Crypto tax in the UK: the complete 2025/26 guide

If you're wondering whether you owe HMRC anything for your crypto, here's the short answer: crypto is taxable in the UK, but probably not in the way you fear. HMRC doesn't treat cryptoassets as money or currency; it treats them as property. So the tax you pay depends on what you did with your crypto, not the simple fact that you held it. There are two taxes that can apply: Capital Gains Tax (CGT) when you dispose of crypto, and Income Tax when you receive crypto as a kind of reward or earnings.

Most retail holders only meet CGT. You pay CGT on the gain (roughly, value out minus cost in), not on the whole amount you sold. For 2025/26 the rates are 18% on gains that fall within your unused basic-rate band and 24% on gains above it, after a £3,000 tax-free allowance. There is no long-term holding discount in the UK, so a coin held five years is taxed the same as one held five days.

This page is a map. Each section gives you the headline rule and links to a deeper guide. If you just want the numbers, drop your transaction CSV into our free calculator and it works the figures using the same HMRC method described here. The rules below reflect UK law for the 2025/26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026). One note for Scotland: CGT rates are UK-wide, but the income rates and bands differ for Scottish taxpayers, which can change how much of your gain sits in the 18% band.

Is crypto really taxed in the UK?

Yes. HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual is clear that buying, holding and moving crypto between your own wallets is not itself a taxable event. But disposing of it is. Simply holding crypto that has gone up in value triggers no tax until you do something with it. We cover that distinction in detail in Do I pay tax on crypto if I haven't sold?.

The two taxes split like this: Capital Gains Tax on disposals (selling, swapping, spending, gifting), and Income Tax on crypto you receive as a reward (staking, mining, most airdrops, some DeFi). The same coin can touch both taxes across its life: income when you receive it, then CGT on the gain when you later dispose of it. Crucially, the GBP value you were taxed on as income becomes your cost basis for the later CGT calculation, so you are not taxed twice on the same value.

What counts as a disposal?

A disposal is any event where you part with crypto. HMRC lists four:

• Selling crypto for pounds (or any fiat currency).
• Swapping one crypto for another, including stablecoins. A crypto-to-crypto trade is a disposal of the coin you gave up, even though no cash touched your bank. This is the rule people most often miss.
• Spending crypto on goods or services. Paying for something with Bitcoin is a disposal at the market value at that moment.
• Gifting crypto to another person, except gifts to your spouse or civil partner (no gain, no loss) and gifts to charity (usually exempt).

What is not a disposal: moving crypto between wallets or exchanges you control, and buying crypto with fiat. NFTs are different from fungible tokens. Each NFT is a separate chargeable asset and is not pooled, so disposing of an NFT is a CGT event valued at its market price. For the full breakdown, see what counts as a disposal and crypto gifts & spouse transfers.

How is the gain actually calculated? (Section 104 pooling)

Because you usually buy the same coin many times at different prices, HMRC doesn't let you pick which units you sold. Instead you use share-style matching rules in this order:

• Same-day rule: disposals are matched first against any acquisitions of the same token made on the same day.
• 30-day (bed-and-breakfasting) rule: next, against acquisitions in the 30 days after the disposal. This stops people selling to crystallise a loss and rebuying immediately.
• Section 104 pool: everything else is matched against your pooled holding, which uses the average cost of all units of that token you still hold.

When are rewards Income Tax instead of CGT?

When you receive crypto as a reward, that is normally Income Tax, charged on the GBP value on the day you received it. This typically covers staking rewards, mining, most airdrops (those received without doing anything in return), and some DeFi lending/liquidity rewards. You add that value to your other income and pay at your marginal rate (20%, 40% or 45%).

That same receipt value then becomes your cost basis for CGT when you later sell the reward tokens, so you only pay CGT on any gain after receipt. DeFi treatment is genuinely fact-dependent and HMRC's position is still developing, so where a reward's nature is unclear we flag it rather than guess. Full detail is in Crypto staking & airdrops tax.

How and when do I report crypto to HMRC?

Crypto disposals go on the Capital Gains supplementary pages of your Self Assessment return, on form SA108, in the dedicated cryptoassets boxes 13.1 to 13.8. You report for the 2025/26 tax year on the return filed online by 31 January 2027, which is also the payment deadline.

You must report if either of these is true for the tax year:

• Your total gains are more than the £3,000 allowance, or
• Your total proceeds (the amount you sold/disposed of for, before costs) are more than £50,000, even if your gain is under £3,000 and there's no tax to pay. This catches high-volume traders with small net gains.

If you aren't already in Self Assessment but have a taxable gain, you can use HMRC's real-time CGT reporting service instead. Our step-by-step is in How to report crypto on Self Assessment and the box-by-box detail is in SA108 crypto boxes 13.1–13.8. Note: the £50,000 proceeds rule is HMRC's wording for people registered for Self Assessment.

What records should I keep?

HMRC expects you to keep your own records because exchanges don't always retain full history. For each transaction keep: the type (buy/sell/swap/reward), the date, the quantity of tokens, the value in pounds at the time, the running pooled cost, and bank statements or wallet addresses as evidence. Keep these for at least the standard record-keeping window after the filing deadline.

This is exactly the data a tool reconstructs from your exchange exports. If you export a full transaction-history CSV from Binance, Coinbase or Kraken, our free calculator reads it natively and rebuilds the Section 104 pools and gains for you. You can read precisely how it works on our methodology page.

Where to go next

This overview links the pieces together; each guide below goes deep on one area.

The numbers and the maths: 2025/26 rates & allowances for the exact figures, how much crypto is tax-free for the £3,000 allowance, Section 104 pooling and cost basis across multiple wallets for the cost-basis maths, plus the 30-day bed-and-breakfast rule.

What is (and isn't) a disposal: crypto-to-crypto swaps, moving between your own wallets, tax when you haven't sold, and gifts & spouse transfers.

Income and status: staking & airdrops for the Income-versus-CGT split, and trader vs investor if you trade actively.

Reporting & deadlines: how to report on Self Assessment, the SA108 crypto boxes, and the key deadlines.

HMRC, data and disclosure: can HMRC see your crypto, which exchanges report to HMRC, CARF reporting, what to do about a nudge letter, what happens if you don't declare, and making a voluntary disclosure.

Losses: claiming crypto losses to reduce a bill, and stolen or scammed crypto.

None of this is personal tax advice. For an unusual or high-value situation, speak to a qualified UK tax adviser.

Sources

• HMRC: Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets (GOV.UK)
• HMRC: Check if you need to pay tax when you receive cryptoassets (GOV.UK)
• HMRC: Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances (GOV.UK)
• HMRC: Capital Gains Tax allowances (GOV.UK)
• HMRC: Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax (GOV.UK)
• HMRC: Cryptoassets Manual (CRYPTO22000 onwards: pooling & disposals)
• HMRC: Self Assessment Capital Gains summary (SA108)
• HMRC: Domestic reporting of UK resident cryptoasset users under CARF (GOV.UK)