CryptoBorne

Methodology and sources

Where every number comes from, how the calculators use it, and how the results are checked.

Four rules

  1. Primary sources only. A provider's fee comes from that provider's own fee page, help centre or fee schedule — not from a review site. A tax figure comes from the IRS or the statute.
  2. Every figure is dated. Each fee shows the day it was last read. If a provider does not publish a fee, the page says so instead of guessing.
  3. Calculators are tested against hand-worked examples. Before a release, each engine has to reproduce a set of results worked out on paper.
  4. Rankings are arithmetic. Comparisons are sorted by the calculated result for your inputs. Nothing can be paid for. See disclosures.

Crypto IRA fee calculator

Fee schedules were last read on 4 October 2026. For each provider the model uses up to six kinds of fee: a one-time setup fee, a flat account fee, a custody fee or fund expense ratio charged as a percentage of the balance, a purchase fee, a sale fee, and any one-time fee on money coming in.

Each year runs in a fixed order: money goes in on day one; setup and purchase fees come out; the balance grows at the rate you chose; extra trades are charged; then the year's custody or fund fee and account fee are paid from the account. Contributions are assumed to be invested at the start of each year, and half of the extra trades are treated as sales and half as purchases.

Two results are shown. “Fees paid” is the dollars that left the account. “Cost including lost growth” is the difference between the ending balance and what the same deposits would have grown to with no fees at all — the fees plus the growth they would have earned.

Simplifications. A fund's expense ratio accrues daily; the model charges it once a year on the year-end balance, which slightly overstates it in a rising market. Bid-ask spreads are included only where a provider publishes them. The cost of a final sale, wire and termination fees, and taxes on distributions are not included. Growth is a constant rate you choose, not a forecast.

Tax-loss harvest calculator

Tax figures are for the 2026 tax year, last checked on 4 October 2026. The calculator runs two complete federal calculations — with and without the harvest — and reports the difference. Each one applies, in order: netting of short- and long-term results, the limit on deducting net capital losses from ordinary income, the ordinary brackets, the 0% / 15% / 20% long-term rates stacked on top of ordinary income, and the net investment income tax on net gains above the income threshold.

Simplifications. Federal only. No state tax, alternative minimum tax, credits or phase-outs. The net investment income tax is applied to capital gains only, because the calculator does not know your other investment income. Prices are spot prices from Coinbase's public API and may differ from the price you would get.

Form 1099-DA checker

The checker compares two figures for the sales you enter: the gain the IRS can compute from the form alone (proceeds minus only the basis your broker reported to it) and your real gain (proceeds minus what you paid). It then runs both through the same 2026 federal calculation as the harvest calculator and shows the difference, with the Form 8949 box each sale belongs under. The rules were read from the 2026 Form 1099-DA, its instructions and the Form 8949 instructions.

How results are tested

The calculation engines are separate from the pages and run under an automated test suite. The suite contains examples worked by hand from the published brackets and from simple made-up fee schedules, and a release does not go out unless every one matches to the cent. The same engine code runs in your browser.

When something changes

Fee pages and tax rules change. The date beside each figure tells you how fresh it is; the provider's page or the IRS is always the authority.

Source list

Fee schedules

Tax rules