Twelve boxes, and six belong to crypto
How many boxes does a crypto seller choose between? The 2025 Form 8949 has 12, lettered A to L, and the IRS instructions reserve the six new ones, G to L, for digital assets. Part I takes sales of coins held one year or less. Part II takes the rest.
Only one box may be ticked per page, so a seller with three kinds of sale fills in three pages.
| Short-term box | Long-term box | Sales it covers |
|---|---|---|
| G | J | On Form 1099-DA, with basis reported to the IRS |
| H | K | On Form 1099-DA, with basis missing or not reported to the IRS |
| I | L | Digital asset sales with no Form 1099-DA or 1099-B at all |
Box 2 of the broker’s Form 1099-DA settles the first choice. When it isn’t checked, the instructions send the sale to H or K.
What a row asks for
Each row runs across eight columns, from (a), a description, to (h), the gain or loss. For crypto, column (a) should name the asset or its symbol, give the exact units and add the sale’s transaction ID if there is one. Coins bought on several dates can share one row marked “VARIOUS” in column (b).
Column (e) holds the cost basis, which for a digital asset includes transaction fees, commissions and transfer taxes. Columns (f) and (g) stay blank unless a code and an adjustment are needed, for example when a form shows the wrong basis.
A row even when no cash moves
No dollars have to change hands for a row to be needed. Example 5 in the instructions buys one unit of digital asset A for $1,000 and, three years later, trades it for one unit of B worth $3,000. The result is a $2,000 long-term gain, reported like any other taxable event.
When the form can be skipped
Some sales never need a row. If a Form 1099-DA shows basis reported to the IRS and nothing needs adjusting, the totals can go straight onto line 1a or 8a of Schedule D, under what the instructions call Exception 1.
Two mistakes the instructions rule out
The first is using box C or F, the boxes for sales with no broker statement. The instructions put it flatly: “Digital asset transactions should not be reported using box C or F.” Box I and box L exist for that case.
The second comes from reading a 2025 broker statement too quickly. Exchange Kraken’s guide to its 2025 forms says box 9, which marks a noncovered security, was checked for all transactions, and the IRS received gross proceeds only. The cost shown on the customer’s copy was a FIFO estimate, so those sales belong in box H or K with basis from the seller’s own records.
The IRS’s early-release draft of the 2026 form, created April 1, 2026 and read on November 10, 2026, carries the same 12 boxes word for word, apart from the year. So far, then, nothing in the layout has moved for 2026 sales.
General information only, not tax advice.