Long-term only after the one-year anniversary. A sale on that date is short-term in BasisFix.
Not tax advice ยท last updated 25 October 2026
Bitcoin holding period
Section 1222 treats a capital asset as long-term when it was held for more than one year. This worksheet implements that as a UTC date test. A sale is long-term only when the sale date is after the one-year anniversary of the acquisition date. A sale on the anniversary is short-term. The worksheet is a review with a tax pro.
The date BasisFix uses
- Both dates come from the CSV, read as UTC unless the cell names an offset or a timezone abbreviation the parser knows.
- A February 29 anniversary falls on February 28 of the following year.
- A matched transfer keeps the original acquisition date. The transfer itself is not a sale and does not restart the year. See self-transfers.
- Income that opens a lot uses the payout timestamp as the acquisition date. The later sale measures from that date. See interest income.
- If the acquisition date is unknown, the worksheet does not invent one and does not call the sale long-term to fill a box.
Short-term digital-asset rows default to box I. Long-term rows default to box L. The 2025 box letters are on Form 8949 for bitcoin. This page does not tell you to shorten or lengthen a holding period.
Questions
Is a sale on the one-year anniversary long-term here?
No. BasisFix treats that date as short-term. Long-term starts the next UTC day. That is how this worksheet implements held for more than one year.
What happens to a February 29 purchase?
The anniversary is February 28 of the next year. A sale on that February 28 is short-term in BasisFix. A sale on March 1 is long-term.
Does moving bitcoin to my own wallet restart the year?
Not when the send and the receive match. The original acquisition date moves with the coins. An unmatched send is not turned into a sale.