FYI to anyone in the US concerned about optimizing tax implications (without evading taxes), the IRS has issued guidance on how cost basis must be allocated to digital assets.
In order to avoid misleading anyone, I will not attempt to fully explain it - but will just point out that it has happened and you may wish to take action before December 31, 2024.
The important thing to note is that a “safe harbor” is available to owners of digital assets that will provide some protection from future criticism by the IRS.
To achieve this protection, all that is required is that, before January 1, 2025, you sign and date a confirmation of your “allocation plan”.
Nothing gets sent to the IRS. You file that document, along with a dated list of your bitcoin (and other digital assets) holdings with associated basis - demonstrating that you have “documented and maintained sufficiently detailed records to show the total number of digital assets being held in each of my wallets and accounts as of January 1, 2025” along with detail of their costs.
My (perhaps flawed) understanding is that doing this protects you from the IRS claiming in some future year that you applied costs basis incorrectly in a year prior to 2025.
The rules for 2025 and beyond will still apply to you, but you will not be criticized for changing cost allocation method on Jan 1, 2025 (if your prior method is no longer acceptable). If you do more than buy & hold, you will want to understand the new rules.
New Guidance by IRS:
Part III IRS Rev. Proc. 2024-28
Free PDF of Example “Allocation Plan” document that can be printed and signed:
Blog Post by CPA Specializing in Crypto
Edit:
There is a long but complete discussion of this by Andreas Antonopoulos on YouTube (@aantonop)