Kalshi, Polymarket and Robinhood Tax Records: What Each Platform Furnishes and What to Gather Before Filing

As of September 7, 2026. This article is general information. It does not provide a platform-specific classification, recommend a tax position, prescribe a return form, or create a CPA-client relationship.

Start With the Actual Transaction

An event-contract result is not classified from a platform name or from the fact that a venue uses words such as market, wager, derivative, swap, or prediction. The analysis begins with the actual instrument and rights, venue and account records, acquisition and disposition or settlement mechanics, taxpayer activity, and the authorities that apply to the complete return.

The general rule that income is taxable unless excluded does not, by itself, determine character, timing, loss treatment, information reporting, or return placement. There is no automatic default classification, and an uncertain issue is not a menu from which a taxpayer selects the lowest rate.

As of September 7, 2026, no IRS revenue ruling, notice, regulation, or FAQ addresses the classification of event contracts. Practitioners have reported positions under Section 1256, capital-gain, wagering, and ordinary-income treatment; this article describes none of them as correct and ranks none of them.

Records to Preserve

• Complete annual and transaction-level exports, not dashboard totals alone
• Contract identifiers, specifications, acquisition dates and costs
• Sale, close-out, expiration, settlement, void, refund, and adjustment records
• Fees, credits, rewards, interest, and cash-ledger entries shown separately
• Every tax document actually furnished for the account
• Funding and withdrawal records, including separate digital-asset dispositions
• Account ownership, taxpayer residency, and location facts relevant to the year
• Prior-year positions and workpapers needed for consistency and basis continuity

Do not assume a vendor's profit-and-loss display equals taxable income. Reconcile opening and closing balances, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, fees, unsettled positions, voids, refunds, and every form actually received.

What the platforms say they furnish

Kalshi's help center (article "What Tax Documentation Does Kalshi Provide?", last updated June 22, 2026; retrieved September 7, 2026) says that users who meet the IRS reporting thresholds receive Form 1099-INT for interest paid by Kalshi, Form 1099-MISC for credits and rewards, Form 1099-B for proceeds of broker transactions such as crypto transfers, and Form 1099-DA for digital-asset reporting from its custodian. It lists no form that reports event-contract trading results and no Form W-2G. Trading results are available as a downloadable profit-and-loss statement that Kalshi itself labels "not tax advice." Keep the statement, the transaction-level export, and every form the account actually receives.

Robinhood's support page on event-contract taxes (retrieved September 7, 2026) states that "event contract trades aren't reported to the IRS by Robinhood," that "Robinhood doesn't provide a 1099 for event contract trades," that "taxes related to event contracts are your sole responsibility," and that its annual statement "is not a substitute tax reporting form." The same page notes that "the IRS hasn't issued specific guidance on the tax implications of trading event contracts." Preserve the annual statement and the account's transaction history; the absence of a form does not change what must be reported.

Polymarket US (QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US, a CFTC-designated contract market since July 9, 2025) published no statement about tax documents on its public pages on September 7, 2026; its account interface has a tax-documents area. Check that area each January and preserve any form furnished. For any activity settled in a digital asset, keep the wallet and conversion records separately - the digital-asset legs can have their own reporting and basis consequences regardless of how the contract itself is treated.

Regulatory Status Is Not Tax Guidance

The CFTC published a proposed Rule 40.11 amendment on June 12, 2026, and its comment period closed July 27, 2026. As of September 7, 2026, the cited official materials still describe a proposal, not an effective final rule. A proposed market-regulation rule does not amend the Internal Revenue Code or prescribe a return position. State regulatory or court proceedings likewise do not automatically decide federal or New Jersey income-tax character.

See the CFTC Rule 40.11 status update for the official procedural milestone. That page intentionally does not extrapolate a tax result from the proposal.

On the CFTC's list of designated contract markets (retrieved September 7, 2026), Kalshi has been a designated contract market since November 3, 2020, and QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US since July 9, 2025. Designation is a Commodity Exchange Act status. It is one fact in a tax analysis, not a tax classification.

The courts are divided on whether sports-related event contracts on a CFTC-registered market are "swaps" that preempt state gambling law. The Third Circuit held that they are (KalshiEX LLC v. Flaherty, No. 25-1922, April 6, 2026, 2–1); the Ninth Circuit held that Kalshi had not shown preemption of Nevada's gaming law (KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad, No. 25-7516, August 28, 2026); and New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to decide the question in a petition dated September 2, 2026. Those cases decide who regulates the market. None of them decides federal or New Jersey income-tax character, and this article draws no tax conclusion from them.

As of September 7, 2026 the New Jersey Division of Taxation has published no guidance on event contracts; its gambling publications (TB-20(R)) predate them and do not mention them. A New Jersey resident should keep the same records as any other trader and should not assume a category until the federal and state analysis is done on the actual facts.

Classification Requires a Supported Analysis

Potential Code provisions may differ depending on the instrument and activity. A responsible analysis must address supporting and contrary authority, character and timing, each loss provision, business or investment status, state treatment, consistency, and the complete return. This article does not rank Section 1256, capital, wagering, or ordinary-income treatment and does not give form-entry instructions.

Section 183(d) supplies a rebuttable presumption only of profit motive when its statutory test is met. It is not a safe harbor; failing the test creates no contrary hobby presumption, and meeting it does not by itself establish a Section 162 trade or business or Schedule C treatment. The regulations use nine non-exclusive factors, with no controlling factor or numerical majority. Those principles still do not classify an event contract.

Service Boundary

Within a separately accepted written scope, Monaco CPA may evaluate federal and New Jersey return treatment using the records and facts provided. Monaco CPA does not promise a classification, disclosure, tax result, engagement, consultation, response time, or agency outcome. Legal and regulatory advice, platform-access advice, international information returns, FBAR, Form 8938, examination, appeals, collections, and controversy representation are outside this page's offered scope and may require independent specialists.

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Disclaimer: This content is general information, not tax or legal advice, and does not create a CPA-client relationship.