Letter 6173 gives you three choices. File the returns you never filed. Amend the returns you got wrong. Or, if you believe you followed all the rules, send the IRS a statement explaining why.
Plenty of people who get a 6173 really did report their crypto. The IRS letter template itself only claims that for one or more of tax years 2013 through 2017, the IRS has not received “either a federal income tax return or an applicable form or schedule reporting your virtual currency transactions.” Records get mismatched. Activity gets reported on a schedule the IRS did not expect. Accounts belong to someone else in the household.
If that is you, the third option is your path. Here is how to take it without creating a new problem.
What the letter asks you to send
The published template, Letter 6173 (Rev. 6-2019), lists the package. If you believe you followed all tax and information reporting requirements relating to your virtual currency accounts, you mail or eFax:
- A statement of facts explaining your position. The letter asks you to include a complete history of previously reported income from your virtual currency transactions.
- An explanation of the actions you took to become compliant, with copies of previously filed documents that confirm your compliance.
- Your contact information, including telephone number, complete address, and mailing address if different.
- A signed and dated declaration that reads, in substance: “I declare under penalties of perjury that I have examined this entire document, including all attachments and accompanying statements, and that the enclosed is true, correct, and complete.”
The letter also includes an acknowledgment you sign: that the IRS reserves the right to make further contacts to clarify your explanation, and that “statements and documents sent under this option will be checked against information received from banks, financial advisors, and other sources for accuracy.”
Read that sentence as a promise, not a threat. The IRS has some data. Your statement is going to be compared to it.
Why the perjury declaration changes everything
A letter response is usually informal. This one is not. The declaration puts your statement under penalties of perjury, the same standard as a tax return.
IRC 7206(1) makes it a felony to willfully make and subscribe any return, statement or other document that contains or is verified by a written declaration under penalties of perjury and that you do not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter. The statute carries a fine of up to $100,000 for an individual, up to three years in prison, or both, plus costs of prosecution.
Nobody goes to prison for an honest mistake in a letter response. But nobody should sign a perjury declaration on a statement they have not checked line by line, either. In the Fiscal Year 2021 Objectives Report to Congress, the National Taxpayer Advocate took the position that requests like this one, for documents and a statement signed under penalties of perjury outside an examination, violate taxpayers’ rights. The same report notes the IRS’s position that Letter 6173 is not an examination. The template on irs.gov still contains the declaration. Treat it as real.
Building the statement of facts
A good statement is short, specific and boring. Here is the structure I use.
1. Identify the letter. Reference Letter 6173, the date printed on it, and your taxpayer identification number as shown. Write “Letter 6173” at the top of the first page.
2. State your position in one sentence. For example: the taxpayer reported all virtual currency transactions for the years in question on the returns as filed.
3. Give the year-by-year history. For each year, list where the activity was reported (Form 8949 and Schedule D for dispositions, Schedule C or Schedule 1 for income items), the totals reported, and which accounts the totals came from.
4. Explain any reason for confusion. If the activity was reported on a spouse’s separate return, a business return, or a trust return, say so and identify that return. If the account was in your name but belonged to someone else, explain the facts and attach proof.
5. Attach the proof. Copies of the relevant returns and schedules, and the exchange or wallet records that tie to the reported totals. The letter asks for copies of previously filed documents; do not send originals of anything.
6. Sign the declaration. Only after you have checked every number against the attachments.
Common situations and how to present them
You reported, but on aggregate lines. Many people reported crypto dispositions in summary form on Form 8949 with a supporting statement. Explain the method and include the supporting statement.
You had no reportable activity. If you only bought crypto with dollars and held it, the 2025 Form 1040 instructions say that buying digital assets with real currency, holding them, and moving them between your own wallets generally do not require a “Yes” on the digital asset question. Earlier years did not have the same question wording, so describe your activity plainly: purchases with U.S. dollars, no sales, no exchanges, no income. Attach account statements showing that.
The account belonged to someone else. Joint accounts, custodial accounts for children, and business accounts in a personal name all generate confusion. State who owned the assets, who reported the activity, and on which return.
You reported most, but not all. Then you are not in option three. You are in option two. Amend the year, write “Letter 6173” at the top of the first page, and mail the original amended return to the Philadelphia address shown in the letter. A statement claiming full compliance when it was not full is exactly what the perjury declaration exists to punish.
Where to send it and how
Use the address or eFax number printed on your letter. The template says the eFax limit is 10MB, and that original or amended returns should never be sent by eFax; they go by mail to Internal Revenue Service, 2970 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, with a copy included in your letter response.
The IRM lists a separate address for statements and correspondence on these letters: Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, 3651 IH-35, Mail Stop 4308 AUSC, Austin, TX 78741, and a hotline at 737-880-7990. See IRM 21.3.1.8.5. Your letter controls; if it differs from what you read online, follow the letter.
Send by a method that proves delivery, and keep a full copy of everything you sent.
Deadlines and extensions
The respond-by date is printed in the upper right of the first page. The letter says that if you need more time, you can send a request for a 30-day extension to the address on the letter by the respond-by date.
If you miss the date without asking for more time, the letter says the IRS “may refer your tax account for examination.” I cover what that looks like in what happens after you ignore an IRS crypto letter. If an examination does start, the rules change, and the IRS gets formal tools like the Information Document Request.
Should a representative sign or submit it?
The letter says that if you want someone to represent you, send a completed Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, with your response. A representative can prepare the statement, assemble the attachments and handle follow-up contact.
The perjury declaration in the letter is written for you, the taxpayer, to sign. Your representative should review it with you, not sign it for you.
The bottom line
If you reported correctly, say so, prove it, and sign only after you have checked. If you did not report everything, do not use the statement route at all. Amend instead.
This is one of those moments where an hour of a lawyer’s time is cheap insurance. A clean statement of facts closes the file. A sloppy one opens a new one.