This yr, we issued over 56 million Kind 1099-DAs (tax type required for reporting digital asset transactions) to the IRS, one for each reportable transaction our prospects made in 2025. That’s what the legislation requires though almost a 3rd of these kinds (18.5 million) have been for transactions value lower than $1. Over half have been for $10 or much less. Three out of each 4 have been for lower than $50.
These kinds weren’t despatched to classy merchants who made huge returns from crypto. The overwhelming majority of the kinds are for staking rewards measured in fractions of a cent, small purchases, and routine exercise. Each single one generates a type that an actual particular person is now anticipated to grasp, reconcile, and report, or danger an IRS discover.
The issue is just not the expertise. It’s the tax code.
What it already prices People to file their taxes
Earlier than digital property enter the image, the tax system already imposes a unprecedented compliance burden. In line with the Tax Basis, particular person tax returns alone value People a mixed $146 billion in time and out-of-pocket bills.
Moreover, primarily based on IRS estimates and impartial filer surveys, the typical non-business filer spends about eight hours and between $128 and $300 on a regular return. Almost one in 5 People say they don’t really feel ready to file.
For the greater than 55 million U.S. adults who now maintain digital property, there’s an extra layer. Customary tax software program doesn’t deal with crypto transactions, so many traders want devoted crypto tax instruments that value $49 to $599 per yr on prime of their common submitting prices.
A typical energetic holder can spend $250 to $500 yearly simply to remain compliant, earlier than counting the hours spent reconciling transactions throughout exchanges and wallets.
However right here is the place it will get even tougher for the typical taxpayer. In 2025, brokers like Kraken report gross proceeds however not value foundation. Whereas many taxpayers have been reporting crypto taxes utilizing tax calculators or different software program, Kind 1099-DA simply brought about taxpayers lots of confusion because the kinds offered solely gross proceeds in a means many didn’t perceive.
We obtained hundreds of questions from purchasers making an attempt to grasp the Kinds 1099-DA, along with hundreds extra inquiries given the difficulties for exchanges to provide these on the timeline laid out by the IRS and Treasury.
The size of the issue: Kraken’s 1099-DA information
Here’s what Kraken’s personal reporting information reveals for the 2025 tax yr:
53.4% of all kinds have been for transactions of $10 or much less. 74.3% have been below $50. Solely 8.5% exceeded $600, the brink that triggers reporting in most different areas of the tax code similar to transactions on a fee app like Venmo.
The hours taxpayers spend reconciling these micro-transactions, usually with incomplete information, generate prices wildly disproportionate to any income the IRS will accumulate from them.
The excellent news is that some in Congress are working to handle this. Any tax reform that simplifies life for taxpayers ought to tackle these core points.
Repair One: an actual de minimis exemption
The idea is easy: a de minimis exemption that excludes small, routine digital asset funds from capital positive factors reporting.
Think about you stroll right into a Steak ’n Shake and pay for a $7.99 meal with Bitcoin by way of a fee app. You will have triggered a taxable occasion.
You’re technically required to search for the price foundation of the precise Bitcoin you spent, calculate whether or not you had a achieve or loss on that fraction of a coin, and report it on Kind 8949. All for a hamburger and a few tallow fries.
The US is an outlier on this respect. The UK, as an illustration, applies an annual capital positive factors allowance that successfully exempts small crypto transactions similar to this from reporting. A focused de minimis threshold wouldn’t be novel. It might simply catch America up.
And whereas present proposed tax laws does embody a de minimis provision, it solely covers fee stablecoins. It doesn’t cowl Bitcoin, essentially the most broadly held digital asset in America, which is accepted by hundreds of U.S. retailers.
A significant de minimis threshold, listed to inflation and paired with anti-abuse guardrails, would eradicate thousands and thousands of pointless kinds whereas defending income integrity.
Congress has already established the regulatory framework for mainstream digital funds by way of the GENIUS Act, signed into legislation in July 2025. The tax code ought to be agnostic whether or not you’re paying with money, Bitcoin or stablecoins.
Repair Two: finish phantom earnings from staking
A big portion of these sub-dollar 1099-DAs are staking rewards: tiny fractions of tokens earned for serving to validate blockchain networks. Whereas the present legislation is unclear, the IRS takes the place that every reward is handled as atypical earnings in the meanwhile of receipt, valued at truthful market worth on that date.
Most individuals don’t promote staking rewards instantly. They maintain staking. However they now owe taxes on worth they haven’t realized. If the token value drops between receipt and submitting, the taxpayer owes tax on greater than the asset is at the moment value.
That is phantom earnings and it’s a consequence of making use of guidelines written for dividends and wages to a basically completely different form of asset.
Congress ought to permit taxpayers to decide on when staking rewards are taxed: on the time of receipt (as as we speak) or on the time of sale, when the achieve or loss is actual and measurable. This may eradicate phantom earnings, dramatically cut back the amount of micro-transaction reporting, and align staking with how most People truly expertise it, as one thing they maintain moderately than one thing they spend.
Kraken and different exchanges already keep the transaction degree information wanted to help both reporting technique. The infrastructure exists; Congress merely must authorize the selection.
A bipartisan second for taxpayers
This isn’t about serving to crypto firms. It’s about 55 million People, spanning each state, age bracket, and business, who’re navigating a tax system designed earlier than digital property existed. Congress ought to act to make taxpayers’ lives simpler.
