Form 1099-DA for 2026 Sales: Covered vs Noncovered Basis and Your Year-End To-Do List

For crypto sold in 2026, brokers must report cost basis to the IRS for the first time, but only for covered lots acquired after 2025 and held at the same broker. Coins bought earlier or transferred in from elsewhere are treated as noncovered on the form and arrive without basis. This guide explains the 2026 Form 1099-DA box by box, why your broker's lot choice can differ from yours, and what to do before the IRS relief for lot identification ends on December 31, 2026.

Checked October 16, 2026. This guide is general information for U.S. taxpayers who sell crypto through custodial brokers. It is based on the Treasury regulations, the 2026 Form 1099-DA and its instructions, and IRS notices. It is not tax advice for your situation.

What changes with the 2026 Form 1099-DA

The broker reporting rules phase in over two years. For sales in 2025, brokers reported gross proceeds, and most statements arrived without cost basis. IRS Tax Tip 2026-07 said so directly: "Most of these statements will not include the basis for DA transactions in 2025 and taxpayers will have to calculate basis to determine their gain or loss."

For sales on or after January 1, 2026, the regulation at 26 CFR 1.6045-1(d)(2)(i)(D) requires brokers to report adjusted basis, the acquisition date and whether a gain or loss is short-term or long-term. That duty applies only to covered securities that the broker "acquired … for the customer and held in the customer's account." For all other sales, the selling broker does not have to report basis, and the form may show a blank basis box.

Brokers must furnish statements by February 15 of the following year. In 2027, February 15 is Washington's Birthday, a federal holiday, so under the next-business-day rule in IRS Publication 1099 the statements for 2026 sales should be due on Tuesday, February 16, 2027. The IRS has not yet published its 2027 tax calendar, and brokers can obtain up to 30 extra days with an approved extension request.

Covered vs noncovered: the definition that decides your form

The 2026 Instructions for Form 1099-DA define the term. A covered security "is a digital asset acquired after 2025 for cash, stored-value cards, different digital assets, or any property or services … in an account for which the broker provided custodial services." The next sentence adds the decisive condition: the asset must have been "held in that account until the broker effects the disposition."

The same instructions list noncovered assets, including any digital asset "acquired before 2026", any asset "transferred in to the broker providing custodial services", and any asset for which the broker did not provide custody when it was acquired. Typical cases look like this:

The third row follows Example 4 in 26 CFR 1.6045-1(d)(2)(vii)(D): the coins remain covered securities, but "because these covered securities were not acquired and thereafter held by the selling broker", the selling broker does not have to report the acquisition information. The terms differ between the two texts: the regulation still calls such units covered securities, while the form instructions treat transferred-in assets as noncovered for purposes of Form 1099-DA, so box 9 may be checked. In practice the result is the same, because the new broker reports no basis. The fourth row follows from the regulation's wording, which counts "different digital assets" as a qualifying way to acquire a covered asset. The statute originally pointed to 2023, but the final regulations moved the acquisition date to January 1, 2026, so coins bought in 2023 to 2025 are not covered.

The boxes that matter for basis

The 2026 form is final. For a covered sale reported without an optional method, the instructions state that "boxes 1d, 1g, 2, and 6 must be completed." The boxes most relevant to basis are:

One detail on Copy B prevents a common error. If box 9 is checked, box 1g may be blank, and "if box 1g is blank, you will need to determine your basis based on your own books and records. If box 1g has any entry, including zero, the information within that box has been reported to the IRS as basis." A blank box does not mean zero basis. A zero does, so check it carefully. A single sale can also produce several forms, because covered short-term lots, covered long-term lots and noncovered lots reported with box 9 checked go on separate forms.

Transferred coins lose basis reporting, not basis

For stocks, a transfer statement carries cost basis from one broker to the next. For crypto, no such statement exists. Under 26 CFR 1.6045A-1(a)(1)(vi), no transfer statement is required for assets whose sale is reportable as a digital asset, and the Treasury said it would address the topic only in a future proposed rule.

You can give your new broker your purchase history, but it cannot use that history to report basis. The 2026 instructions state: "Under current law, brokers may use customer-provided acquisition information solely for lot-selection purposes and not for reporting basis or acquisition dates." If the broker relied on your information to pick the units sold, it checks box 8.

Your basis does not disappear. It simply does not appear on the form. You still report the correct basis on Form 8949 from your own records, which is why the history of every transfer between your accounts and wallets matters. The guide to incorrect forms and missing basis shows how to rebuild it.

Your lots vs the broker's lots

Since January 1, 2025, basis is tracked account by account and wallet by wallet. For coins held by a broker, 26 CFR 1.1012-1(j)(3) treats units as sold first-in, first-out from the earliest date you acquired units held in that broker's custody, unless you make an adequate identification. For your own FIFO, the date units were transferred into the broker is disregarded.

The broker may see it differently. If it does not use your purchase history, the reporting rule tells it to treat transferred-in units as acquired at the date and time of the transfer. Example 4 in 26 CFR 1.1012-1(j)(5)(iv) concludes that the units the broker reports as sold "are not the same units" the taxpayer must treat as sold. Your Form 8949 follows the tax rule, not the broker's reporting choice.

