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Count On Sheep is headquartered in San Diego, and California makes the local work serious: crypto gains taxed as ordinary income up to 13.3% with no long-term discount. From Qualcomm engineers to Navy families to long-hold Coinbase retail investors, the county's crypto profiles all need the same thing: a ledger that holds up.
San Diego is Count On Sheep's home market: the company is headquartered at 8910 University Center Lane and serves clients in all 50 states from here. California taxes crypto gains as ordinary income up to 13.3% with no long-term discount, so a $500,000 long-term gain costs a top-bracket San Diego resident roughly $185,500 combined. Count On Sheep's USA-based team, with former Big 4 leadership, rebuilds wallet, exchange, and DeFi history into CPA-ready Form 8949, Schedule D, and Schedule 1 inputs. We do not file. Your CPA files, or you file with TurboTax.
Phone: (858) 434-7547
Before you file yourself or hand anything to a CPA, the crypto activity has to be reconciled. That is how San Diego investors avoid duplicate disposals, unsupported basis, overstated gains, and preventable tax. Clean records improve accuracy, preserve legitimate deductions and losses, and let you reconcile each 1099-DA against the complete transaction history.
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Most crypto tax teams serve San Diego from somewhere else. We serve everywhere else from San Diego. The headquarters is here, the specialists are here, and the local profiles, tech equity, military moves, and long-hold retail portfolios, are the ones we know best.
The tech and science economy drives the first profile. Qualcomm is headquartered here, UC San Diego and the Torrey Pines research corridor feed a deep engineering base, and Illumina anchors the biotech cluster. Those employees hold RSUs and ESPP shares alongside crypto, and the two interact on the same return: withholding, brackets, and NIIT all move together.
The military is the second. San Diego County hosts one of the largest concentrations of military personnel in the country, from Naval Base San Diego to Camp Pendleton to Miramar. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, active-duty members can keep a home-state domicile while stationed here, which changes whether California taxes their crypto at all. PCS moves also scramble records. We rebuild them.
The third profile is the long-hold retail investor: a Coinbase account opened in 2013, a hardware wallet, a defunct exchange or two, and no CSVs. That basis archaeology, reconstructing acquisition dates and prices from chain data and archived market history, is core Count On Sheep work. And for our home market, the engagement starts the same way it does everywhere: a free consultation.
Being local changes the texture of the engagement more than the mechanics. Consultations still happen by phone or video, the portal is still the secure hand-off point, and the deliverable is the same one clients in the other 49 states receive: per-lot Form 8949 detail, Schedule D totals, Schedule 1 items, and workpapers. The difference is that when your CPA has a question in March, the team answering it is in the same time zone, a few exits up the 805.
San Diego residents pay federal capital gains up to 23.8% including NIIT plus California tax up to 13.3%. California treats every gain as ordinary income regardless of holding period, and neither the city nor the county adds a local income tax.
| City | State + local tax | Federal (LTCG + NIIT) | Total tax | Extra cost vs no-tax cities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego | $66,500 (13.3%) | $119,000 (23.8%) | $185,500 | +$66,500 |
| Austin | $0 | $119,000 (23.8%) | $119,000 | Baseline |
| Miami | $0 | $119,000 (23.8%) | $119,000 | Baseline |
Illustrative math at top marginal rates. Federal assumes the 20% long-term rate plus 3.8% net investment income tax. California's 13.3% applies above $1 million of income; the bracket below is 12.3%. The moving math cuts both ways: gains realized while a California resident stay California taxable even if you later relocate.
California conforms to federal crypto treatment on a rolling basis: property classification, per-lot cost basis, and specific identification. The FTB has issued no separate crypto guidance, so federal characterization carries straight onto the Form 540.
What this means in practice: California conformity means one reconciled ledger feeds both the federal return and the Form 540, and every gain on it is taxed twice, once by each government. Specific identification, harvesting decisions, and holding-period proof all depend on per-lot documentation. That is the deliverable, and for San Diego clients it is built a few miles from where it gets filed.
San Diego is the one pilot city where Count On Sheep has its actual headquarters. The city page combines that local entity signal with a concrete explanation of how wallet evidence becomes CPA-ready California and federal inputs.
The first meeting identifies exchanges, wallets, chains, years, transaction volume, DeFi protocols, broker forms, and known missing records. We scope the evidence problem before promising a completion date or treating a software total as correct.
Clients can meet by appointment at the University Center Lane headquarters or complete the entire engagement through secure document sharing and video calls. The same read-only and public-address controls apply in either workflow.
Biotech, software, defense, and startup compensation can include token grants, purchases, warrants, vesting, or entity distributions. A wallet transfer alone may not show purchase price, restrictions, payroll treatment, or the agreement that created the right.
We connect the transaction history to the supplied grant, purchase, vesting, or compensation documents. Your CPA or attorney interprets those documents and decides the final tax treatment.
San Diego investors may use platforms or counterparties outside the United States. The transaction still needs a date, asset, quantity, dollar value, proceeds, and supported basis. Foreign-account and information-reporting questions require separate professional review.
We reconcile the crypto activity and identify foreign venues or missing data for the CPA. We do not decide FBAR, FATCA, treaty, residency, or entity obligations inside the wallet ledger.
California gives capital gains no separate lower state rate. The CPA therefore needs supported federal gain and loss detail before determining the California result and any Schedule D (540) differences.
