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Form 1099-DA Box 6: Short-Term, Long-Term or Ordinary Gain

Updated October 17, 2026. Quick answer: Box 6 of Form 1099-DA has three checkboxes: short-term, long-term and ordinary. It tells you how the broker classified the gain or loss on this sale, and it points you to Form 8949 and Schedule D. It may be blank when box 9 is checked, and a checked Ordinary box is a signal to read the special-rule references.

Form 8949 for 2025, read code by code: Form 8949 code M, Form 8949 code Y and Form 8949 code Z.

What box 6 shows

Box 6 is labelled “Gain or loss” and has three boxes beneath it. The recipient instructions explain them in a few sentences: “The short-term and long-term boxes pertain to short-term gain or loss and long-term gain or loss.” “If the “Ordinary” gain or loss box is checked, your digital asset may be subject to special rules.”

The box is a classification, not an amount. The dollar amounts for the sale are in the boxes above it, including Form 1099-DA box 1f and Form 1099-DA box 1g. Box 6 says which kind of gain or loss to expect when you do the subtraction. The rest of the form is in the Form 1099-DA boxes guide.

How the broker decides short-term or long-term

The broker instructions say that for covered securities, and for noncovered ones where the broker completes the box anyway, the broker must “determine whether the gain or loss is short-term or long-term under section 1222, and whether any portion of the gain or loss is ordinary.”

The instructions list the rules the broker must apply in making that call: “Apply the normal rules for property acquired from a decedent to the digital assets.” “Apply the normal rules for property acquired as a gift to the digital assets.” and “use the rules in section 1223(3) to determine the holding period of the acquired digital assets.” The last of these applies where a wash sale loss is disallowed on stock or securities, the case covered on the page for boxes 1h and 1i.

There is one limit on what the broker looks at: “You are not required to consider other transactions, elections, or events occurring outside the account when determining whether the gain or loss on the sale is short-term or long-term.”

One classification per form

A broker cannot mix the two holding periods on one form. The instructions say: “You may not report both short-term and long-term gain or loss on the same Form 1099-DA.” The related rule on how many forms to use lists the splits: “Covered securities (defined earlier) with short-term gain or loss.” and “Covered securities with long-term gain or loss.” For noncovered units where the broker chooses to report basis voluntarily, the broker instructions illustrate this with a sale that may be reported on “two separate 2025 Forms 1099-DA”, one with short-term gain or loss and a combined form with long-term gain or loss.

What a checked Ordinary box means

The broker is told: “you are required to check the “Ordinary” checkbox if all or a portion of the gain or loss may be ordinary.” The one example the instructions give is currency: “For transactions that are denominated in a currency other than the U.S. dollar, brokers must check the “Ordinary” checkbox because these transactions may be section 988 transactions to the customer.” They add that the broker “must also check the short-term or long-term box” in that case. So Ordinary does not replace the holding period box; it is added to it.

For the recipient, the form points to further reading rather than giving an answer: “See the Instructions for Form 8949, Pub. 550, or Pub. 1212 for more details on whether there are any special rules or adjustments that might apply to your digital asset.” The box 2 passage adds that when “the “Ordinary” box in box 6 is checked, an adjustment may be required.” See boxes 2 and 9 for how that interacts with a checked box 2.

When box 6 is blank

The form says: “If box 9 is checked, box 6 may be blank.” Box 9 marks a noncovered security, explained on the page for boxes 2 and 9. The optional reporting method for qualifying stablecoins and specified NFTs can also leave it empty: the broker “may leave boxes 1d, 1e, 1g, 1h, 1i, 2, 3a, 3b, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12a, and 12b blank.” The dates the broker did record appear in boxes 1c, 1d and 1e.

Where box 6 goes on your return

The form’s own entry says the checkbox box “Indicates where to report this transaction on Form 8949 and Schedule D (Form 1040)”. The broker is told which letter codes to use: “This code indicates a short-term transaction for which the cost or other basis is being reported to the IRS.” and “This code indicates a long-term transaction for which the cost or other basis is being reported to the IRS.” For the stock-form equivalent, see Form 1099-B box 2. The pages for Form 8949 and Schedule D show where each lands.

Edition and box numbers

The primary read for this page is the 2025 edition of Form 1099-DA with its Instructions for Recipient, which is the form sent in early 2026 for tax year 2025, together with the 2025 Instructions for Form 1099-DA that the broker follows. The 2026 edition was the one irs.gov served as current on 2026-10-17, so both were read and compared.

The recipient instructions for box 6 read the same in both editions; the two extractions were compared word for word. The broker instructions for box 6 also read the same in the 2026 edition. The 2026 recipient instructions add a note that box 6 and the other boxes “may be blank if the broker is reporting sales of qualifying stablecoins or specified NFTs using an optional reporting method.”

Box numbers can stay the same while the wording around them moves, so check the tax year printed on the form you actually received before relying on any description here.

Common mistakes

  • Ignoring a checked Ordinary box. The form says “your digital asset may be subject to special rules”, and points to other IRS references.
  • Assuming a blank box 6 means the sale was neither gain nor loss. The form says “If box 9 is checked, box 6 may be blank.”.
  • Expecting one form to cover units held for different lengths of time. The broker is told “You may not report both short-term and long-term gain or loss on the same Form 1099-DA.”

Related: Form 8949, Schedule D, and Form 1099-B box 2.

Sources

Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 17, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.

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