Cryptoassets are taxable in the UK when they are sold, exchanged, spent, received as income, or used in transactions that HMRC treats as taxable events. For the 2025/26 tax year, this means applying the existing UK tax rules to your crypto activity, calculating values in pounds sterling, and reporting the result through Self Assessment where required.
Selling Bitcoin, swapping ETH for another token, receiving staking rewards, joining a DeFi protocol, or disposing of an NFT can each have a different tax outcome. The relevant question is what happened in the transaction: whether you made a disposal, received income, changed beneficial ownership, or simply moved assets between wallets you control.
The difficult part is usually not a single sale. It is reconstructing activity across exchanges, wallets, DeFi protocols and NFT platforms, then matching each movement to the correct tax treatment. Even as crypto reporting becomes more visible under CARF from 2026, the responsibility for your Self Assessment remains yours: you still need records, GBP valuations, cost basis calculations and supporting evidence for the figures you report.
This guide explains how UK crypto tax works for the 2025/26 tax year, including Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax, HMRC pooling rules, losses, DeFi, NFTs, CARF reporting and the Self Assessment forms used to report crypto gains and income before the 31 January 2027 online filing deadline.
Key points for the 2025/26 UK crypto tax year
For the 2025/26 tax year, you report crypto activity from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. The online Self Assessment deadline is 31 January 2027.
Crypto disposals, including sales, swaps, spending and most NFT disposals, can trigger Capital Gains Tax. Crypto received from staking, mining, services, employment or reward-based airdrops may fall under Income Tax.
The CGT annual exempt amount is £3,000. Gains are generally taxed at 18% or 24%, depending on your income band.
From 1 January 2026, CARF increases crypto reporting by service providers. It does not replace Self Assessment, but it makes accurate records and GBP valuations harder to ignore.
Why crypto tax reporting is harder to ignore in 2026
Crypto tax in the UK is no longer an informal or unclear area. HMRC has treated cryptoassets within the existing tax framework for years: disposals can fall under Capital Gains Tax, while rewards, payments and other receipts may fall under Income Tax depending on the facts.
What has changed is the level of visibility around crypto activity. Exchanges, wallet providers and other crypto service providers increasingly operate in a more regulated environment, with stronger customer checks, transaction records and reporting obligations. From 2026, CARF adds another layer by requiring in-scope service providers to collect and report information on cryptoasset users and transactions.
This does not mean HMRC calculates your crypto tax for you. You still need to reconstruct your activity, value transactions in pounds sterling, apply the correct tax treatment and keep records that support the numbers in your Self Assessment. If acquisitions, disposals, fees or wallet movements cannot be traced properly, the calculation becomes harder to defend.
How HMRC categorises your crypto activity
After the general framework, the practical issue is classification. Before calculating anything, you need to separate your crypto activity into categories that HMRC treats differently.
A disposal goes into the Capital Gains Tax calculation. A taxable receipt goes into the Income Tax calculation. Some movements, such as transfers between wallets you control, may be relevant for record-keeping but do not normally create tax by themselves.
This classification matters because the same asset can move through more than one tax category over time. For example, staking rewards may be taxable as income when received. If you later sell or swap those rewards, the later disposal can also create a capital gain or loss. The first step is therefore not “how much tax do I owe?”, but “what type of transaction am I looking at?”
Capital gains and losses: identifying disposals
A disposal is the starting point for most crypto Capital Gains Tax calculations.
HMRC generally treats you as disposing of crypto when you sell it for fiat currency, exchange it for another cryptoasset, use it to pay for goods or services, or gift it to someone other than your spouse or civil partner. Selling, exchanging or otherwise disposing of an NFT can follow the same logic.
To calculate the gain or loss, you compare the disposal value with the allowable cost of the asset. Both figures must be converted into pounds sterling, even where no fiat currency was involved. If you swap BTC for ETH, for example, you still need the GBP value of the BTC at the time of the swap.
Moving crypto between wallets or accounts you control is usually a not fiscally relevant event. If beneficial ownership does not change, the transfer itself is not normally a disposal. You still need to track it carefully, because internal transfers connect acquisitions, disposals, fees and balances across different platforms.
Income: when receiving crypto is taxable
Crypto can also be taxable when you receive it, before any sale or swap takes place.
This can include staking rewards, mining rewards, referral rewards, bounties, airdrops received in return for an action, or crypto received as payment for work or services. Where Income Tax applies, the taxable amount is generally based on the GBP value of the crypto at the time of receipt.
The classification depends on the circumstances. Staking rewards and referral bonuses are often treated as miscellaneous income. Mining may be treated as miscellaneous income where it is occasional, or as trading income where the activity is organised and commercial. Airdrops are not automatically taxed as income on receipt: the treatment depends on whether they were received in return for something, or as part of a trade or business.
