If you’re among the 16% of Americans who transacted with or traded cryptocurrency last year, you’re probably breaking a sweat about the looming deadline to file your taxes (that’d be Monday, April 18). And if you’re an NFT aficionado who changed your Twitter profile picture to an image of a hexagonal, nonchalant monkey, chances are that you’ll want some professional advice while filing.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is likely to intensely scrutinize, and perhaps even audit, those who transacted with virtual currency this year, Alex Roytenberg, known on Twitter as @TheNFTCPA, told TechCrunch.
“I personally think the IRS was waiting for a big year of wealth and income to be generated, and 2021 was definitely that year,” Roytenberg said.
He added that because of the lack of formal guidance from U.S. regulators on how to file taxes on various crypto products, the process requires the taxpayer to interpret how existing laws intended to regulate traditional assets might apply to entirely new technologies.
Roytenberg, a certified public accountant, has been a tax accountant for nearly 20 years, working at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and PwC. Roytenberg first got exposure to the web3 space in 2018 after advising a number of Coinbase employees, and since then, has aimed to double down on the specialty, co-authoring the “NFT Tax Guide” and speaking at industry events including NFT.NYC.
While Roytenberg recommends that avid crypto traders seek professional, one-on-one tax advice to clear up any gray areas, he also shared his thoughts with TechCrunch on a number of crypto tax prep packages that can be useful for filers this year.
Here’s a rundown of some of the more popular platforms available to crypto tax filers today.