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Now that things are heating up again with some interesting announcements and prices starting to drag themselves off the last "rock-bottom lows", it appears that the last of the capitulation is gone... rugs have rugged, the scammers and fled to AI, and all that is left are the more solid infrastructure. Or it might be just a faint sliver of hope to suck the last of our conviction...

Regardless, take advantage of this lull period to sort out the things that are much harder to do when there are a million announcements and launches every other day. It is a time to get everything set in position for the time when you don't have any time to do anything, because there are way too many projects to follow and new ideas and hype bubbling up and confusing everything.

One of he more boring things that is good to have in place during this period of relative quiet is the portfolio and token tracking. Of course, there will be many who will talk the big talk and profess that they don't HAVE to do anything with tax and that they will just ignore the government... yep sure, if you are an influencer... then most of them are just larping the "libertarian" streak. Just like they are mostly larping as the "successful" trader with a flawless record of 100x picks every season.

... and trust me, most of us aren't the online ninjas that is necessary to avoid the scrutiny of the tax office. Plus, if you are ACTUALLY invested in the decentralised monetary dream... paying taxes in and with crypto is really the end goal, as this means that cryptocurrency is then a recognised currency/asset. The goal is the seperation of government and monetary control... not the bankrupting and destruction of existing institutions. These are different things completely... of course, one might lead to the other, but at least in the developed world (not counting the United States, which is a pretty "special" case in itself...) the disruption of monetary policy and the state might lead to better state institutions. Hopefully... I'm still an idealistic fool...

Anyway... long ramble aside. The first thing in making sure that you are ready for the incredible accounting nightmare that is crypto accounting is to make sure that you have a decent portfolio tracking software or system that you get thouroughly accustomed to during the lull period when you are making fewer transactions. When the transactions ramp up, it will get horrific. Choosing a service that has API hooks into exchanges and the ability to import and track blockchain transactions/history is going to really make your life easier... as is the ability to track across many different chains.

Coin tracking software has gotten significantly better in the last few years... it used to be a horrific mess of hacks and poorly tracked and labelled tokens/blockchains. Things aren't perfect these days, but they are significantly better. Keep in mind that the taxation regimes are usually devised with traditional assets such as stocks and property in mind, and so when you are going to digital assets, the sheer volume of transactions will be quite crushing...

... but that is only if you live in a capital-gains systems. Unfortunately, I had moved away from teh Dutch single snapshot system to the horribly crappy Australian capital gains system. In stead of a single year end snapshot and a percentage paid on the total asset value... I now have to track every bloody transaction to see if there is capital gains that is owed! ARRRGH!

I have been using Cointracking for quite some time now, and I have been really happy with it. It is as decent as any others, and it served my Dutch needs for quite some time... especially at the lower tiers which are transaction count limited. However, under the Dutch system, I only needed to keep track of totals... and that meant that the overall count was quite low as I would just adjust the values for totals rather than by each individual transaction.

However, since moving to Australia, after the arrival snapshot... I had to track everything. And that was a pain in the arse. Where Cointracking differs from other tracking software is in its subscription plans. Most of the others will have a yearly resubscription.. Cointracking has pricing based on total entries.... I immediately upgraded to the once off payment to the UNLIMITED transaction count. I hope that this is a sustainable model for them... I do wonder if that is really a sustainable model, but for the moment, I'm happy... and I do constantly export the csv histories just in case.

But, even though I do find it good, I still find that I have to still make manual entries... sigh, I will be doing that in the coming month. Thankfully, the software does calculate and spit out a capital gains estimate... so that is what will go to the accountant.

Anyway... there are quite a few different options for tax tracking software out there... pick the one that works for you, and get used to using it before the market heats up.

PS: I also like Cointracking for the various discounts that you get on crypto-themed services and products!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
WooX: The centralised version of WooFi. Stake WOO for fee-free trades and free withdrawals!
GMX.io: Decentralised perpetual futures trading on Arbitrum!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.