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Tax

Crypto Tax Calculator

Estimate the capital-gains tax on your crypto trades for the US, Canada or the UK — short-term vs long-term, your effective rate, and what's left after tax. Enter your numbers or import your trade history in one click. An estimate to plan with, not tax advice.

How crypto capital-gains tax actually works

In most tax systems, crypto is treated as property, so every time you close a position for a profit you create a taxable event. The single biggest lever on what you owe is the holding period. In the US, a coin held one year or less is a short-term gain taxed at your ordinary income rate — the highest rate you pay — while a coin held over a year gets the lower long-term rates of 0%, 15% or 20%. Active futures and day trading is almost entirely short-term, which is why your after-tax edge is smaller than your raw P&L suggests. Canada taxes 50% of a capital gain at your marginal rate; the UK gives a small annual exempt amount, then taxes the rest at its capital-gains rates. This calculator applies representative 2026 figures to give you a planning estimate — the real number depends on your full return, your state or province, and rules this tool deliberately simplifies. When you are ready to file, use official software or a professional. If you bought the same coin at several prices, work out which lots a sale draws from — and your short-term vs long-term split — with the cost basis calculator (FIFO/LIFO/HIFO) first, then bring those numbers here. To keep the records you'll need, log every closed trade in the free trading journal, and if you want to test a strategy's after-tax profit before risking money, run it in paper trading first — paper trades owe nothing, so it's a free way to see how much of the profit tax would take.

FAQ

How is crypto taxed in the US?
The IRS treats crypto as property, so closing a position for a gain is a taxable event. Held one year or less it is a short-term gain taxed at your ordinary income rate; held longer than a year it is a long-term gain taxed at 0%, 15% or 20% based on your total taxable income. This tool estimates the federal amount only and excludes state tax and the 3.8% net investment income tax.
What's the difference between short-term and long-term gains?
The holding period. One year or less is short-term, taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate. Over a year is long-term, taxed at the lower capital-gains rates. Active trading is almost all short-term — which is why it's taxed at your highest rate.
Is this calculator accurate?
It's a good-faith estimate using representative 2026 brackets — not tax advice. It simplifies the rules (excludes state/provincial tax, surtaxes, deductions, loss carry-forwards and cost-basis methods). Use it to plan, then confirm with a professional or official tax software before filing.
Do I owe tax on paper trades?
No — paper trading is a simulation with no real money and no taxable events. Importing a paper journal here is educational: it shows what the same trades would have cost in tax if they were real, a useful way to see how much of a strategy's profit tax would take.