Our handoff includes Form 8949-ready disposals, Schedule D totals, digital-asset income inputs, closing lots, transfer matching, broker-form reconciliation, and documented exceptions.
An investor moves an asset acquired for $35,000 from self-custody into a broker and later sells for $110,000. A broker statement that knows only the proceeds can imply a $110,000 gain. The owned-wallet history may support a $75,000 gain instead.
We trace the acquisition and transfer, preserve the holding period, and reconcile the broker proceeds. Your CPA reviews the supported basis and applies the federal and California rules.
Bring or upload every exchange export, wallet address, prior Form 8949, opening-lot inventory, Form 1099-DA, and digital-asset income record. Include closed accounts and notes about assets received through work, a business, mining, staking, gifts, or an estate.
The meeting is for scoping and evidence collection, not an instant tax conclusion. Complex portfolios are priced after the sources and years are understood.
The final file records remaining units, supported basis, acquisition dates, and custody location. That inventory should agree with the assets still held across exchanges and wallets after all current-year transactions are processed.
The next engagement can begin from a documented opening position. If a future broker receives transferred assets without basis, the prior closing file provides the acquisition history needed to reconcile its proceeds report.
Meeting at the San Diego headquarters can make document review easier, but it does not turn Count On Sheep into the return preparer. We remain responsible for the crypto reconciliation package, while the client’s CPA remains responsible for the complete federal and California filings.
At the San Diego headquarters, clients can bring grant files, prior workpapers, hardware-wallet inventories, or unusual source exports for a scheduled review. The engagement record still distinguishes original evidence from assumptions and records which documents support each material lot. This headquarters workflow is unique to San Diego and is not represented as a branch-office process elsewhere.
Qualcomm, biotech, and startup employees vest RSUs and ESPP shares in the same years they trade crypto. We deliver the crypto side per lot so your CPA can model the combined bracket, withholding, and NIIT picture accurately.
Active-duty members stationed in San Diego may keep another state's domicile under the SCRA, which can keep California off their crypto entirely. The records have to support it, and PCS moves scatter them. We rebuild the ledger across duty stations.
Coinbase accounts from 2013, defunct exchanges, and cold wallets with no paperwork are everywhere in this county. We reconstruct acquisition dates and basis from chain data and archived price history so old lots stop being guesses.
California notices increasingly target large reported gains with weak documentation. Per-lot workpapers behind every 8949 line are what turn a scary letter into a short correspondence.
A border-region investor base means non-US exchange accounts and international transfers show up often. We assemble complete data so your CPA can make FBAR and Form 8938 calls with the full picture.
Koinly or CoinTracker output with thousands of unmatched transfers is one of our most common starting points. We fix the data, document the fixes, and hand back numbers you can file through TurboTax with confidence.
Reviewed August 2026. These first-party resources support the general federal and state information on this page. Your CPA applies the current instructions to your return; Count On Sheep supplies the reconciled crypto records and form-ready inputs.
Follow the San Diego service path into the national forms, basis, DeFi, and reconciliation guidance behind the local engagement.
See how Count On Sheep turns exchange, wallet, DeFi, NFT, and income activity into one CPA-ready reconciliation package.
Understand broker-reported proceeds, transferred assets, missing basis, and the records needed to reconcile the form.
Follow the evidence path from prior exchanges and self-custody wallets to supported Form 8949 basis.
Learn what to preserve for liquidity pools, staking, lending, bridges, NFTs, and related income or disposal events.
Review the Form 8949, Schedule D, income, cost-basis, and supporting workpapers delivered after reconciliation.
Yes. Count On Sheep is headquartered at 8910 University Center Lane, Suite 400, in University City. Engagements still run through the same secure client workflow our clients in all 50 states use, with consultations by phone or video.
No. We produce the crypto inputs: Form 8949 detail, Schedule D totals, and Schedule 1 income items. Your CPA files the federal return and the Form 540, or you file yourself with TurboTax. Staying out of preparation keeps the engagement conflict-free.
Up to roughly 37.1% at top brackets: the 20% federal long-term rate, 3.8% net investment income tax, and California's 13.3% top rate. Most residents land lower because the 13.3% only applies above $1 million of income.
No. California taxes all capital gains as ordinary income regardless of holding period. The long-term benefit is federal only, which still makes per-lot holding-period proof worth up to 17 percentage points on the federal layer.
Often no. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act you can keep your home-state domicile while stationed here, and investment income generally follows domicile. Your CPA makes the residency call. We produce the per-lot records that support it.
Yes, and it is one of our most common engagements. We take the existing software output, find the unmatched transfers and missing basis, correct the classifications, and document every fix so the final numbers are defensible.
Yes. Old lots can be reconstructed from blockchain data, exchange archives, and historical price records. It is slower than pulling an API, but it turns unprovable basis into documented basis, which is exactly what an FTB or IRS question demands.
Yes. The package is built for that handoff: 8949 detail, Schedule D totals, Schedule 1 items, and workpapers behind every number. Your CPA files from it without redoing the crypto work, and we are a local phone call away if they have questions.
Exchange access or CSV exports, wallet addresses for every chain you have used, prior returns that touched crypto, and a short brief on anything unusual: mining, DeFi, military moves, or foreign accounts. We scope it on a free consultation.