Specific identification lets you choose units yourself, for example the highest-basis lots. You must tell the broker no later than the date and time of the sale, and a standing order counts as an adequate identification. Because many brokers were not ready to accept such instructions, the IRS granted relief. Notice 2026-20 extends the relief from Notice 2025-7 through December 31, 2026: during that period you may identify units or record a standing order in your own books and records instead of telling the broker. The notice warns that, for 2026 transactions, the basis reported by a broker "may not match the lot identification and basis" in your records.

From Form 1099-DA to Form 8949

The draft 2026 Form 8949, posted in May 2026, keeps the digital-asset boxes introduced for 2025. The 2026 Instructions for Form 8949 had not been released by mid-October 2026, so the mapping below follows the current instructions:

If the basis on a covered form is wrong, you report the transaction with an adjustment and code B rather than ignoring the form. If the broker could not determine the holding period, the Form 1099-DA instructions use code Y, while the 2025 Form 8949 instructions still refer to code X; either way, you work out short-term or long-term from your own records. Covered transactions with correct basis and no adjustments can go straight to Schedule D lines 1a and 8a. The Form 8949 and Schedule D guide walks through the full filing.

Backup withholding: not for 2026 sales

Backup withholding of 24% applies when a broker lacks a certified taxpayer identification number. For crypto, the IRS deferred it. Notice 2025-33 states that backup withholding "will not be required on any digital asset sale effected by a broker during calendar year 2025 or calendar year 2026."

For 2027 the notice offers limited relief. Brokers may rely on an uncertified tax ID of a preexisting customer, meaning an account opened before January 1, 2026, if the IRS TIN Matching Program confirms a match before the sale. Customers who opened accounts in 2026 or later should make sure a certified Form W-9 is on file before they sell in 2027.

Stablecoins, NFTs, small sales and rewards

• Qualifying stablecoins: brokers using the optional method report nothing if designated sales do not exceed $10,000 for the year.
• Specified NFTs: reporting under the optional method starts when aggregate proceeds exceed $600 for the year.
• Payment processor sales: sales of $600 or less per customer for the year are not reported.
• Staking and rewards: the instructions say "Do not report rewards and staking payments on Form 1099-DA."

None of these thresholds makes a transaction tax-free. The IRS FAQs confirm that gain or loss is recognized even if a broker does not report it, and every taxpayer must report income, gains and losses whether or not a Form 1099-DA arrives. DeFi trades will not appear either: Congress nullified the DeFi broker rule with Public Law 119-5 in April 2025.

Pending bills: wash sales and de minimis rules are not law

On September 16, 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee approved H.R. 10357, the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, by 38 to 5. According to the committee-approved text, it would apply the wash-sale rules to traded digital assets other than qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins for dispositions after September 14, 2026, add a de minimis rule for small network fees from 2028 and change stablecoin and broker reporting rules in later years. In the Senate, S. 5616 was introduced on September 30, 2026. Neither bill has passed Congress, and Congress is scheduled to return after the November election.

Under current law, Section 1091 covers stock and securities, not ordinary cryptoassets; the wash sale guide explains the details. Because the committee text would reach back to September 14, 2026, anyone harvesting losses this autumn should document repurchases and watch whether the bill advances in that form.

Year-end checklist before December 31, 2026

1. List every account and wallet. Note which coins were bought at each broker in 2026 and which arrived by transfer.
2. Record identifications for 2026 sales. Under Notice 2026-20, identifications made in your own books must be recorded no later than the date and time of the sale.
3. Set standing orders for 2027. Check whether each broker accepts specific identification or standing orders, and set the method you want before the relief ends.
4. Document transfers. Keep dates, units, transaction hashes and basis for every move between accounts and wallets.
5. Keep your Rev. Proc. 2024-28 records. A specific allocation of unused basis had to be made before the first sale in 2025 or the 2025 return due date, whichever came first. A global allocation whose method was recorded before 2025 may in some cases still be completed. Either way, keep the allocation and its support.
6. Check your W-9. A certified tax ID avoids backup withholding questions in 2027.
7. Plan the February reconciliation. Compare each 2026 Form 1099-DA with your ledger, especially blank or zero basis entries and box 8 or box 9 flags.

The broader 2026 year-end tax planning checklist covers loss harvesting, holding periods and estimated tax.

How a crypto tax report helps with the reconciliation

CoinTaxReporting's U.S. report assigns each disposal to the Form 8949 digital-asset boxes G to L and can reconcile your ledger with proceeds and basis reported by brokers. That makes differences in reported basis visible, for example from transferred-in lots or a different lot choice. A report cannot make a lot identification valid after the fact; the identification itself has to exist by the time of the sale. For corrections, see the guide to an incorrect Form 1099-DA.

Frequently asked questions about the 2026 Form 1099-DA

Official sources

• IRS: 2026 Form 1099-DA with Instructions for Recipient
• IRS: Revenue Procedure 2024-28, safe harbor for allocating unused basis
• IRS Tax Tip 2026-07: Reminders for taxpayers about digital assets
• IRS: Frequently asked questions on digital asset transactions
• IRS: draft 2026 Form 8949
• Public Law 119-5: disapproval of the DeFi broker rule
• GovInfo: bill status of H.R. 10357

Sources checked on October 16, 2026. The February 16, 2027 statement date is derived from the regulation and Publication 1099; confirm it against the IRS 2027 tax calendar once published.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. For individual tax advice, consult a licensed tax professional.