How Are Stock and Crypto Sales Reported on My Return?
Published October 29, 2026
When you sell stock or crypto for more than you paid, the profit is a capital gain. When you sell for less, the difference is a capital loss. Each sale goes on Form 8949, Sales and Other Dispositions of Capital Assets, and the totals flow to Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses. How long you held the asset decides the rate, so start by pulling your purchase and sale dates.
How do I figure the gain or loss?
The IRS measures a gain as the amount you realized from the sale minus your adjusted basis. Basis is generally what you paid for the asset, adjusted for certain items (Topic no. 409, IRS.gov). Basis is the number people most often get wrong, and forgetting it means you end up taxing the whole sale amount. If a broker form leaves basis blank, you must work it out from your own records.
Does the holding period change the rate?
Yes. If you held the asset more than one year, the gain is long-term. One year or less makes it short-term. Short-term gains are taxed as ordinary income at your regular rates. Most long-term gains are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on your taxable income. Revenue Procedure 2025-32 sets the 2026 thresholds. For a single filer, the 0% rate applies up to $49,450 of taxable income, and the 15% rate applies up to $545,500. For married couples filing jointly, those limits are $98,900 and $613,700. Collectibles are taxed at a higher maximum rate of 28%.
What happens if I have a loss?
Losses offset gains first. If your net loss is larger than your net gain, you can deduct up to $3,000 against other income in the year, or $1,500 if you are married filing separately. Any remaining loss carries forward to later years (Topic no. 409).
What about crypto?
Crypto is property for tax purposes and is reported the same way as stock. Page 1 of Form 1040 asks whether you received, sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of a digital asset during the year. Answer that question even if your only activity was holding. Brokers must report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for sales after 2025. For digital assets acquired after 2025, brokers must also report basis. For older holdings, basis may be blank on the form, and then your own records control.
Worked example
Illustration only, with made-up round numbers: Sam is single and has $40,000 of taxable income from a job before any sales this year. Sam sold 100 shares of stock that cost $3,000, after holding them 14 months, for $4,500. That is a long-term gain of $1,500. Sam also bought crypto for $800 in March and sold it in July for $1,300, a short-term gain of $500.
Step 1: Add the short-term gain to ordinary income: $40,000 + $500 = $40,500.
Step 2: Add the long-term gain: $40,500 + $1,500 = $42,000. That total is under the $49,450 threshold, so the $1,500 long-term gain is taxed at 0%.
Step 3: Suppose instead Sam had a $5,000 net capital loss. Only $3,000 could reduce ordinary income this year, and the other $2,000 would carry forward.
What is the most common mistake?
The most common mistake is reporting the full sale amount as the gain. The second is checking the broker's Form 1099-B or Form 1099-DA totals without comparing them to your own purchase records, especially for crypto moved between wallets or bought outside a broker.
What should I do next?
- Collect every Form 1099-B and Form 1099-DA, plus any year-end statement from each platform.
- For each sale, write down the purchase date, purchase cost, sale date, and sale proceeds.
- Reconstruct records for crypto bought outside a broker, and keep the source records together.
- Answer the digital asset question on page 1 of Form 1040.
- If the gains are large, check whether you need to make estimated tax payments (Publication 505).
A checklist for your sale records
- Date acquired and date sold for each lot
- Cost basis, with a note of where each number came from
- Sale proceeds, and whether the broker reported basis
- Short-term or long-term, by the one-year test
- Any prior-year capital loss carryover
See how it works.
Sources: IRS Topic no. 409, Capital gains and losses (IRS.gov); Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section .03 (2026 maximum capital gains rate amounts) and inflation adjustments; Form 8949 and Schedule D (Form 1040), Capital Gains and Losses; Form 1040 page 1 digital asset question (Publication 17, 2025 edition, chapter 1); Instructions for Form 1099-DA (2026); Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax. This is general information, not advice about your specific return.
