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Using rotki for Tax Accounting ​

This guide walks you through using rotki to calculate your cryptocurrency taxes. If you just installed rotki and want to generate a tax report, this is the page for you.

NOTE

rotki does not provide tax or legal advice. Always consult a qualified tax advisor for your specific situation. rotki helps you organize your data and generate reports that you can share with your advisor.

Overview ​

The two most important sections of rotki for tax accounting are:

  1. History Events — where you review, correct, and customize all of your transactions
  2. Profit/Loss Report — where you generate the actual PnL (profit and loss) report for a given time period

Everything else in rotki (adding accounts, importing data, configuring settings) feeds into these two sections.

Step-by-step tax workflow ​

1. Connect your data sources ​

Before you can generate a tax report, rotki needs to know about your transactions.

  • Exchanges: Add API keys for your centralized exchanges under API Keys. rotki will automatically pull your trade history, deposits, and withdrawals.
  • Blockchain accounts: Add your EVM, Bitcoin, or Solana addresses under Accounts & Balances. rotki will pull and decode on-chain transactions automatically.
  • CSV imports: For exchanges that don't support API integration (or that no longer exist, like FTX), you can import CSV files with your trade history.

2. Configure your accounting settings ​

Go to Settings → Accounting Settings (detailed reference) and configure:

  • Cost basis method: FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, or ACB — check which method your tax jurisdiction requires. See accounting rule options explained for details.
  • Crypto to crypto trades: Whether swapping one crypto for another is a taxable event (it is in most jurisdictions).
  • Tax-free period: If your country allows tax-free treatment after a holding period (e.g., Germany's 1-year rule), set it here.
  • Profit currency: The fiat currency your taxes are denominated in (e.g., EUR, USD, GBP). Change this via the currency icon in the top-right menu.

3. Review your history events ​

Go to History Events in the left sidebar. This is where all your transactions live. rotki automatically decodes most on-chain transactions, but you should review them for accuracy:

  • Check for missing events: If you moved assets through unsupported protocols or peer-to-peer, you may need to add events manually.
  • Fix incorrectly categorized events: rotki may not always correctly identify what a transaction represents. See the event types and subtypes reference to understand each category, and the common customization guide for how to re-categorize events.
  • Check for missing accounting rules: Events with a warning icon won't be processed correctly. Either edit the event or add a missing accounting rule.
  • Match asset movements: If you have exchange deposits/withdrawals that aren't linked to on-chain transactions, use the asset movement matching feature.

4. Add missing prices ​

Some assets or time periods may not have price data available from rotki's oracles. Go to Add Missing Prices (guide) to manually specify prices for assets that rotki can't find automatically.

5. Generate your PnL report ​

  1. Click Profit and Loss Report in the left sidebar
  2. Select the time period (e.g., the tax year)
  3. Click Generate

The report shows:

  • A summary of total profit/loss and how much is taxable
  • A detailed table of every event that contributed to the calculation
  • The cost basis for each sell event (where the sold assets were originally acquired)

6. Export and review ​

  • Click Export CSV to download the report for use in Google Sheets or LibreOffice
  • Share the export with your tax advisor for review
  • See the PnL report guide for column definitions

Common issues and how to fix them ​

ProblemLikely causeSolution
"No documented acquisition found"rotki doesn't know when/where you originally bought an assetAdd a manual trade or acquisition event
Event counted as taxable when it shouldn't beWrong event type/subtypeEdit the event to the correct type
Missing price for an assetOracle doesn't have data for that asset/timestampAdd missing price manually
PnL numbers seem wrongAccounting settings may not match your jurisdictionReview accounting settings and accounting rule options
Report generation gets stuckOften caused by exchange API rate limitsCheck troubleshooting

What rotki currently does NOT support ​

Understanding what's not available saves you time:

  • Custom cost basis overrides: You cannot set an arbitrary cost basis for assets you already hold (e.g., market price on a specific date when moving tax jurisdictions). The workaround is to add a manual trade that represents the acquisition at the desired price. This is tracked in rotki/rotki#9816.
  • Custom counterparty definitions in accounting rules: Accounting rules can be set per counterparty, but only for counterparties that rotki already recognizes (protocol identifiers like "uniswap", "aave", etc.). You cannot define your own custom smart contract as a counterparty for accounting rule purposes. This is tracked in rotki/rotki#9803.

Further reading ​