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2023-05-19

How Investing vs Trading impacts tax

In most cases of buying and selling cryptocurrency as a retail investor, you are participating in investing rather than trading. The two are treated differently for tax purposes.

  • Investing is subject to capital gains tax or income tax, depending on the nature of the transaction.
  • Trading in this case refers to self-employment which is subject to income tax and National Insurance Contributions.

The key difference between investing and trading – along with the different tax treatments, is how losses generated in the crypto-activity can be used.

In their guidance, HMRC have explicitly stated that they would expect it to be exceedingly rare that any crypto-activity constituting buying & selling crypto would be classified as “trading”.

If you are uncertain, speak to a tax advisor as there are always exceptions, including but not limited to, developing tokens and large scale mining.

How is crypto tax calculated in the United States?

You can be liable for both capital gains and income tax depending on the type of cryptocurrency transaction, and your individual circumstances. For example, you might need to pay capital gains on profits from buying and selling cryptocurrency, or pay income tax on interest earned when holding crypto.

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19
 
May
 
2023
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10
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Summ 2.0

Summ (formerly Crypto Tax Calculator)'s latest software update introduces a suite of improvements to help you calculate your crypto taxes. Introducing advanced support for on-chain and DeFi transacitons, 100 new exchanges and a redesigned UI.

Key takeaways
  • Advanced support for on-chain trading across hundreds of leading DeFi protocols
  • Support for derivatives trading on major exchanges
  • UI and performance enhancements to help you do your crypto taxes faster
This tax guide is regularly updated: Last Update  
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Summ gets a major face lift

Summ (formerly Crypto Tax Calculator) has been around for almost three years. I first started this project back in 2018 after copping a $2k quote from an accountant to sort out my degen trading activity.

At the time most of the crypto tax platforms were built to facilitate the rather simple Bitcoin protocol, which was limited to mostly buying and selling on centralized exchanges. However I was a big fan of the Ethereum protocol, and had been trading on a few DEXs as well as participating in over 20 ICOs. Needless to say, getting my taxes sorted using the existing tools was a near impossible task. Instead I built a script to read from the Ethereum blockchain and automatically categorise transactions.

Fast forward to 2020 and the app had helped thousands of crypto enthusiasts with their crypto taxes. Along the way we learned some big lessons and decided to double down on the app, rewriting the backend so that we could quickly support the thousands of new financial products emerging in the crypto space. This turns out to have been a wise decision. The crypto space has since rapidly exploded, our app has seen dramatic growth, we have greatly expanded from a one man shop to a team of ten, and it is now easier then ever to get your taxes sorted.

A non trivial list of improvements

  1. Integrated support for margin/futures/options trading on major exchanges such as Binance, BitMEX, Bitfinex, Bybit, Liquid, Kraken, FTX, and Deribit.

  2. Automated on-chain categorisation of DEX protocols such as Uniswap, OasisDEX, Kyber, Airswap, Balancer, Maker, and Sushiswap.

  3. Automated support for DeFi protocols such as Compound, AAVE, and Synthetix.

  4. Support for staking across CEX and DeFi solutions including Sushiswap, Kraken, Celsius, NEO, and Crypto.com.

  5. Support for Specific ID (Last In First Out, Highest In First Out) inventory methods.

  6. Support for Canada and UK with their unique inventory rules.

  7. Additional support for over 100 exchanges.

  8. A complete redesign of the UI/UX

  9. Performance upgrades that allow you to calculate taxes on up to 100,000 transactions in under 5 seconds.

What's next?

We have now built out the foundational pieces to become the most comprehensive tax software in the crypto space. Our next priority is significantly expanding the "long-tail" support for crypto users. This includes:

  1. Better tooling to analyze your trade history performance and the impact of future trades on your tax obligations.

  2. Deeper support for local exchanges in the Canada, UK, and non-English speaking markets.

  3. Significant expansion of our native blockchain support for up and coming protocols.

If you have anything you would like us to support we would love to hear from you! Just drop us a line on the in-app chat support.

De informatie op deze website is van algemene aard en houdt geen fiscaal, boekhoudkundig of juridisch advies in. Het is opgesteld zonder rekening te houden met uw doelstellingen, financiële situatie of behoeften. Voordat u op basis van deze informatie handelt, dient u de geschiktheid van de informatie te overwegen, rekening houdend met uw eigen doelstellingen, financiële situatie en behoeften, en professioneel advies in te winnen.
Summ (voorheen Crypto Tax Calculator) wijst alle garanties, toezeggingen en garanties af, expliciet of impliciet, en is niet aansprakelijk voor welk verlies of welke schade dan ook (inclusief menselijke of computerfouten, nalatigheid of anderszins, of incidentele of gevolgschade) voortvloeiend uit of in verband met, enig gebruik van of vertrouwen op de informatie of adviezen op deze website. De gebruiker moet als enige de verantwoordelijkheid aanvaarden die verband houdt met het gebruik van het materiaal op deze site, ongeacht het doel waarvoor dergelijk gebruik of dergelijke resultaten worden toegepast. De informatie op deze website is geen vervanging voor gespecialiseerd advies.

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