Finding a CPA for crypto or self-employed taxes

Crypto activity and self-employment land on an individual return, and they are still easy to hire the wrong person for. A general listing may prepare wages and a W-2. You need someone who will answer the digital-asset question, report transactions, or handle Schedule C and estimated tax. This note is how to tell those jobs apart using what the IRS publishes. It does not compute gain, loss, or what you owe.

This is educational information about how to hire, not tax advice. It does not tell you what to file, what you owe, or how to answer the IRS. Reading it does not create a client relationship with CPA Seek or with any CPA in the directory.

What the IRS says a digital asset is

The IRS digital assets page says that for U.S. tax purposes digital assets are property, not currency. The definition is any digital representation of value recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger, or similar technology. Examples include convertible virtual currency and cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens.

Income from digital assets is taxable. Federal income tax returns ask a yes-or-no question: at any time during the year, did you receive digital assets as a reward, award, or payment for property or services, or sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset or a financial interest in one? A version of that question is on Form 1040 and on several business and fiduciary returns the IRS lists.

How you answer depends on the transactions, not on whether you liked the year. The IRS says to answer no if you did not have digital asset transactions. That includes only holding assets, buying them with dollars and not selling, or moving them between wallets you own or control, unless you paid a transaction fee with digital assets. Answer yes if you received them as payment, a reward, mining, staking, or an airdrop tied to a hard fork, or if you disposed of them for other assets, for dollars, for goods, or by paying a fee in digital assets.

If you had those transactions, the IRS says you must report them whether or not they result in a taxable gain or loss. Keep records of the purchase, receipt, sale, exchange, or transfer. A CPA who says “we can skip it if you lost money” is contradicting that instruction. Find someone else.

The same page warns about a scam: a letter with a QR code that tells you to register cryptocurrency on a “digital assets compliance portal.” The IRS says it does not require registration of digital assets and is not sending those letters. Do not use a directory contact form to “register” a wallet.

More detail is in the IRS frequently asked questions on virtual currency transactions. Read the question that matches what you did. Do not treat a blog, including this one, as the worksheet.

What the IRS says about self-employment

Self-employment is a different stack of forms, even when the income arrived in crypto. The self-employed individuals tax center says you use Schedule C to report income or loss from a business you operated as a sole proprietor, or gig work. If expenses are less than income, the net profit becomes part of the individual return. You report Social Security and Medicare taxes on Schedule SE, using the Schedule C result.

There is no employer withholding those taxes. The IRS says estimated tax is how self-employed people pay income tax and self-employment tax during the year, using Form 1040-ES. The estimated taxes page says the year is split into four payment periods, and that paying late can bring a penalty even if you are due a refund when you file. Publication 334 is the IRS tax guide for small businesses that use Schedule C.

Ask a CPA to say, out loud, whether your work is a hobby in your mind or a Schedule C business on the return they will sign. The IRS says Schedule C is for an activity you do primarily for income or profit, with continuity and regularity. That is their line, not a slogan. If you also have an LLC, classification is a separate question on the LLC page, and the small-business checklist is the hiring list for an entity.

How to tell a fit from a general listing

Crypto and digital assets on CPA Seek means the CPA selected that specialty. It does not mean every preparer in the city refused the work, and it does not prove a license. Individual tax is the household return underneath both jobs. Use the specialty when the digital-asset question is the reason you are hiring. Use individual tax when the year is wages plus a smaller question.

On the first call, ask:

• Will you answer the digital-asset question, and which transactions do you need exported?
• Do you report transactions that lost money, or only ones with gain?
• Is self-employment on Schedule C and Schedule SE in this engagement?
• Are estimated-tax payments included, or only the annual return?
• Which states will you file?
• If a wallet file is incomplete, what will you not sign?

A useful answer names records and a limit. How much a CPA costs explains why two quotes are comparable only when the scope matches. The IRS does not publish a fee for this work.

How to check a CPA or preparer before you hire is the license and PTIN check. CPA vs. enrolled agent vs. tax preparer is who can also talk to the IRS if a notice arrives later. A notice is its own hire: CPA or enrolled agent for an IRS audit.

What not to send first

Do not email seed phrases, private keys, or full Social Security numbers to a directory. A listing is not your preparer until you hire them. Export the history they ask for after the engagement starts, through the method they name. The IRS says to keep the records. It does not say to paste them into a contact form.

If a message tells you to register assets on a portal the IRS did not describe on the digital-assets page, treat it as the scam the IRS already flagged.

Where to look

Crypto and digital assets and individual tax are the specialty filters. Small business fits when the work is an operating company rather than a personal return.

City pages: Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Anchorage. State pages: Texas, Florida, California, and Alaska. Find a CPA for a radius search. Read the specialty line and the services before you send a wallet history.