Coinbase cost basis and tax documents: what each one shows

What tax documents does Coinbase provide?

Coinbase Taxes is the account’s tax center. Its documents tab holds the forms, and its reports include gain-loss summaries and a raw transaction history with custom reports [1]. A US customer who sold or exchanged crypto gets a Form 1099-DA there, starting with the 2025 tax year [1].

Crypto income such as staking rewards goes on a Form 1099-MISC [2]. Coinbase’s two tax help pages give two thresholds for that form, $600 and $2,000, and each matches an IRS revision [1] [2]. The IRS instructions for the 2025 tax year set the threshold for other income at $600 [11], and for tax years beginning after 2025 it is $2,000, which may be adjusted for inflation from 2027 [12]. Income below a threshold is still reportable: the IRS says income from every taxable virtual currency transaction goes on the return, regardless of the amount or whether a form arrives [10].

Form 8949 is no longer issued through the retail tax center, from the 2025 tax year on [1]. The gain/loss report is still there for US customers [4].

Why is the cost basis blank on a Coinbase 1099-DA?

The form reports what the broker is required to report. For a noncovered asset, Coinbase reports the sale proceeds and leaves the cost basis blank with the noncovered box checked [3]. Coinbase lists two kinds of noncovered asset: crypto acquired before January 1, 2026, and all crypto transferred in from an outside wallet or another exchange, whatever the date it was bought [3]. The IRS instructions match: box 9 is checked for a noncovered security, and box 1g, cost or other basis, may then be left blank [7].

Covered assets are the narrow case. Coinbase defines them as crypto acquired on or after January 1, 2026 and held at the same exchange until sold, and says its required basis reporting begins with the 2026 tax year, for sales reported in 2027 [3]. So the first form carried proceeds and no basis [6]. Later forms carry basis only for coins bought and kept at Coinbase from 2026 on.

What does Coinbase do with a transfer in?

A coin that arrives from outside has no purchase record at Coinbase. Coinbase says it does not have the original price or the acquisition date [3]. If that coin is sold, the retail tax center estimates the gain or loss with a cost basis of $0, and Coinbase’s stated reason is that the IRS may assume a $0 basis when none is reported [3]. Coinbase also records the date the coin arrived as the acquisition date for its own lot selection, and calls that date a system placeholder [3].

Both placeholders change the math. A $0 basis makes the whole sale price look like gain. A receipt date in place of a purchase date can make a long-term holding look short-term. On the IRS form, a transfer in shows up in boxes 12a and 12b, the units and the date they came in [7].

Transfers out run the other way. When crypto goes to an outside address, Coinbase assumes it is still owned, and the transfer is not treated as a sale, so no 1099-DA is issued for it [3].

Which Coinbase records rebuild the basis?

Two records sit inside the account. The statements page covers Coinbase.com and Coinbase Card from the time the account was created, as monthly statements in HTML, PDF, or CSV, and a custom statement can be cut by asset, transaction type, and date [4]. The gain/loss report sits in the tax center [4]. For a coin bought at Coinbase, those rows carry the date, the amount, and the price, and Coinbase counts US trading fees in the basis and takes them out of proceeds [2].

Coinbase Pro is a separate case. Pro was discontinued in December 2023, and Coinbase Taxes does not include Pro or Coinbase Wallet activity [2]. Pro transactions dated November 2023 and earlier sit in the Pro statements section, under the Other tab [2]. Coinbase’s reports page says that Pro activity stays reachable until 2027, which makes the Pro export the one Coinbase record with a stated end date [1].

For a coin that came in from outside, the record is wherever it was first bought. That is another exchange’s export, a wallet’s chain history, or a dated price from a named source, in the order the cost-basis guide sets out. The tax center has a place to add the missing date acquired and total cost basis to a transfer, and one transfer can be split into several lots when the coins were bought at different times [3]. Coinbase says it reports that basis on the recipient copy of the 1099-DA where it was provided in time [3].

How does the per-wallet rule apply to a Coinbase account?

Since January 1, 2025 basis is tracked wallet by wallet, and Rev. Proc. 2024-28 gave a safe harbor for sorting old basis into the wallets that held the tokens [9]. A Coinbase account is one of those accounts. Basis for coins held there belongs to that account, and the safe harbor’s deadlines are set out in the cost-basis guide.

Lot choice is the other half. Coinbase’s tax settings offer three methods, HIFO, LIFO, and FIFO, and a newly chosen method applies only to open and future trades, never to completed ones [5]. The same settings ask for the method used in earlier years, which Coinbase says keeps the same gains from being taxed twice [5].

Where does it go on the return?

Form 8949 takes the sale. A short-term sale reported on a 1099-DA that shows basis was not reported to the IRS goes under box H, a long-term one under box K, and the basis goes in column (e) [8]. The proceeds are the ones the form shows [8].

The IRS records rule covers the number in column (e). A holder needs records sufficient to establish the positions taken on the return [10]. A dead token sold at Coinbase for dust takes the same path, and the worthless-token calculator works through what that loss offsets. The field note on the first Coinbase 1099-DA reads the boxes of the first form, one by one.