Tax-Loss Harvesting: Is It Viable?
Crypto tax planning can help optimize taxes by identifying opportunities to minimize tax liability on cryptocurrency transactions. For instance, donating cryptocurrency to a charitable organization can provide a tax deduction and also avoid capital gains tax on donated assets. Crypto tax-loss harvesting is another strategy that cryptocurrency investors use to reduce their overall tax liabilities.
Tax-Loss Harvesting Is Used to Minimize the Tax Liability
Crypto tax-loss harvesting is a powerful technique to lower your overall tax liability by offsetting any capital gains that you have made from selling cryptos. By using this strategy, the amount of taxes payable drops significantly as losses are used to reduce profits. Nonetheless, limits and regulations apply in most countries on how much loss can be deducted from other types of income and which tax year it should be reported in.
In the U.S., Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations include a wash sale rule that bans individuals from taking losses on selling securities if they repurchase those same ones within 30 days of the sale. On the flip side, in Britain, there is no dedicated wash sale rule for cryptocurrency investments. However, broad capital gains tax applies to any profits derived from selling digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.
So, How About the Risks of Tax Loss Harvesting?
Tax-loss harvesting in crypto can provide significant long-term tax savings if done correctly, but there are risks as well. For example, if the cryptocurrency is a security and not an investment, then the tax-loss harvested gains may be taxable as regular income instead of capital gains. Additionally, occasional crypto price swings could mean harvesting losses prematurely before the crypto has time to recover and reach its original pre-harvested position. Any mistake in incorrectly calculating a crypto asset’s pre and post-harvested positions could also leave investors exposed to audit or even suffer legal repercussions. Crypto investors must explore all available options and understand the potential risks before deciding on tax-loss harvesting.
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