Sponsored StoryTAX CHANGES INVESTORS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT (6:47)
Whether you had investment gains or losses, or both, last year, they have an impact on your taxes. CPA and TurboTax expert Lisa Greene-Lewis has some reminders on how to handle capital gains, carry-forward losses, and crypto investments. Plus, there’s a new requirement for brokers and crypto platforms you might need to know about. Watch the video above or read the transcript below.
Tax changes investors should know about
Video transcript:
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TRACY BYRNES: Well, the stock market had quite a volatile year last year. So how do you benefit from this on your tax return in 2025? Lisa Greene-Lewis, TurboTax expert and CPA is here with us right now. So while the trading year ended on December 31st, there are still some things that people need to be aware of as far as their trades go, their capital gains and losses go. So what are some things people need to start thinking about?
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: The first thing you should think about is if you had any losses, you want to offset those losses against your gains. And then if you have a net loss you can, offset that against your ordinary income, like, you know, your W2 income up to $3,000. And then if there’s any leftover from that, from there you can carry forward that loss.
And then I also want to remind people if you had any carry-forward losses, make sure you carry them forward to your tax year 2025 so you don’t miss out on a reduction in your taxes. One thing, TurboTax does carry that forward if you’ve used TurboTax before, but if you have not, you need to look on your previous year’s tax return and see if you had a carry-forward loss.
TRACY BYRNES: Yeah, really important because as you, we, you and I were talking earlier, people leave that money on the table and they forget about those. Like that is your loss to take. So go find it. Whether you use TurboTax or you have the old tax return, just go look at it. That is really, really important. OK. One of the big things last year at least was crypto.
A lot more people dabbling in this. People need to be reminded that this is just like a stock you pay tax on your gains. But maybe we should go over the rule, the crypto rules to begin with before we dive into what’s new.
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Yeah. So like you said, selling crypto, it’s just like selling a stock. So just like a stock, if you sell it and you’ve held on to it for over one year, you’re going to pay capital gains at the lower long-term capital gains rates. They’re lower in some cases for some people. And then if you sold your crypto in within a year or less, you’re going to pay taxes at your ordinary tax rate. Like when you, do your taxes.
TRACY BYRNES: Right. So just because crypto feels amorphous to some people like me, doesn’t mean it is not a taxable transaction. Bottom line. Right.
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Right now. And then there’s all kind of other trends that, I mean sometimes people get paid in crypto. And so in that case, it will show up on your W-2 or your 1099 and you will be taxed just like you are with your income. And then you’ll have another transaction if you sell it, and then it’ll be taxed as a capital gain.
TRACY BYRNES: Right. So it’s almost like a wage. You and I, I feel like you and I have done these videos, these crypto videos for years now. But then there’s also if you’re a crypto miner, which again is we need a whole video on exactly what that means. But that then becomes almost like a self-employed gig for you, right?
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Right. They get paid for mining the crypto. So that’s the same thing. They would probably get paid on a 1099 in crypto. And so like you said, they’re self-employed. They would report that as self-employment income.
TRACY BYRNES: Right. So if you touch crypto in any shape or form, know that you’re going to owe some form of tax at some point. Now, you had mentioned that there’s a new form. What’s what’s going on with that?
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Yeah. So there’s a new requirement for brokers and crypto platforms. And they have to report your crypto sales on a form 1099-DA. Now for tax year 2025, they don’t have to report your cost basis. They only have to report the sales. They will be required to report the cost basis information, for tax year 2026 but not this year.
So people need to make sure that they have their cost basis so they’re not overpaying their taxes. That is one area TurboTax is focused on as well. So we flag for people if they’re missing cost basis and that’s for crypto or even stocks as well. So we’ll flag that for you. So you’re not overpaying your taxes.
And then we will ask you if you want to find that information on a supplemental form. And then our AI extracts information from supplemental forms so it would extract that cost basis information.
TRACY BYRNES: That’s pretty amazing actually. What if what if someone can’t find their original cost basis? What do they do in that situation?
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: You can go back to like a history of, you know, when you purchased that crypto or your stock and look at what it was trading for then. But first I would just start with the broker and just any documents you have.
TRACY BYRNES: And old statements. Absolutely. Because tracking this stuff is really, really important to, Lisa, to your point, because if you don’t, if your cost basis is too low or you don’t know it, you’re paying way too much tax on your gain. So you want that cost basis there to decrease the amount of tax on capital gains, hopefully, you’re going to owe at the end of the day.
This stuff gets really confusing. The great part, though, is that all this stuff can be imported, right? TurboTax imports brokerage statements and all that stuff. So it’s not like you’re inputting all these trades.
LISAGREENE-LEWIS: Yes. We can import up to 20,000 crypto transactions and up to 10,000 stock transactions. And then now with our new capability with AI to look at supplemental forms and extract that information, it makes it, you know, really seamless for people.
TRACY BYRNES: 100%. Keep track of this stuff, don’t overpay, because I know a lot of people dabbled in crypto last year, and it did have a pretty good year. So there’s probably gains to be had out there. Lisa Greene-Lewis, TurboTax expert, thank you for breaking this all down for us.
LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Thank you for having me.
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