EY Aims to Make It Easier to Calculate Crypto Taxes With New Tool

“Big Four” consulting firm EY has launched a tool to help cryptocurrency users with their accounting and tax calculations.

The firm announced Monday that the software solution, called EY Crypto-Asset Accounting and Tax (CAAT), was designed to assist its U.S. customers prepare Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax returns related to crypto assets.

CAAT can source transaction information from "virtually all major exchanges," the firm said, pulling together data from various sources and automating production of different dashboards and reports, as well as tax returns.

The product is aimed to serve both institutional clients, as well as individuals, as EY said it has seen “significant” growth in the number of customers that hold and trade cryptocurrencies.

“From a retail client perspective, the product will be leveraged for high net worth individuals served by the EY Private Client Services practice and made available to users of EY TaxChat, a mobile tax preparation service that pairs users with licensed and experienced EY professionals who prepare individual tax returns,” the firm said.

The firm further suggested that the software will benefit asset management firms in particular, because crypto assets continue to evolve and increase in utility.

"The initial validation we have received from the market has been phenomenal, but it only represents the beginning," said Michael Meisler, partner and global blockchain tax leader at EY.

With the calculation of crypto taxes being often frustratingly complex, tools to assist the process are increasing in number. Most recently, crypto exchange Coinbase integrated TurboTax, the tax-filing software offered by Intuit Consumer Tax Group, for its U.S. customers.

At the time, Coinbase also integrated CoinTracker, a Y Combinator-backed crypto and bitcoin tax software manager built by former Google employees, to further help its customers.

EY image via Shutterstock