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Recap HomeIRS Virtual CurrenciesUK Tax GuideSA Tax Guide
  • Cryptocurrency Tax Guide for US Individuals
    • Virtual Currency & Cryptocurrency
    • Who are Recap?
  • CRYPTOCURRENCY TAX
    • Do I Need to Pay Tax on my Crypto?
    • Which Taxes Apply?
      • Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
      • Income Tax
      • Non-Taxable Transactions
    • How Much Tax Will I Pay?
    • Capital Gains Tax
      • Calculating the Capital Gains and Losses
      • Cost Basis Methods
      • Disposal proceeds
        • Non Taxable Events
        • Taxable Events
        • Donating cryptocurrency to a charitable organization
        • Gifting cryptocurrency to another person
    • Income Tax
      • Receiving cryptocurrency from mining
      • Receiving cryptocurrency rewards
      • Forks
      • Airdrops
      • Tax on Tokenswaps and Mainnetswaps
    • Deductibles and Reducing Capital Gains
  • TRANSACTION TYPES
    • 💷Selling Crypto for Fiat
    • 🛍️Purchases using Crypto
    • 🔄Exchanging one crypto for a different crypto
    • 🎗️Donations to Qualified Charities
    • 🎁Gifts
    • 🎈Airdrops
    • 🤝Staking
    • 💸Transfers
    • 🍴Forks
    • ⛏️Mining
    • 👛Employment income
    • 🚨Lost & Stolen Crypto
    • 💧Liquidity Pools
    • 🔮Cryptoasset derivatives (CFDs, Futures and Margin Trading)
    • 💼Crypto Loans
    • 💎Lending Rewards
    • 🪞Reflections Rewards
    • 👥Referral Income
    • 💳Cashback
    • 🎨NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens)
    • 🎮Play-to-earn gaming NFTs
  • Record Keeping
  • Reporting Income and Gains to the IRS and Paying the Tax
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  • Gifting cryptocurrency to another person
  • Cryptocurrency Tax for the Gifter
  • Cryptocurrency Tax for the Recipient
  • Examples
  • Example 1
  • Example 2

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  1. TRANSACTION TYPES

Gifts

PreviousDonations to Qualified CharitiesNextAirdrops

Last updated 3 years ago

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Gifting cryptocurrency to another person

Cryptocurrency Tax for the Gifter

You can gift up to $15,000 per recipient each year before this becomes a taxable event. This can be gifted all at once or in more than one transaction but must not exceed the threshold.

If the total gifted to one person exceeds $15,000, the giver needs to file a gift tax return - Form 709.

Cryptocurrency Tax for the Recipient

Providing the gift does not exceed $15,000 you do not generate a taxable event until you dispose of the currency, at this point it should be treated as capital gains.

If the fair market value of the gift at the time you received it was equal to or more than the donors adjusted cost basis, then the cost basis for your disposal is the donors cost basis.

If the fair market value of the gift at the time you received it was less than the donors cost basis, then the cost basis for your disposal is:

For a gain – the donor’s cost basis

For a loss – the fair market value at the time you received the gift.

This approach ensures there is no sharing of losses in order to deduct against capital gains.

Examples

Example 1

  • Dave bought 10 LTC in 2016 for 200 USD.

  • In 2017 Dave gifted it to Ben, when the LTC was worth 500 USD.

  • As the gift was less than $15,000 Ben did not need to declare income and Dave did not have to file a gift tax return.

  • Ben sells the crypto for $500.

  • As the FMV was equal, to calculate his capital gains he takes on Dave’s cost basis of 200 USD to calculate his capital gains: 500 (sell price) - 200 (cost basis) = 300 USD (gain)

Example 2

  • Sam bought 100 BTC in 2014 for 10,000 USD.

  • She gifted it to George in 2016, when the BTC was worth 8,000 USD.

  • Because this was less than the gifting threshold he did not need to declare income and Sam did not have to file a gift tax return.

  • George thought about selling the crypto in 2017 for 7,000 USD

  • As this was a loss, his cost basis would have been the FMV when he received the gift - 8,000 USD: Capital loss = 7,000 (sell price) - 8,000 (cost basis) = -1,000 USD

  • George sold the crypto in 2018 for 12,000 USD

  • As this was a gain he takes on Sam’s cost basis of 10,000 USD to calculate his capital gains: 12,000 (sell price) - 10,000 (cost basis) = 2,000 USD

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