If you later sell, swap or spend crypto that was originally taxed as income, Capital Gains Tax may also apply. In that case, the GBP value already recognised as income becomes the starting cost for the later disposal calculation.
How income affects your Capital Gains Tax rate
Your Income Tax position can affect how much Capital Gains Tax you pay on crypto disposals.
For the 2025/26 tax year, crypto gains are generally taxed at 18% where they fall within the unused basic rate band, and 24% where they fall above it. These are the main CGT rates for individuals on assets other than residential property and carried interest.
This rate structure follows the change introduced on 30 October 2024, when the main Capital Gains Tax rates for assets such as crypto increased from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24%. For the 2025/26 tax year, those higher rates now apply throughout the year, so the main issue is no longer splitting disposals before and after the change, but understanding how your income band determines which rate applies.
This means two investors can realise the same crypto gain and pay different amounts of CGT. If your taxable income already uses up the basic rate band, your crypto gains are more likely to be taxed at 24%. If part of the basic rate band is still available, part of the gain may be taxed at 18% before the higher rate applies.
Allowances and reporting thresholds (2024/25 rules)
After calculating your gains and losses, you apply the £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount for the 2025/26 tax year. Capital Gains Tax is due only on net chargeable gains above that allowance. HMRC confirms the £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount for 2024/25 and subsequent tax years, and the same £50,000 proceeds reporting limit.
Reporting can still be required, even where the final taxable gain is low or nil. If you are already within Self Assessment, you may need to report disposals where total gross proceeds exceed the relevant threshold. The 2025/26 SA108 notes have now been published, so this part can be checked directly against the final form guidance rather than left as “to verify later”.
In practice, keeping the full transaction history matters even when no tax appears to be due. HMRC may look not only at the final figure, but also at whether you can show how acquisitions, disposals, fees, losses and GBP valuations were calculated.
How HMRC applies the rules to common crypto activities
The same tax rules apply differently depending on the transaction. Holding tokens, swapping assets, receiving staking rewards or interacting with a DeFi protocol do not share a single tax outcome.
The core classification depends on what happened in practice: whether you disposed of an asset, received taxable income, or simply moved crypto you already owned without changing beneficial ownership.
Holding crypto
Simply holding crypto is not a taxable event. You do not owe tax to HMRC just because the market value of your tokens increases while they remain in your wallet.
You should still keep precise records of the acquisition date, acquisition value in GBP, associated fees, and the platform or wallet involved. Those details form the basis for any future disposal calculation.
Moving crypto between your own wallets
Transferring crypto between wallets or accounts you control is usually not a disposal, provided beneficial ownership remains unchanged.
The transfer still needs to be recorded. Internal movements are essential for reconstructing the acquisition path across exchanges, wallets and protocols. Without this history, the original cost basis can become harder to verify, which may distort gain and loss calculations later on.
Selling crypto for fiat
Selling crypto for pounds sterling or another fiat currency is a disposal for Capital Gains Tax purposes.
Your gain or loss is calculated by comparing the GBP disposal value with the allowable cost of the asset sold. Direct acquisition and disposal fees may also be relevant where they are linked to the transaction.
Swapping one cryptoasset for another
Trading one cryptoasset for another, such as swapping BTC for ETH or converting a volatile token into a stablecoin, is generally treated as a disposal even if no fiat currency reaches your bank account.
You need to calculate the GBP market value of the asset you gave up at the time of the swap and compare it with its allowable cost to determine the capital gain or loss.
Token migrations, wrapping and bridging
Token migrations, wrapped assets and bridge movements require closer analysis.
These events are not automatically taxable or non-taxable in every case. HMRC looks at whether the transaction changed the rights attached to the asset, whether a new asset or claim was received, and whether beneficial ownership of the original asset changed.
Spending crypto on goods or services
Using crypto to buy goods or services is normally treated as a disposal.
HMRC looks at the crypto you gave up, not at whether the transaction felt like a normal purchase. If you use ETH to buy an NFT or pay for a service, you may need to calculate a gain or loss on the ETH disposed of at that point.
Gifting crypto
Gifting crypto is generally treated as a disposal at market value, even if you receive no cash in return.
The main exception is a transfer to your spouse or civil partner, which is generally treated on a no-gain/no-loss basis. If you gift crypto to someone else, Capital Gains Tax may apply by reference to the market value at the time of the gift.
Staking rewards
Staking rewards are often taxable as income when received, based on their GBP value at that time.
This can create two separate tax moments. The reward may be taxed as income on receipt. If you later sell, swap or spend the same tokens, any further increase or decrease in value may fall under Capital Gains Tax.
