Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has filed 56 million forms with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the 2025 tax year, with approximately 18.5 million of these forms covering transactions valued at less than $1. Over half of the forms were for transactions worth $10 or less. The company notes that only 8.5% of the new Form 1099-DAs exceeded the $600 threshold, which triggers reporting for non-employee compensation, and 74% were for less than $50. Each form is sent to the customer, creating a reconciliation task for the taxpayer, and standard tax software does not handle cryptocurrency transactions, resulting in an estimated additional burden of $250-$500 per year for active crypto holders.
The Tax Foundation estimates that individual returns already cost Americans a combined $146 billion in time and expenses. Kraken identifies two issues with the tax code: the lack of a de minimis exemption for crypto payments and the treatment of staking rewards as ordinary income at the moment of receipt. The company argues that a broader inflation-indexed exemption and the option to tax staking rewards at sale, rather than receipt, are necessary to alleviate the reporting burden.