Your Crypto Tax Software Generated a Report for You. But Is It Ready to File?
Importing your wallets and exchanges is only the beginning.
Missing transactions, incorrect cost basis, unmatched transfers, and classification errors can remain hidden, even when your crypto tax software shows no warnings.
Verify Before You File™ is a practical educational system designed to help crypto investors and tax professionals identify potential problems and determine what should happen before a crypto tax report is used for tax filing.
Created by Sharon Yip, CPA, a crypto investor since 2017 and crypto tax expert since 2018 with more than 25 years of public accounting and corporate tax experience.
You imported your exchanges. You connected your wallets. You resolved the software warnings and generated your tax forms.
Everything may look complete.
But how do you know whether the final numbers are reasonable?
Crypto tax software calculates results based on the information it receives and the decisions made while the account is being reconciled. If information is missing or a transaction is handled incorrectly, the software may still generate a polished report.
The problem may not be obvious unless you know what to look for.
Before relying on a crypto tax report, you should consider questions such as:
Were all wallets, exchanges, and blockchain addresses included?
Were transfers between your own accounts matched correctly?
Were missing cost basis issues properly resolved?
Were staking, DeFi, NFT, and other transactions classified appropriately?
Are manual adjustments supported by the available records?
Do the final gain, loss, and income amounts make sense?
These questions matter whether you are reviewing your own report or one provided by a tax client.
A Completed Crypto Tax Report Is Not Necessarily a Reliable One
Introducing Verify Before You File™
Verify Before You File™ is being developed to help you conduct a structured review of a crypto tax report before relying on it for tax filing.
You do not need to become a crypto tax expert or learn how to rebuild an entire crypto account reconciliation from the beginning.
Instead, Verify Before You File™ will help you:
Recognize common warning signs
Identify areas that may require further investigation
Understand which issues could affect the report
Ask better questions about the underlying data
Determine whether corrections may be needed
Recognize when professional assistance may be appropriate
The goal is not to promise that every report is perfect. It is to help you avoid relying on a report simply because the software was able to generate one.
A Practical Three-Step Review
Verify Before You File™ uses a practical framework to help you review the report, evaluate what you find, and decide what should happen next.
1. Review
Look for warning signs that may indicate missing data, incorrect cost basis, unmatched transfers, classification errors, unsupported adjustments, or other potential problems.
2. Evaluate
Consider whether the issues you identified are minor, material, or likely to affect the reliability of the report.
3. Decide
Based on what you find, determine the appropriate next step.
Outcome
🟢 Ready to File
You did not identify warning signs that require additional action, and the report appears reasonable to use for tax filing.
🟡 Fix Before Filing
You identified one or more issues that should be investigated or corrected before relying on the report.
🔴 Professional Help Recommended
The report contains significant issues, complex activity, or unresolved questions that may require assistance from an experienced crypto tax professional.
Verify Before You File™ is designed to support a more informed decision. It does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of a crypto tax report.
Looking Ahead: The CTI Verification Journey™
Verify Before You File™ is the first step in a broader educational journey designed to help crypto investors and tax professionals produce more reliable crypto tax reports.
Each phase addresses a different question that may arise before a crypto tax report is used for filing.
Phase 1: Verify Before You File™
Can I reasonably rely on this crypto tax report?
Learn how to review a crypto tax report, recognize common warning signs, evaluate the potential impact of the issues you find, and determine the appropriate next step.
Your review will lead to one of three possible outcomes:
Ready to File
Fix Before Filing
Professional Help Recommended
Status: Coming Soon
Phase 2: Fix Before You File™
How do I address the problems identified during my review?
Once you identify potential problems, the next step is understanding what may need to be corrected before relying on the report.
Fix Before You File™ will introduce practical approaches for addressing common crypto tax reporting issues, including:
Missing or duplicate transactions
Unmatched transfers
Missing or incorrect cost basis
Unsupported blockchains
Common transaction classification errors
Incomplete documentation
Some issues may be corrected by the person preparing the report. Others may require additional records, technical judgment, or assistance from an experienced crypto tax professional.
Status: In Development
Phase 3: Crypto Account Reconciliation Blueprint™
How do professionals produce reliable crypto tax reports from the beginning?
The Crypto Account Reconciliation Blueprint™ will go beyond reviewing or correcting an existing report. It will teach the end-to-end professional methodology used to transform raw exchange and blockchain data into a reliable and well-documented crypto tax report.
Topics will include:
Data collection and account verification
Transaction completeness
Wallet and exchange reconciliation
Transaction classification
Cost basis analysis
DeFi and NFT activity
Quality-control procedures
Documentation and audit readiness
This advanced program will be designed for those who want to develop a deeper understanding of professional crypto account reconciliation from start to finish.
Status: Planned
One Journey. Three Different Questions.
Verify Before You File™ helps you determine whether a report appears reasonable to rely on.
Fix Before You File™ helps you understand how common problems may be addressed.
Crypto Account Reconciliation Blueprint™ teaches the professional methodology behind producing a reliable report from the beginning.
