Crypto Tax Software/Calculator - Cointracking.info vs. Bitcoin.tax
Which cryptocurrency tax calculator is right for you? I compare features, pricing, discounts and more...
If you are debating on whether or not to report your earnings for 2017 cryptocurrency investments, you may want to go ahead and bite the bullet. I know it isn’t pleasant, but it is necessary if you don’t want to get some hefty fines in the future. It is obvious a large chunk of investors are neglecting to report these earnings if you look at some simple statistics: Coinbase reported over 10 million accounts served, yet only a fraction of those individuals report their earnings. That is a big discrepancy, and you can be sure the government is going to find a way to ensure these earnings are reported in the future. Does that mean that Americans will be fined for not reporting in past tax years? Maybe, maybe not. But the longer you wait, the bigger your risk of being fined…or worse. FYI: A court case in 2017 required Coinbase to report accounts that bought, sold, sent or received over $20,000 in a year from 2013-2015. So the precedent has already been set. If your crypto investing is anything like mine, a single trade on my end is usually broken up into something like 10 transactions, each having its own price. Unless you want to look up the price for each and every one of those transactions for your tax reporting (and let’s face it, I don’t), then you need some type of tool that can do it for you. I did the work manually for 2016, but I am not going through that nightmare again. My research into these tools uncovered these websites: Bitcoin.tax and Cointracking.info. I could not find any information comparing the price and features of these tools, which is why I wrote this article. I’m hoping it can help you, too.
Features
Clearly both sites have an abundance of features for its users. After my research into both, I determined Cointracking.info was right for me and purchased an account. In using the tool, I discovered several airdrop coins (like OMG, VIU, XNN and DATA) in my portfolio that I did not know I owned. And let’s face it, who doesn’t like free money? In full disclosure, Bitcoin.tax may have revealed these airdrop coins to me as well, I cannot say either way. Another useful ability I found using Cointracking.info is the user friendliness when dealing with manual entries. As the chart above shows, both sites offer wallet imports. Cointracking.info supports way more wallet types than Bitcoin.tax; but, neither support the Ledger S. I had to manually add the entries for that one. Cointracking.info made this task much easier than it would otherwise have been. As I manually added coins for this wallet, Cointracking.info would automatically pull in the price of the coin for the date I specified. Cointracking.info had current and historical pricing data for every coin I had in my portfolio, which included several alt-coins. Bitcoin.tax appears to requires you to input the pricing data, which means a lot of additional work for the user. Also in Cointracking.info, I was able to edit/clone/delete rows in bulk as well. Bitcoin.tax allows for bulk delete only. I did encountered difficulty when using Cointracking.info’s manual csv import, though. The Poloniex API has a cap on the number of records for the lending portion (which I exceeded), so I had to use the manual csv import. The csv file contained a comma at the end of each row. While the commas were present, the tool continually gave me an error, but was not descriptive in what the problem was. I had to play with the formatting for awhile before I uncovered the solution was to remove those trailing commas.
Pricing
Both sites have various account plans you can purchase, depending on how many crypto transactions you plan to import. They both also offer a free account, with limited features and a limited number of transactions. It is important to note that neither free version allows you to generate capital gains tax reporting forms. If that is your goal, one of the paid-for versions is required. The pricing page for Bitcoin.tax accounts is only available to those who have signed up for a free account. I have listed the information down below, but am unable to provide a working link for your reference. On the other hand, the pricing page for Cointracking.info can be found here. Note: When purchasing an account through Bitcoin.tax, you are paying for use of their site for a specific tax year. When purchasing an account through Cointracker.info, however, you are paying for use of their site for a specified amount of time. Thus, in theory you could purchase a 1 year plan in February or March 2018 and use the site for both 2017 taxes and again for 2018 taxes.
Bitcoin.tax
Discounts
I tried to find discounts online for Bitcoin.tax, but was unsuccessful; however, it is already much cheaper than Cointracking.info, so that is a plus. You can purchase a Bitcoin.tax plan using this link.
Cointracking.info
Discounts
You get a 10% discount if you purchase a Cointracking.info plan using this link (and I also receive a bonus for referring you). You get an additional 5% discount if you pay for your plan using Bitcoin.
Summary
The bottom line is that you really ought to report your crypto gains/losses, and both of these sites will save you time doing that. Which one you use depends on your individual needs. If your main concern is the cost, Bitcoin.tax is much cheaper. If you have a lot of alt-coins or use an advanced portfolio tracker, you probably want to go with Cointracking.info for its extra features. As I said, I purchased a Cointracking.info account and was able to successfully submit my tax reports, but my friend purchased a Bitcoin.tax account and was also successful in submitting his tax reports for the year. I hope you were able to take away something useful from this post. If you have personal experience with either of these sites, please feel free to leave a comment to help our readers. If you choose to purchase a plan via Bitcoin.tax or Cointracking.info, please use my affiliated links provided in this article. This article was written for informational purposes only. It does not represent financial, tax or legal advice, and is not intended to be used by anyone for those purposes. I am not a financial advisor or accountant – please consult a professional before taking action.
Good info . Taxes are a part of life unfortunately . But lets face it . Would you rather pay a tax on a profit because of success. Or be deducting because of losses being unsuccessful . I would rather pay the tax . Even if it does make you angry having to do so.
Tax is theft! There are many ways to avoid paying tax!🤔
It is what it is . There may be ways to that are perfectly legal but i dont know any that are legal . So,i personally would rather just pay the taxes they say i owe and be legal and be on the right side of the law. Technology will get better in the future and they will find it and have there hands out . I have always heard the old saying about taxes you cant get milk from a turnip. But another man told him this . " But they can get that turnip ".
I dont wanna be that turnip. To each there own though.
Good writing,sir
Just curious, but do you have to give this software permission to access your trading accounts (give it your passwords). I don't trust anyone enough for that is why I ask.
If you use the API access, you can give it read-only permission. Bottom line, it is safe as long as you set the permissions correctly.
If you give them the wallet addresses, you are only providing the public key (so they can't steal your money).
If ANYONE asks you directly for your username and password to an exchange, they are trying to take your money. Never give this information out!
Super helpful info - thanks!
Great article!
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I am working bitcoin.tax and am having problems. It does not seem to be finding transactions and is giving me "unmatched" errors. I found the support notes that say to re-import coinbase and polnoniex trades, but that only fixed one or two of the mismatched items. The totals at the end are also off on a few coins. A mismatched coin is taxed at the full value of the coin at the time of trade, so I am losing money if I let it go. I did not know about the air-dropped coins and will do that manually I guess as bitcoin.tax does not find them automatically. Such a drag.
#payitforward
I understand, technology is changing very fast in this crypto. Cointracking handles airdrop coins way better.
Thanks for the writeup, I would also like to throw in the tool I have been developing into the ring! www.cryptotrader.tax
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