API Reference

Inventory

Overview

The Inventory API offers a streamlined solution to retrieve a user's inventory, providing essential information such as total cost and total quantity for each asset.

Key Terms

  • Inventory: Inventory refers to the collection of assets that a user holds, which have not been disposed of. Inventory is organized into “lots”, with each associated with additional metadata such as cost basis and acquisition date. This metadata is used to calculate taxable gains when the assets are sold or otherwise disposed of. Inventory information can answer common questions such as, “How much of an asset do I own?” and “What are my unrealized gains for a particular asset?”.
  • Tax Lot / Lot: A tax lot, otherwise known simply as a "lot," represents a specific set of investment units acquired in a single transaction. Each tax lot is characterized by its acquisition date, cost basis, asset type, and quantity. Accurate tracking of tax lots is essential for proper tax gain or loss calculation when an asset is disposed of, ensuring compliance with tax regulations and optimizing tax outcomes.
    • Transfer Lot: A transfer-in transaction does not have cost basis information on it. A set of transfer lots can be associated with the transaction to set the lots for the transfer-in transaction if the user provides the cost basis information for the transfer-in transaction. See User-Provided Cost Basis for additional detail on how to provide transfer lots.
  • Acquisition Date: The acquisition date is the date when an individual gains control of an asset. In the United States, this date determines the holding period (Long Term or Short Term) for tax purposes. The accurate determination of the original acquisition date is crucial, especially when assets are transferred.
  • Cost Basis: The cost basis of an asset is its value at the time of acquisition or the amount paid for the asset. It is essential for calculating gains or losses when the asset is disposed of. For example:
    • Buying 0.5 BTC for $200 results in a cost basis of $200 for that 0.5 BTC.
    • Earning 1.5 BTC with a fair value of $750 results in a cost basis of $750 for that 1.5 BTC.
  • Disposition Method: The Disposition Method (sometimes referred to as the Accounting Method or Cost Basis Method) is used to determine the cost basis of an asset for tax purposes upon sale. See Supported Disposition Methods for additional detail.
  • Missing Cost Basis: Transferring assets between accounts or wallets can make it challenging to track the cost basis and original acquisition date, resulting in a "missing cost basis." Accurate tax gain or loss determination becomes difficult for assets with missing cost basis information.

Purpose

Inventory can be used to provide an optimized tax experience for your end users. Examples of use cases that leverage this:

  • Detailed Portfolio Overview: By using the "Inventory Summary per Asset" endpoint, users can obtain a detailed overview of all the assets in their portfolio, including the quantity of each asset held.
  • Accurate Cost Basis Calculation: The API provides cost basis information for each asset, ensuring that users have a precise understanding of their investment's acquisition costs. It can also exclude assets without a cost basis, typically due to transfers between accounts or wallets.

Prerequisites

  1. Tenant scoped bearer token must be created
  2. Users must have been created in TaxBit’s system.
  3. To have meaningful information that is outputted, users must have acquisition transactions.

Available Actions

  • Get Inventory Summary by Asset: Get a comprehensive summary of your inventory by asset, including total cost basis and quantity for assets that are still in your inventory.