Lending and DeFi yields
DeFi transactions cannot be categorised by the marketing label used by the protocol. The tax treatment depends on the structure of the arrangement and the rights involved.
Returns from lending, liquidity provision or other yield-generating activity may be taxed as income where they have the character of a revenue receipt. However, the initial act of depositing, pooling or lending tokens can also create a disposal if beneficial ownership changes, or if you receive a separate token or right in return, such as an LP token.
Airdrops and bounties
The tax treatment of airdrops depends on why and how the tokens were received.
If you receive tokens passively, Income Tax does not automatically apply at receipt, although Capital Gains Tax may apply when you later dispose of them. If you receive an airdrop or bounty in return for a service, referral, promotion, testnet activity or other action, the GBP value at receipt may be taxable as income.
Mining
Mining rewards may be taxable as income when received, based on their GBP value at that time.
For occasional activity, HMRC may treat the value received as miscellaneous income. If the mining activity is organised, commercial and profit-driven, it may instead be treated as trading income, with different reporting consequences and possible National Insurance implications.
If mined tokens are later sold, swapped or spent, Capital Gains Tax may apply to any further movement in value after receipt.
NFTs
NFTs follow the same broad logic as other cryptoassets, but the transaction type matters.
Buying an NFT with crypto can trigger a disposal of the crypto used as payment. Selling, exchanging or gifting the NFT itself can also create a Capital Gains Tax event. If an NFT is received as payment, compensation, or as part of an income-generating activity, its GBP value at receipt may also be relevant for Income Tax.
Hard forks
A blockchain hard fork does not normally create an immediate disposal of the original cryptoasset.
The tax issue is usually the allocation of cost between the original asset and the new asset received. That allocation affects the gain or loss when either asset is later sold, swapped or otherwise disposed of, so the fork date, resulting holdings and available market values should be recorded clearly.
Lost or stolen crypto
Losing access to crypto or having crypto stolen does not automatically create a disposal for Capital Gains Tax purposes.
If a private key is permanently lost, or an asset has become worthless or practically irrecoverable, a negligible value claim may allow you to crystallise a capital loss. Theft, hacks and scams need careful analysis, because HMRC does not automatically treat every loss of control as a disposal or allowable capital loss.
You invest. We handle the tax.
How to calculate your crypto gains under HMRC pooling rules
UK tax rules do not allow you to choose which specific tokens you are selling to optimise your tax position. You cannot simply match a disposal against the highest purchase price, the most recent purchase, or the lot that gives the lowest gain.
Instead, HMRC applies a fixed matching order to determine the allowable cost of each disposal. This is one of the main reasons why crypto tax calculations can differ from the profit or loss shown inside an exchange account.
Exchange reports usually show platform-level performance. HMRC’s calculation needs to work across your full transaction history: buys, sells, swaps, transfers, wallets, exchanges, DeFi activity, fees and previous disposals. The matching rules must then be applied chronologically for each cryptoasset.
HMRC applies the following order.
Same-day rule
If you acquire and dispose of tokens of the same type on the same day, those transactions are matched first.
This means the disposal is not automatically matched against older tokens already sitting in your portfolio. Same-day activity is isolated before the rest of the matching rules are applied.
30-day rule
If you dispose of a token and then acquire tokens of the same type within the following 30 days, the later acquisition can be matched back to the earlier disposal.
This is commonly known as the “bed and breakfast” rule. It prevents investors from selling assets to crystallise a tax result and immediately buying back the same asset while keeping the same economic exposure.
Section 104 pool
Any remaining tokens are matched against the Section 104 pool.
The Section 104 pool works as a running pooled cost for each cryptoasset. Every asset has its own separate pool, so BTC, ETH, SOL and other tokens must be tracked independently. When you acquire more of the same asset, the quantity and allowable cost are added to that asset’s pool. When you dispose of part of the holding, a proportional share of the pooled cost is used in the gain or loss calculation.
Direct transaction costs can affect the calculation. Fees directly linked to acquiring tokens may increase the allowable cost, while fees directly linked to a disposal may reduce the proceeds. General running costs, such as internet access, electricity or ordinary personal expenses, are not normally deductible for private investors.
This is where manual calculation becomes difficult. A single exchange may not know that tokens sold on its platform were originally acquired elsewhere, moved through a wallet, partially swapped, or affected by earlier same-day and 30-day matches. Finbooks helps reconstruct the full transaction history, apply HMRC’s matching order in GBP, and produce figures that can be used for Self Assessment reporting.
Declaring your crypto with HMRC
Reporting crypto through Self Assessment means translating raw exchange, wallet and blockchain data into figures that match HMRC’s framework.
