By Nathan C. Goldman and Christina M. Lewellen
In July of 2022, Bitcoin, arguably the world’s most recognizable cryptocurrency, fell to below $20,000. This level marked a significant decline from its high of over $68,000 in November 2021. For most of the last several years, investors were interested in understanding the tax implications of their cryptocurrency holdings from the perspective of how their gains will be taxed. Now that cryptocurrency has declined in value, we turn our attention to the tax implications of cryptocurrency losses.
加密货币的税收
就像我们上一篇文章所讨论的那样，政府将加密货币税作为资本资产，类似于股票或黄金等股票或商品的税收。这种偏离其“货币”的同名似乎有些奇怪。但是，加密货币并不是自由交易商品和服务的东西，也不能保持稳定的价格。因此，其特征与股票而不是货币更加一致。
因此，加密货币的销售或交换会根据购买价格和销售价格之间的差额为卖方产生收益或损失。例如，如果以30,000美元的价格购买了加密货币，并以40,000美元的价格出售，那么卖方将在销售时承认10,000美元的收益，并支付这些相应的税款。但是，如果加密货币以20,000美元的价格出售，那么卖方将在销售时承认亏损10,000美元。
While a taxpayer must pay tax on the entire capital gain in the year of the sale, they cannot immediately deduct capital losses to the same degree. In general, capital losses cannot be used to reduce non-capital income and can only be used to offset other taxable capital gains. However, Section 1211 of the Internal Revenue Code allows individual taxpayers to deduct $3,000 of capital losses per year to offset other non-capital income. Otherwise, if the taxpayer has any capital gains in subsequent years, he or she can offset those gains with the capital losses. While there is a benefit to being able to offset ordinary income with capital losses, it often takes several years or realization of another capital gain for many taxpayers to recover the tax benefits of their losses fully.
What to do if the cryptocurrency is currently in a loss position
Taxpayers can consider three clear options that if they are holding cryptocurrency at a loss:
1.继续保持。加密货币是挥发性的，其价值可能最终增加。例如，在2021年，比特币在三月的交易中为61,000美元，然后在7月下跌至31,000美元，11月的股票返回至68,000美元。美国税法一旦获得认可，就只会征税，因此，它不征税这些波动。因此，从纯粹的税收角度来看，要等待其加密货币最终增加价值的可能性并不损失纳税人的损失。
2.Sell.While many investment gurus would recommend never sell low, it is not clear if this is the basement price for cryptocurrency. Thus, if an investor wants to unload their cryptocurrency, they should consider their inherent tax benefits for selling at a loss. To help illustrate this second point, let us consider a single taxpayer who has $100,000 of taxable income every single year, and this taxpayer recognizes a $12,000 loss on the sale of cryptocurrency in the year 2022. The U.S. tax code permits the taxpayer to deduct $3,000 of this loss each year. See below for how this loss affects the taxpayers income tax liability for 2022 and beyond:
| 没有减少资本损失 | 减少资本损失 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Taxable Income | Estimated Tax Liability | Taxable Income | Estimated Tax Liability | Diff. |
| 2022 | $100,000 | $17,836 | $97,000 | $ 17,116 | $720 |
| 2023 | $100,000 | $17,836 | $97,000 | $ 17,116 | $720 |
| 2024 | $100,000 | $17,836 | $97,000 | $ 17,116 | $720 |
| 2025 | $100,000 | $17,836 | $97,000 | $ 17,116 | $720 |
| 总节省 | $2,880 |
每年从2022年到2025年,纳税人可以deduct $3,000 from their ordinary income to lower their tax liability. Thus, while realizing a $12,000 loss is not ideal, if the taxpayer believes the drop in value will persist into the future, going ahead and selling the cryptocurrency at a loss can allow the taxpayer to generate the tax benefits now rather than later, which is preferential from a net present value perspective.
最后，Cyrptocurreny目前没有“ WASH销售”预防规则。该概念使纳税人可以出售加密货币，认识到损失，然后立即回购同样的加密货币，这是其他资本资产无法使用的功能。
3.不要捐赠（直接）.As cryptocurrency boomed, many investors donated the cryptocurrency to reap the tax benefits associated with an asset that has appreciated so much in value. However, the same strategy should not be applied if the cryptocurrency is in a loss position. Donating cryptocurrency follows similar rules as those for securities. The U.S. tax code permits donations of securities like stocks or bonds at their fair market value. Thus, when the security is worth more than what it was purchased for, then the taxpayer can donate the security directly to a charitable organization and receive a deduction for the current value of the security while avoiding paying capital gains tax on the gain.
However, the same rules apply if the security is in a loss position, or in other words, the taxpayer will also forfeit the tax deduction for the capital loss upon donating. Thus, taxpayers who want to donate the asset should insteadindirectly将资产首先出售给慈善组织（认识到损失，并能够在今年和目前的几年中扣除，然后捐赠收益。
This post wasoriginally publishedin Poole Thought Leadership.
