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I was using Safepal Wallet and moved my funds to Trust Wallet.

I am currently tracking those original transactions for tax purposes next year.

I was simply using hash/txid provided in the transaction overview, but have an odd problem. The amount that shows up on my wallet is correct, but when I click to see the details, the hash/tax id links to a transaction where I received 5 BTC for around $250,000, but the original and true amount was around $30.

I have no idea what to do. I have checked on different searches and this is the same information. How on earth? Will this somehow screw me for taxes--be reported?

I have the correct number reflected on my wallet balance, but the "details" of this transaction are blatantly wrong. I have other coins and transactions with similar issues and some that are exactly correct. PLEASE HELP.

RedGrittyBrick
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Jennifer
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  • tax id, or txid? – Pieter Wuille May 15 '21 at 20:33
  • TxID....another note, all of my SEND transaction amounts are correct. ALL of my RECEIVE transaction amounts are so off it is laughable. – Jennifer May 15 '21 at 20:35
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    txids have nothing to do with taxes, it seems more likely you're looking for the wrong thing or misinterpreting how transactions work. For tax advice you're better off contacting an accountant or tax advisor, but generally I believe that you just report how much money you actually had. – Pieter Wuille May 15 '21 at 20:39
  • I am correctly interpreting all of my other transactions. For some reason, only in one BTC coin history, the amounts are way off. I have my own records, so I'm not too worried about this (only a hassle of explaining it to IRS). – Jennifer May 15 '21 at 20:47

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I was using Safepal Wallet and moved my funds to Trust Wallet

The outcome might be affected by the method you used to move the funds. Generally there are three methods for non-custodial wallets - using a recovery phrase, importing keys and sweeping.

I can imagine that sweeping funds might mean that the wallet records the sweep transaction as the transaction in which you acquired those funds. Any dollar value might refer to an exchange rate at date of sweeping rather than at the date the previous wallet received the funds. This is speculation though.

It is also possible that the wallet uses todays exchange rate to show you the dollar value of the amount of Bitcoin in any transaction regardless of transaction date. This would be a problem created by the wallet's developers (and target audience) treating Bitcoin as a dollar payment system rather than a separate currency. In other words, selecting USD instead of BTC as the display units might be intended to give you an easily understood idea of current purchasing power, not of exact amounts of dollars exchanged (the dollar payment would be external to the Bitcoin network itself and not part of the Bitcoin transaction - which is only ever half of the real-world transaction)

the hash/[txid] links to a transaction where I received 5 BTC for around $250,000, but the original and true amount was around $30.

The Bitcoin blockchain and Bitcoin network carries no information about dollar exchange rates or about any other currency, goods or services being exchanged, purchased or sold in any transaction. You can't use blockchain records as receipts and not as tax-receipts. You probably shouldn't rely on your Bitcoin wallet to tell you anything about dollar values for IRS tax purposes unless the wallet was explicitly designed for that purpose and its developers warrants fitness for that specific purpose.

RedGrittyBrick
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