Years of crypto you never reported, about to become visible all at once.
Form 1099-DA reports US activity from the 2025 tax year onward. DAC8 puts EU platform data into the same pipes from 2026 activity, exchanged between authorities from 2027. Neither is retroactive by itself — but both hand your tax authority an identity, an account, and a set of balances that has a history behind it. The years before the reporting started are the years people are worried about, and they are right to be.
The useful thing nobody says out loud: the penalty for not filing is a percentage of the tax you owed. If a year was a loss, or the tax came out at zero, that percentage is a percentage of nothing. A great many people carrying years of dread are carrying it about returns that would cost them very little to put right — and they cannot know which, because they have never had a complete ledger.
What this page is. What the late-filing arithmetic actually is, what a multi-year rebuild involves, and what it costs. It is information, not advice, and it is about US federal filing — the Baltic routes are on their own country pages. ClearBasis is tax software — not a law firm, accounting firm or tax preparer. A large or complicated back-filing exposure is worth a professional, and this page will tell you when.
The arithmetic of being late
| Charge | Rate | Cap | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Failure to file | 5% per month or part month | 25% | the tax owed — zero tax, zero penalty |
| Minimum, if over 60 days late | the lesser of $525 or 100% of the tax owed | — | for returns required to be filed in 2026; still nothing if nothing is owed |
| Failure to pay | 0.5% per month or part month | 25% | the tax still unpaid |
| Interest | 7% currently, compounded daily | none | unpaid tax, from the original due date |
When both penalties apply in the same month the failure-to-file charge is reduced by the failure-to-pay charge, so the combined figure for that month is 5%, not 5.5% (§6651(c)(1)). Interest runs on top and does not stop until the balance is paid.
What a year would cost you
One year at a time. Enter what the tax for that year would have been — the free scan is how you find that out.
Why several years have to be rebuilt together
Basis crosses the year boundary
A coin bought in 2021 and sold in 2024 needs the 2021 purchase to have a cost at all. Compute each year on its own and the 2024 return shows a sale with no basis — the missing-basis problem, manufactured rather than solved. We reconstruct the whole chain once and split it by year afterwards.
Transfers cross it too
Moving your own coins between your own accounts is not a sale — but only if both halves are in front of us. Across four years and five platforms that is exactly the kind of thing that gets taxed twice by accident.
Losses carry forward
A capital loss offsets gains, and only $3,000 of the excess reduces ordinary income in a year; the rest carries forward indefinitely. A bad year three years ago may be worth real money against a good one since — but only if it was actually filed.
One upload, not four
Add every export you have to a single ledger and the engine matches across all of them at once. Each year then gets its own Form 8949, Schedule D lines and income figure, from one reconstruction. What to do with those documents →
What it costs
Your band is set by transaction count across the whole history, exactly as a single year is. The first year is the band price; every additional year is half. Three years therefore cost what two would.
| Band | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤ 1,000 tx | $99 | $198 | $297 |
| ≤ 5,000 tx | $249 | $498 | $747 |
| ≤ 15,000 tx | $399 | $798 | $1,197 |
| ≤ 50,000 tx | $649 | $1,298 | $1,947 |
Documents unlock shortly — the scan, the full preview and the per-year breakdown are free now, and running a scan today locks this price for your band. The free preview shows you which years actually owe anything before you decide any of it is worth paying for.
Run the free scan Full pricing → If a notice has already arrived →
Questions people actually ask
How many years back do I have to go?
There is no general statute of limitations on a return that was never filed — the clock starts when you file. In practice, IRS policy has long focused on the last six years for bringing someone current, and a preparer will tell you where your facts sit. What is certain is that a year with no tax owed carries no failure-to-file penalty however old it is.
Is it better to wait and hope?
Interest compounds daily and does not stop. And filing before an authority contacts you is a materially different conversation from filing after — for penalty relief, for how the file is handled, and for what options remain. Nothing on this page is legal advice, but the direction of that trade is not subtle.
I traded at a loss for years. Do I still have to file?
Filing requirements depend on your total income, not only on crypto. But the loss itself is worth filing for: capital losses only carry forward if they are reported, so unfiled loss years are money left on the table as well as an open question.
What if my exchange is gone?
That is the case this engine was built for. Blockchain records outlive companies, and the Exchange Graveyard lists what survives each dead platform and where to get it.
Will you file the amended returns for me?
No. We produce the corrected figures and the evidence for each year; you or your preparer file them. If the exposure is large, take the workpapers to a professional — that is what they are shaped for.
What about outside the US?
The same ledger produces the same per-year figures wherever you file; the correction route is local. Start with your country page: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, or all countries.
Find out which years actually matter
Upload everything you have into one ledger. The free preview breaks it down year by year — gain, income, and how much of each was overstated by missing cost — before you decide anything is worth paying for.
Run the free scan What your exchanges already report →
Sources: IRS Topic no. 653 — failure-to-file 5% per month capped at 25%, the minimum penalty for returns over 60 days late (lesser of $525 for returns required to be filed in 2026 or 100% of the tax owed), failure-to-pay 0.5% per month capped at 25%, and interest at the federal short-term rate plus 3% compounded daily · IRC §6651(c)(1) for the combined-month reduction · Rev. Rul. 2026-10 for the 7% rate in the quarter beginning 1 July 2026 · IRC §1211(b) and §1212(b) for the $3,000 limit and the carryforward. Retrieved 28 August 2026.