Free Bitcoin Tax Calculator
Log your Bitcoin buys, sells, income, gifts, and donations, then calculate capital gains and losses with FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, or Specific Identification. Your data stays on your device — nothing is ever uploaded.
Everything you need to work out your Bitcoin gains
No installs, no accounts — just a fast, private way to turn a pile of transactions into a clear gain/loss summary.
100% private by design
All matching and math runs locally in your browser. Your transaction history is never sent to a server.
FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, or Specific ID
Switch cost-basis methods instantly and see how your gain/loss total changes with each one.
Full transaction log
Track buys, sells, income (mining/staking/airdrops), gifts, donations, and internal transfers, all in one place.
Short vs. long-term split
Gains are automatically split by whether the asset was held over or under a year, matching how most jurisdictions tax them differently.
Auto-fill historical price
Enter a date and let the tool pull the BTC/USD price for you instead of looking it up by hand.
Matched sale lots
See exactly which buy lot funded each sale, with cost basis, proceeds, and gain/loss broken out per lot.
CSV export
Export your raw log or your matched lots as a CSV, formatted close to what a Form 8949-style worksheet expects.
Jurisdiction-aware
Pick US, UK, or EU (general) to see cost-basis methods filtered to what's typically accepted there.
Saved automatically
Your transaction log is saved in your browser, so it's still there the next time you open the tool.
How to calculate your Bitcoin taxes
Four steps, no software to install.
Pick your jurisdiction
Choose US, UK, or EU (general) so the cost-basis methods offered match what's typically accepted there.
Log your transactions
Add every buy, sell, income event, gift, donation, and transfer — the date, amount, and price for each.
Choose a cost-basis method
Pick FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, or Specific Identification, and compare how each changes your total gain.
Calculate & export
Click Calculate Gains, review the short/long-term breakdown, then export your log or matched lots as CSV.
Understanding Bitcoin taxes
The rules behind the numbers — what counts, what doesn't, and where jurisdictions differ.
What actually triggers a taxable event
Buying Bitcoin with cash and simply holding it isn't a taxable event in most jurisdictions — no gain or loss exists until you dispose of it. A "disposal" is broader than most people expect. It includes selling BTC for fiat, trading it for another cryptocurrency (even BTC for ETH counts as a disposal of BTC), and spending it directly on goods or services, since that's treated as selling it at the moment of purchase. Each of these events requires you to work out the gain or loss versus your original cost basis. Receiving BTC — through mining, staking rewards, airdrops, or as payment for work — is typically taxed differently, as income at the value received, which then becomes the cost basis for any future disposal.
Short-term vs. long-term gains
Many jurisdictions tax gains differently depending on how long you held the asset before disposing of it. In the US, for example, an asset held for one year or less is taxed at short-term rates — the same as ordinary income — while an asset held longer qualifies for typically lower long-term capital gains rates. A concrete example: say you bought 0.1 BTC for $3,000 in March 2024 and sold it for $6,500 in April 2025. Because more than a year passed between the buy and the sell, that $3,500 gain would be taxed at the long-term rate rather than folded into your regular income. Had you sold in, say, December 2024 instead, the same $3,500 gain would be short-term. This is exactly what the calculator's short-term/long-term split above is doing automatically for every matched lot.
Cost-basis methods, explained
When you sell part of a Bitcoin holding that you bought at different times and prices, you need a rule for which specific coins you're "selling" — that rule is your cost-basis method, and it can change your reported gain significantly even though nothing about the sale itself changed. FIFO (First In, First Out) matches a sale against your oldest coins first. LIFO (Last In, First Out) matches against your newest coins first. HIFO (Highest Cost First) matches against whichever lot cost the most, which tends to minimize a reported gain. Specific Identification lets you pick the exact lot yourself, provided you keep adequate records.
A quick example makes the difference concrete. Suppose you bought 0.5 BTC at $20,000 in January, another 0.5 BTC at $50,000 in June, and then sold 0.5 BTC at $45,000 in December:
| Method | Lot matched | Cost basis | Gain / loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| FIFO | January lot | $20,000 | +$25,000 gain |
| HIFO | June lot | $50,000 | −$5,000 loss |
Same sale, same price — a $30,000 swing in reported gain purely from the matching method. Not every jurisdiction permits every method, so it's worth checking which ones apply to you before picking one for filing purposes.
US, UK, and EU: how the rules differ
United States. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property. Capital gains are split into short-term (held one year or less, taxed as ordinary income) and long-term (held over one year, taxed at reduced rates). Taxpayers can generally choose FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, or Specific Identification, provided they can substantiate the lots — this is the most flexible of the three regimes and the closest match to the methods this calculator offers.
United Kingdom. HMRC does not use FIFO, LIFO, or HIFO. Instead it applies same-day matching first, then a 30-day "bed and breakfasting" rule for repurchases shortly after a sale, and finally pools everything else into a single average cost basis per asset (Section 104 pooling) rather than tracking individual lots. This calculator applies that exact same-day → 30-day → pooled order when you select the United Kingdom jurisdiction above, rather than approximating it with FIFO. It's still an estimate — always confirm the final figures with HMRC's guidance or a UK crypto tax professional before filing.
European Union. There's no single EU-wide crypto tax regime — treatment varies significantly by member state, from Germany's tax-free treatment after a one-year holding period to countries that tax gains at flat or progressive rates regardless of holding time. "EU (general)" in this calculator is a starting point for record-keeping, not a substitute for checking your specific country's rules.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Forgetting crypto-to-crypto trades. Swapping BTC for another coin is a disposal of BTC, even though no fiat currency changed hands.
- Leaving fees out of cost basis. Trading fees paid on a buy increase your cost basis, and fees on a sell reduce your proceeds — skipping them overstates your gain.
- Mishandling gifted or donated coins. Gifted BTC usually carries over the giver's original cost basis rather than resetting it, and donations are typically valued at fair market value on the donation date — both are easy to get wrong without a proper log.