UK crypto tax guide 2026: HMRC rules, CGT, Income Tax and Self Assessment

Crypto is taxable in the UK when a transaction creates a disposal or taxable income. Selling for pounds is only one example: swapping tokens, paying with crypto, gifting it outside the main exemptions and some DeFi transactions can also create a Capital Gains Tax calculation.

Crypto received from staking, mining, employment, services, referral programmes or activity-based airdrops may instead be taxable as income when you receive it. If you later dispose of those tokens, the subsequent movement in value can produce a separate capital gain or loss.

The difficult part is rarely identifying one sale. It is reconstructing the complete history across exchanges, wallets and protocols, converting every relevant event into pounds and applying HMRC’s matching rules across the same token wherever you held it.

This guide covers the 2025/26 tax year, which ran from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. The online Self Assessment return and any outstanding tax are normally due by 31 January 2027.

Do you pay tax on crypto in the UK?

Yes. For most individuals, HMRC applies Capital Gains Tax when crypto held as an investment is disposed of, while tokens earned or received in particular circumstances can fall under Income Tax. A small number of people may be carrying on a genuine financial trade, but the threshold is high and frequent transactions alone do not settle the question.

Buying crypto with pounds and continuing to hold it does not itself create a tax charge. Moving the same crypto between wallets or accounts you control is also normally outside Capital Gains Tax when beneficial ownership does not change, although the transfer must remain connected in your records.

The table below gives the starting treatment. DeFi arrangements, derivatives and transactions involving new contractual rights still require analysis of their actual structure.

How much tax do you pay on crypto in 2025/26?

Crypto gains above the available £3,000 annual exempt amount are normally taxed at 18% to the extent they fall within your unused basic-rate band and at 24% above it. The calculation uses your wider taxable income and gains, so two investors with the same crypto gain can pay different amounts.

Where crypto is taxable as income, the rate depends on your wider income and on why you received it. Salary paid in tokens, occasional staking rewards and receipts from a crypto trade do not necessarily use the same boxes or follow the same National Insurance treatment, so they should not be folded into one generic “crypto income” total.

How does HMRC calculate crypto gains?

A crypto capital gain or loss begins with the GBP value received for the disposal, less the allowable cost attributed under HMRC’s matching rules and any directly allowable transaction costs.

GBP disposal value − allowable pooled cost − allowable disposal costs = gain or loss

You cannot choose the purchase lot that produces the smallest gain. HMRC applies the same matching hierarchy to tokens of the same type across your complete beneficial holding, including assets spread between exchanges and self-custody wallets.

Which crypto costs are allowable?

Allowable costs can include the original acquisition cost, transaction fees directly connected with an acquisition or disposal, certain valuation costs and a proportion of the pooled cost. The same cost cannot be deducted twice, and ordinary personal expenses such as internet access or equipment are not generally deductible for a private investor.

Gas paid to execute a disposal may form part of the disposal cost, while gas used for a transfer or another protocol action requires analysis of that specific event. Treating every network fee identically can distort both the pool and the gain.

How does HMRC tax staking, DeFi, NFTs and other crypto activity?

Crypto labels do not determine the tax result. HMRC looks at what you received, what you gave up, whether beneficial ownership changed and whether the return is capital or income in nature.

Staking, mining, airdrops and referral rewards

Staking and mining rewards are commonly taxed as income when received, based on their GBP value at that time. Occasional activity may fall under miscellaneous income, while organised and commercial activity can amount to a trade. Airdrops received without providing a service or taking an action are not automatically income on receipt, although their later disposal can still produce a capital gain.

Rewards, referral bonuses and airdrops earned through required activity present a stronger Income Tax analysis. The amount recognised as income normally becomes the acquisition cost used when the tokens are later sold, swapped or spent.

Lending, liquidity pools and DeFi yields

For 2025/26, entering a lending or liquidity arrangement can create a disposal where beneficial ownership changes or you receive a separate token or contractual right. Returns may also be taxable as income when they have the character of a revenue receipt.

Draft legislation published on 13 July 2026 proposes deferred Capital Gains Tax treatment for qualifying single-asset lending, borrowing and automated market-making arrangements from 6 April 2027. The proposal is not a retrospective exemption and does not remove disposal analysis from the 2025/26 return.