Each phase builds on the one before it, moving from identifying potential problems, to addressing them, to understanding the complete reconciliation process.
Who Is Verify Before You File™ For?
Crypto Investors
You prepared your own crypto tax report using software, or received a report prepared by a service provider.
Now you need to decide whether the results are reasonable before importing them into tax software, sending them to your tax preparer, or using them to file your return.
Verify Before You File™ will help you recognize potential warning signs, ask better questions, and determine whether your report may need more work.
Tax Professionals
Your client gave you a report generated by crypto tax software, but you were not involved in preparing the underlying reconciliation.
You need a practical way to evaluate whether the report appears reasonable or whether additional information, corrections, or professional reconciliation may be needed.
Verify Before You File™ will help you conduct a more structured review before relying on the report to prepare a client’s tax return.
Closing the Verification Gap™
Crypto tax software can organize transactions and calculate gains, losses, and income.
AI can explain tax concepts, summarize guidance, and help investigate individual issues.
These tools can be extremely useful. But they do not independently confirm that every account was included, every transaction was handled correctly, or every important judgment was reasonable.
That leaves a gap between generating a crypto tax report and confidently relying on it for tax filing.
We call this the Verification Gap™.
Verify Before You File™ is designed to help close that gap by giving you a practical process for reviewing the report, evaluating potential issues, and deciding what to do next.
Why I Created Verify Before You File™
Over the years, I have reviewed many crypto tax reports that appeared complete but contained problems beneath the surface.
Sometimes an entire wallet was missing. Sometimes transfers between a taxpayer’s own accounts were treated as taxable sales. In other cases, missing cost basis, incorrect classifications, or unsupported manual adjustments changed the final results.
Many of these reports were generated by reputable crypto tax software. The software was not necessarily malfunctioning. It was calculating based on incomplete data, incorrect assumptions, or decisions it could not independently evaluate.
That is why I believe generating a crypto tax report should not be the final step before filing.
Someone still needs to step back, review the report as a whole, and ask whether the results make sense.
I created Verify Before You File™ to make that review process more practical and accessible for crypto investors and the tax professionals who serve them.
— Sharon Yip, CPA
Built on Real Crypto Tax Experience
Sharon Yip, CPA, MBA, MST, has more than 25 years of tax experience, including tax leadership roles such as Senior Tax Manager at Deloitte and Corporate Tax Director at a Fortune 500 company.
She became a crypto investor in 2017 and has specialized in cryptocurrency taxation since 2018. She founded Cryptocurrency Tax Institute and Crypto Tax Advisors in 2018 and later co-founded Chainwise CPA, a boutique public accounting firm specializing in crypto tax and accounting services.
Through years of working with crypto investors, founders, businesses, and tax professionals, Sharon has developed practical methods for identifying reporting problems that software alone may not detect.
All educational resources published by Cryptocurrency Tax Institute are created or reviewed by Sharon.
Be Among the First to Verify Before You File™
Verify Before You File™ is currently in development.
Join the early access list to:
Be notified when the first resources become available
Receive previews and development updates
Get practical insights about reviewing crypto tax reports
Have an opportunity to provide input as the system is developed
Receive early-access information before the public launch
We will only send you relevant CTI education and product updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Practical Insights Before You File
Crypto tax software and AI are becoming more capable. But better tools do not eliminate the need for complete data, sound judgment, and careful review.
Explore CTI Insights for practical education about crypto tax software, AI, account reconciliation, and the warning signs that may affect the reliability of a crypto tax report.
AI Can Explain Crypto Taxes. But Can It Verify Your Crypto Tax Report?
AI can help explain cryptocurrency taxation and investigate individual issues. Learn where its capabilities end and why human judgment still matters.
Why Crypto Tax Software Reports Can Be Wrong Even When You Imported Everything
Importing every wallet and exchange does not necessarily produce an accurate report. Learn why problems can remain even when your data appears complete.
Can You Trust Your Crypto Tax Report Before You File?
Generating a report is only the beginning. Learn what can go wrong and why the final numbers should be reviewed before filing.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Verify Before You File™ is an educational review system designed to help crypto investors and tax professionals identify potential warning signs in a crypto tax report and determine what should happen before the report is used for tax filing.
-
No. Verify Before You File™ does not import transactions or calculate gains, losses, and income. It is designed to help you evaluate a report that has already been generated by crypto tax software.
-
No. Verify Before You File™ may help you identify areas that require further investigation, but it does not perform the underlying crypto account reconciliation or correct the report for you.
-
No. No educational review process can guarantee that a crypto tax report is completely accurate. Verify Before You File™ is designed to help you identify common warning signs and make a more informed decision before relying on the report.
-
No. Verify Before You File™ is being developed for crypto investors reviewing their own reports and tax professionals evaluating reports provided by clients.
-
Verify Before You File™ is currently in development. We plan to release it in summer 2026. Join the early access list to receive updates and be notified when the first resources become available.