There is no separate “crypto tax return”. You use the standard Self Assessment system and report your activity in the relevant sections depending on the nature of each transaction. Capital gains, income, trading activity, losses and claims are not all reported in the same way.
Your final figures should reflect your full crypto activity, not just an export from a single platform. Before completing the return, you need to consolidate transactions across exchanges, wallets and protocols, apply GBP valuations, account for fees, and calculate gains using HMRC’s same-day rule, 30-day rule and Section 104 pooling.
Where to declare crypto capital gains: SA108
Crypto capital gains and losses are generally reported on the SA108 Capital Gains Summary supplementary page.
This is where you report disposals, proceeds, allowable costs, gains, losses and relevant adjustments. Because HMRC’s matching rules apply across your full holding history, the figures entered on SA108 should reflect your consolidated crypto position, not only the report from one exchange.
This matters especially if you acquired crypto on one platform, moved it through a wallet, swapped it elsewhere, or later sold it on a different exchange. Without a complete transaction history, the proceeds, cost basis and losses reported on SA108 may be incomplete or inconsistent.
Where to declare crypto income: SA100 and supplementary pages
Crypto income is reported separately from capital gains because it follows different tax rules.
Occasional staking rewards, referral bonuses, bounties or taxable airdrops may in some cases be reported as miscellaneous income on the main SA100 tax return. If the activity is organised and commercial enough to amount to trading or self-employment, the income may need to be reported on the relevant supplementary pages instead.
This distinction affects more than the form itself. It can influence the treatment of expenses, losses and, in some cases, National Insurance contributions.
Capital losses and negligible value claims
Capital losses can reduce taxable gains, but they need to be calculated and claimed correctly.
If your crypto disposals resulted in losses, those losses may be used against capital gains of the same tax year. If they cannot be used in full, they may be carried forward to future tax years, provided they are claimed within HMRC’s time limits.
A negligible value claim may be relevant where a cryptoasset has become worthless or practically irrecoverable, for example where access to a private key has been permanently lost. The claim can be included in the tax return or made separately to HMRC with supporting evidence. Where the asset is pooled, the claim needs to be considered in relation to the relevant Section 104 pool.
Key deadlines for the 2025/26 tax year
The 2025/26 tax year covers crypto activity from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026.
The main Self Assessment deadlines are:
31 October 2026 for a paper tax return:
31 January 2027 for an online tax return and payment of any tax due-
Leaving crypto calculations until January increases the risk of missing transactions, duplicated transfers, unsupported cost basis figures and incorrect income classification. Finbooks helps you consolidate your crypto activity, apply HMRC’s matching rules and prepare figures that can be used for Self Assessment reporting.
Quick reference: HMRC crypto reporting
Capital gains and losses → SA108 Capital Gains Summary
Staking, airdrops and referral rewards → SA100, where treated as miscellaneous income
Trading or commercial mining activity → Self-employment supplementary pages, where applicable
Negligible value claims → Tax return or separate claim to HMRC, with supporting evidence
Online filing and payment deadline → 31 January 2027
What if you did not report crypto correctly?
If you failed to report taxable crypto gains or income, submitted an incomplete return, or paid the tax late, HMRC may charge penalties and interest. The consequences depend on the type of issue, the amount of tax involved, whether the error was careless or deliberate, and whether you correct it before HMRC contacts you.
For this reason, undeclared crypto should be treated separately from ordinary annual reporting. If you are correcting a previous tax year, you need to review the missing transactions, recalculate gains and income under HMRC rules, assess whether losses or claims are available, and choose the right disclosure route.
We cover this process in detail in our dedicated guide to undeclared crypto in the UK, including how HMRC penalties work, when voluntary disclosure may reduce the exposure, and what records you should prepare before contacting HMRC.
From crypto activity to Self Assessment-ready figures with Finbooks
Understanding the rules is only the first part. To report crypto correctly in the UK, you need to turn your exchange, wallet and DeFi history into figures that match HMRC’s framework: taxable disposals, income events, GBP valuations, allowable costs, losses and Section 104 pools.
That work becomes difficult when activity is spread across several platforms. A single exchange export may show trades made on that platform, but it will not necessarily reconstruct where the assets came from, how they moved between wallets, which transactions were internal transfers, or how HMRC’s same-day, 30-day and pooling rules apply across your full history.
Finbooks helps you bring that activity into one place. You can create a free account and connect your wallets, exchanges and platforms, review your transaction history, identify missing or misclassified movements, separate income from capital gains, and prepare figures that can be used for Self Assessment reporting.
The goal is not just to get a final number. It is to keep a tax position that can be reviewed, explained and supported if HMRC asks how your crypto gains, losses or income were calculated.
You invest. We handle the tax.
