Does Kalshi send a 1099?
Short answer: probably not the one you're hoping for. Unlike a stock brokerage, Kalshi generally does not hand you a tidy 1099-B summarizing your trading profit and loss, which surprises a lot of traders the first time they sit down to file.
Here's what Kalshi does and doesn't send, why it works that way, and what you're responsible for regardless.
- Kalshi may send a 1099-INT if you earned interest on your cash balance, and a 1099-MISC if you received referral bonuses or other credits above the reporting threshold.
- This is the trap.
- Keep your complete transaction history: every fill, every settlement, and the fees attached to each.
- ContractTax ingests your Kalshi trade export and rebuilds the P&L the 1099-B would have given you: net of fees, organized for filing, and broken down so you can see where the money actually came from.
What Kalshi actually issues
Kalshi may send a 1099-INT if you earned interest on your cash balance, and a 1099-MISC if you received referral bonuses or other credits above the reporting threshold. What it generally does not send is a comprehensive 1099-B covering the gains and losses on your event-contract trades.
Platforms that route through Kalshi's exchange follow similar logic. For example, brokers offering event contracts have stated they will not issue 1099s for that activity. The practical upshot is that the document most traders expect simply isn't coming.
No 1099 does not mean no tax
This is the trap. Because nothing arrives in the mail, it's easy to assume there's nothing to report. The IRS sees it the other way: all income is reportable whether or not a form documents it, and unreported trading gains can be examined after the fact.
So the obligation is fully on you to total your proceeds, costs, and fees and report the result. That's more work than copying a number off a form, but it's also where a tool that reconstructs your P&L from raw trade data earns its keep.
What records to keep
Keep your complete transaction history: every fill, every settlement, and the fees attached to each. If you ever need to defend your numbers, a full export of your trading activity is the evidence that backs them up.
Download your activity while you have easy access to it. Platforms don't always keep older detail readily available, and reconstructing a year of trades after the fact is painful without the raw records.
How ContractTax handles the missing form
ContractTax ingests your Kalshi trade export and rebuilds the P&L the 1099-B would have given you: net of fees, organized for filing, and broken down so you can see where the money actually came from. For Pro users it can sync automatically so the picture stays current.
It won't invent a form Kalshi never issued, but it produces the underlying figures your preparer needs and keeps them ready year-round instead of leaving you to assemble them in April.