CRYPTO GUIDANCE INC.

Kansas City, MO

What Is Form 8949?

Published 2026-08-15. Last updated 2026-08-15. Written by John Alewine, Crypto Guidance Inc.

Form 8949 is the IRS form where you list capital asset sales, including crypto, before the totals flow to Schedule D. Each line is a lot: what you sold, when you bought it, when you sold it, proceeds, basis, and the gain or loss. If you sold bitcoin, swapped a token, or spent crypto on a prepaid card, this is usually where that line lives. The tax guide is the map. This page is the form itself.

Who This Is For

U.S. taxpayers who disposed of digital assets and who will file more than a single brokerage 1099-B. If an exchange sent a 1099-DA, you still reconcile. The form is not optional because the app felt informal.

How It Actually Works

Short-term and long-term are split by holding period. One year and a day is the usual line. Track lots. See specific identification.
Some rows are reported to the IRS already (the 1099). Some are not (self-custody swaps). The checkboxes on 8949 exist so those two worlds do not get double-counted or ignored.
Adjustments happen: fees, basis the broker left blank, a transfer they treated as a sale. Blank basis on a 1099 is not "the IRS thinks basis is zero" as a moral fact, but it is an invitation to get a letter if you leave it blank too.

Risks I See in Sessions

Waiting for the 1099 to start the spreadsheet. By then the lots are a reconstruction project.
Reporting the exchange total and also every wallet export, so the same sale appears twice.
Skipping DeFi because "there was no form." No form is not no tax.

When It Matters

The year you first sell, and every year after. I would rather you keep a one-page lot log than buy another tracking subscription you will not use. The estimator is for ballparks, not for the return.