An accounting/cost basis method helps you determine the order in which you dispose of your cryptocurrency. In situations where you bought your cryptocurrency at multiple price points, you’ll need to use an accounting/cost basis method to determine your capital gains and losses.

CoinLedger supports different accounting methods depending on the country you're filing your taxes in. These methods can greatly impact your gains and losses in a given tax year.

General Accounting Methods:

Country-Specific Accounting Methods:

Unless you select a country with a country-specific accounting method as your Country under Tax Settings, CoinLedger will run your reports using the FIFO (First-In, First-Out) calculation method by default. If you select the United States as your country, CoinLedger will run your reports using the HIFO (Highest-In, First-Out) method by default.

Step 1

Navigate to your Tax Settings page by selecting the profile picture in the top right corner of your CoinLedger account.

Step 2

From the Tax Settings page, select your Country. Once you have designated the country you want your Tax Reports to be generated for, you will be able to select your accounting method.

Next, navigate to the Report Calculation Method drop-down menu. Select an accounting method from the options shown on this menu, and then press Save.

Yes. CoinLedger allows you to configure different accounting methods for each tax year on your account. For example, if you previously calculated your 2023 report using FIFO but in 2024 you’d like to calculate your report using HIFO, you can do this by setting a specific accounting method for 2024 on the Tax Settings page.

Step 1

First, head to the Tax Settings page and scroll down to the Report Settings section. Next, select which Tax Year you’d like to apply these custom settings to. You can apply these settings to All Years or a specific tax year.

Step 2

Using the above example, I would select the 2024 Tax Year. Then, I would select my desired accounting method from the drop-down menu next to Report Calculation Method.

Now that you’ve chosen your desired accounting method, this setting will be applied to the tax year(s) that you specified.

For additional resources on accounting/cost basis methods, check out these guides:

Changing your accounting method can make a big impact on your tax report calculations. We strongly recommend reviewing your report calculation method options so that you are best informed to choose the costing method that optimizes your tax liability. For specific questions about changing your accounting method, we recommend consulting with a tax professional.