head of household) — the calculators do not apply it, because the income you enter is already taxable income.
IRS data sources
- Rev. Proc. 2025-32 — tax year 2026 brackets, capital-gains thresholds, and standard deduction.
- IRS Topic 409 — capital gains and losses: holding periods, the $3,000/$1,500 loss limit, carryforwards.
- Publication 544 — sales and other dispositions of assets.
- Publication 550 — investment income and expenses, including the wash-sale rule.
- Form 8949 and Schedule D — how sales are reported.
- Form 1099-DA instructions — broker reporting of digital asset proceeds and basis.
- IRS digital assets page and the virtual currency FAQs — taxable events, staking, mining, and airdrops.
Update frequency
Figures are reviewed whenever the IRS publishes its annual inflation adjustments (each autumn) and whenever new guidance — a notice, revenue ruling, or revenue procedure — changes a rule a page relies on. Guides are reviewed on the same triggers. When a page's figures or rules are corrected, its last-updated date changes to the correction date; pages are never re-dated without a real change.
Simulated examples
Every worked example on this site uses invented, round-number trades (for example, "buy 1 ETH for $2,000, sell for $3,000"). They are simulated illustrations of the arithmetic only — not real transactions, market data, or predictions — and they are labelled as illustrations where they appear.
Limitations
- Federal tax only. State taxes are not estimated anywhere on this site.
- Estimates are not filing-ready returns: the calculators handle one sale (or one set of totals) at a time and do not apply the alternative minimum tax, phase-outs, or credits.
- The wash-sale rule does not currently apply to spot cryptocurrency sales; the site says so where it matters and flags that Congress has proposed changing this.
- DeFi, NFT, and multi-wallet lot-matching edge cases are beyond the calculators' scope.
- Nothing on this site is tax advice. For your situation, consult a qualified tax professional.
Error reporting
Found a figure that disagrees with its IRS source, or a rule stated wrong? Tell us through the contact page or at hello@cryptotaxai.ai — say which page and which figure. Verified errors are corrected, and the page's last-updated date (where one is shown) is changed to the correction date.