NFTs, hard forks and inaccessible assets

Buying an NFT with crypto can dispose of the payment token, while selling or gifting the NFT can create another gain or loss. A hard fork does not normally dispose of the original asset, but its pooled cost must be allocated between the original and new assets for later calculations.

Theft or loss of a private key does not automatically create an allowable capital loss. A negligible-value claim may be available where you still own the asset and can show that it has become worth next to nothing, but the facts and evidence matter.

Can HMRC track crypto in 2026?

Yes. HMRC can obtain information from exchanges, connect activity to verified customer records and examine public blockchain transactions. CARF expands and standardises that information flow; HMRC was already receiving crypto data before the framework began.

From 1 January 2026, in-scope cryptoasset service providers must collect tax-residence and transaction information. The first reports cover 1 January to 31 December 2026 and are due by 31 May 2027, so they overlap with only part of the 2025/26 UK tax year and cannot be copied into that return.

What crypto records does HMRC expect you to keep?

HMRC places the responsibility for crypto records on the individual because exchanges may retain data for only a limited period or may no longer exist when a return is checked.

• The token type, transaction date and whether it was acquired or disposed of;

• the number of units and GBP value at the relevant time;

• fees, proceeds and the pooled cost before and after disposals;

• wallet addresses, exchange exports and transaction identifiers;

• bank records connecting fiat deposits and withdrawals to the crypto history;

• evidence supporting transfers, lost assets, valuations and any tax claims.

Keep the complete history rather than only the 2025/26 exports: tokens disposed of during the year may have been acquired several years earlier, and those earlier acquisitions can still sit in the Section 104 pool.

How do you report crypto to HMRC for 2025/26?

There is no separate crypto tax return. Capital disposals are reported through the dedicated cryptoassets section of the 2025/26 SA108 Capital Gains Summary, while taxable rewards and other income go through SA100.

If you need to enter Self Assessment for the first time, you generally need to notify HMRC by 5 October 2026. Paper returns are normally due by 31 October 2026. Online returns and outstanding tax are due by 31 January 2027.

If your gains exceed the available £3,000 annual exempt amount, they need to be reported. Even where gains are below the exemption, the capital gains pages may still be required when you are already within Self Assessment and total disposal proceeds exceed £50,000.

How can you legally reduce UK crypto tax?

Tax planning works before the return is filed and, in many cases, before a disposal is made. It cannot rewrite transactions that have already happened.

• Use allowable capital losses. Current-year and properly claimed carried-forward losses can reduce chargeable gains.

• Claim losses on genuinely worthless assets. A supported negligible-value claim can crystallise a loss without an ordinary sale where the conditions are met.

• Consider spouse or civil-partner transfers. Qualifying transfers are generally made on a no-gain/no-loss basis, although the recipient inherits the transferred cost history.

• Review charitable gifts. Qualifying gifts to charity can receive favourable Capital Gains Tax treatment, subject to the statutory rules.

• Plan the timing of genuine disposals. The annual exemption, income band and available losses can affect the result, but the same-day and 30-day rules must still be respected.

• Do not mistake stablecoins for cash. Swapping into USDC, USDT or another token is still a disposal under the rules applying to 2025/26.

Direct crypto cannot simply be placed inside a Stocks & Shares ISA to shelter existing holdings. Products offering crypto exposure through a tax wrapper are legally different investments and do not change the treatment of tokens held directly.

What if you did not report crypto correctly?

If taxable gains or income were omitted, HMRC may charge the unpaid tax, interest and a penalty based on the circumstances and your behaviour. Correcting the position before HMRC contacts you can affect both the disclosure route and the penalty outcome.

Start by rebuilding the affected years rather than estimating from deposits and withdrawals. Identify missing transactions, apply the historical allowances and rates for each year, preserve available losses and decide whether the return can still be amended or whether a separate disclosure is required.

From crypto activity to Self Assessment-ready figures with Finbooks

Your tax position follows the crypto you own, not the exchange or wallet in which each transaction happened. That is why separate platform totals stop being useful as soon as tokens move between accounts or the same asset is bought in more than one place.

Finbooks brings that history together, values the relevant events in pounds and applies the UK matching rules across it. You can review the imported transactions, resolve missing or misclassified activity and follow each final figure back to the records that produced it.

Once the history is reconciled, Finbooks prepares the gains, losses and income for the relevant Self Assessment sections, without asking you to rebuild years of activity in a spreadsheet or treat an exchange’s profit figure as a UK tax calculation.