At Some Point, Someone Asks for the Documentation
Three years of trading. Four accounts across two exchanges, one hardware wallet used twice with no labels attached.
The gain is real. The documentation to support it has never been assembled into anything the IRS would accept.
The issue is not the activity. It is that the activity has never been organized into a defensible position.
DeFi and NFTs Created a New Category of Tax Problem
Decentralized finance does not follow the pattern most people learned from standard trading. The platform label is not the determining factor.
DeFi taxes require analysis at the transaction level. Yield farming rewards are ordinary income on the date they land, calculated at that day's fair market value, not the price at eventual sale. Liquidity pool deposits can trigger a taxable exchange on entry, and governance token distributions carry a character determined by how the protocol is structured.
NFT taxes follow the same logic. Creating and selling an NFT is frequently ordinary income, not a capital gain. Swapping one NFT for another is a taxable event whether or not cash changes hands, and selling at a loss requires the same Form 8949 documentation as a profitable sale.
A Methodology the IRS Can Review
A cryptocurrency CPA builds something a software platform does not produce: a documented methodology behind every position on the return.
The cost basis method is stated and applied consistently across the full filing. DeFi rewards are classified by type, with the income recognition date and fair market value on that date on record. Every NFT and token disposal carries a basis and a holding period that can be explained.
Blockchain accounting services built at the CPA level mean the answer to any IRS question already exists in the file. Before a notice arrives. Not after one does.
At Maris, that documentation is prepared before the return is submitted. If any position is questioned, we respond directly. That coverage is part of the engagement.
The Tax Return Is Not the Only Accounting Layer
Individual investors are not the only ones carrying undocumented exposure.
Business owners who accept cryptocurrency as payment, hold digital assets on a balance sheet, or compensate contractors in crypto face requirements that standard bookkeeping software is not built for.
Each payment received in crypto is income at the fair market value on the transaction date. The asset carries a cost basis until it is disposed of. The gain or loss at disposal is reported separately.
Cryptocurrency accounting services at this level include both the tax filing and the accounting infrastructure beneath it.
At Maris, we work with business owners, individual traders, and investors across Everett and Snohomish County. Many have never had their positions formally reviewed. That is a reasonable place to start.
The History Does Not Have to Be Clean Before the Call
Portfolios with years of unreconciled activity. Prior returns filed by a preparer unfamiliar with digital asset reporting. Records from an exchange that closed mid-year.
None of those are disqualifiers.
They are where the engagement begins. The methodology accounts for what exists and notes clearly what required estimation and why.
A documented baseline does not have to be rebuilt the following April. That is a different situation than carrying unresolved years forward.
Maris & Associates CPAs works with investors, active traders, and business owners who hold or transact in digital assets. Reach out when the records are in order, or when they have never been. The engagement is built around wherever that is.