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updatedAt: 2026-10-13T18:31:49.000Z
agentTools:
  projectIndex: https://apidocs.taxbit.com/llms.txt
---

# Choose your data path

Send transactions and let Taxbit compute, or send form data you compute yourself.

Reporting data reaches Taxbit one of two ways. You send **transactions**, and Taxbit computes cost basis, gains, and form amounts from them. Or you send **form data, sent as form items**: the amounts your platform has already computed, which Taxbit places on forms. The choice is made once, in your kickoff, and it shapes everything you build afterwards.

## Send transactions

You send each transaction as it happens, in Taxbit's transaction data model: your identifier, the account, a type such as `trade`, `deposit`, `withdraw`, or `income`, the time it occurred, and the amounts sent and received with their prices. Posting a transaction again with the same `id` updates it, so you can correct history by resending.

From transactions Taxbit works out cost basis at the lot level, realized and unrealized gains, income, and the amounts for each form. It is the only path that supports the Cost Basis & Gains features, such as inventory, gains, and tax center experiences.

For historical loads, the Taxbit Dashboard has a file uploader that takes CSV and JSONL; your implementation manager can walk you through it.

## Send form items

You compute the form amounts yourself and send them per account and tax year, up to 100 form items per request. Taxbit validates them, places them on the right forms, and files and delivers those forms. Nothing is computed from activity, so there is no inventory, no gains, and no in-app tax center data.

This path suits platforms with an existing tax engine, or with data that does not fit a transaction model, that need Taxbit for filing and delivery only.

## How to decide

| If you need                                                     | Choose       |
| --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ |
| Cost basis, gains, or the tax center features                   | Transactions |
| Taxbit computes cost basis and proceeds for 1099-B or 1099-DA   | Transactions |
| Filing and delivery of amounts your own systems already compute | Form data    |
| Year-end reporting only, with no in-year features               | Form data    |

If you may want cost basis, gains, or the tax center later, start with transactions. Moving from form data later means loading your history as transactions first.

## Where the sending happens

Sending transactions and form data is documented inside each product section, because the fields that matter differ by regime.

* **US payments platforms:** [Send payment transactions](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/payment-transactions) in US Information Reporting.
* **Digital asset exchanges and brokers:** [Creating inventory](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/creating-inventory) in Cost Basis & Gains.
* **EU, UK, and OECD digital platforms:** [Sending income payment transactions](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/dac7-sending-income-payment-transactions) in Digital Platform Reporting.
* **Form data:** the [Form Items reference](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/reference/post_form-items-batch).

The full transaction schema, including every type and subtype, is in the [Transactions reference](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/reference/post_transactions-external-id).

# Sibling pages

* [Get started overview](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/getting-started.md)
* [Prerequisites](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/prerequisites.md)
* [Authenticate your tenant](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/accessing-the-api.md)
* [Set up your filer](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/set-up-your-filer.md)
* [Create account owners and accounts](https://apidocs.taxbit.com/docs/setting-up-account-owners-and-accounts.md)