Few Customers in the US Report Cryptocurrency Trading to Tax Authorities

According to Credit Karma, less than 0.04 percent of people, who have filed federal taxes this year via the financial service, reported cryptocurrency transactions to the U.S. tax collection agency – Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The IRS considers Bitcoin as property for federal tax purposes and not as currency since March 2014, which means that gains or losses from the sale, trade, exchange, mining and other operations with cryptocurrency should be treated as taxable and reported. The US 2018 tax filing season began January 29, while the deadline for submitting returns is April 17.

Jagjit Chawla, General Manager at Credit Karma Tax, said the company was not surprised that so few individuals reported cryptocurrency transactions, since Americans “with more complex tax situations” usually file later, just before the deadline. Nearly 1 million people prepared and filed their taxes with Credit Karma Tax last year.

Chawla also added: “Given the popularity of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2017, we would expect more people to be reporting.”

The IRS expects around 156 million individuals to file federal taxes this year. So far over 18.3 million tax returns have been received.