HMRC, quoted verbatim
Crypto tax in United Kingdom
What HMRC publishes about each crypto transaction, quoted from its own guidance and dated: 12 of 16 questions answered on the pages read here, the rest recorded as absences naming the page that was read.
- answers quoted word for word
- 12
- questions the guidance does not answer
- 4
- the day these pages were read
- 2026-09-08
Every taxable event, as HMRC states it
| What you did | What the authority says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Selling for fiat | You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a gain when you ‘dispose’ of cryptoasset tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) by: selling them | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Exchanging one crypto-asset for another | You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a gain when you ‘dispose’ of cryptoasset tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) by: selling them exchanging them for a different type of cryptoasset | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Spending crypto on goods or services | You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a gain when you ‘dispose’ of cryptoasset tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) by: selling them exchanging them for a different type of cryptoasset using them to pay for goods or services | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Staking and lending rewards | If you receive tokens from mining, staking or lending (including from DeFi ) and are not carrying on a trade, HMRC will treat the tokens as other taxable income . | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you receive cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Mining | Any cryptoasset exchange tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) you receive from employment, or from activities such as mining, staking or lending count as income. This includes any income earned from Decentralised Finance ( DeFi ). | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you receive cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Airdrops | Income Tax will not always apply to airdropped tokens received in a personal capacity. Income Tax may not apply if they’re received: without doing anything in return (for example, not related to any service or other conditions) not as part of a trade or business involving cryptoasset exchange tokens or mining Airdrops that are provided in return for, or in expectation of, a service are subject to Income Tax either as: miscellaneous income receipts of an existing trade The disposal of a token received through an airdrop may result in a chargeable gain for Capital Gains Tax, even if it’s not chargeable to Income Tax when it’s received. Where changes in value get brought into account as part of a computation of trade profits Income Tax will take priority over Capital Gains Tax. | HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO21250 - Cryptoassets for individuals: Income Tax: airdrops read September 2026 |
| NFTs | HMRC does not publish this on the page read here (HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual, read September 2026). The Cryptoassets Manual's own contents list carries five sections - CRYPTO10000 introduction, CRYPTO20000 individuals, CRYPTO40000 businesses, CRYPTO60000 Decentralised Finance, CRYPTO100000 compliance - and none is about non-fungible tokens; neither plain-English guidance page mentions NFTs. HMRC has published no NFT-specific treatment we can quote. | HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual read September 2026 |
| DeFi lending and liquidity | The lender/liquidity provider, in exchange for lending the tokens to the borrower or staking them with a Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending platform, may receive a reward for that lending/staking (the “return”). This return is paid to remunerate the lender/liquidity provider for the lending/staking of the tokens. This return may be treated as taxable income of the lender/liquidity provider for the purposes of Income Tax or Corporation Tax (see CRYPTO61200 or CRYPTO61400 respectively). | HMRC - Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO61130 - Decentralised Finance: Lending and staking: Making a DeFi loan read September 2026 |
| Gifts and inheritance | You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax if you make a gain when you ‘dispose’ of cryptoasset tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) by: selling them exchanging them for a different type of cryptoasset using them to pay for goods or services giving them to another person (unless it’s a gift to your spouse, civil partner or charity ) | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Losses | You can: deduct allowable costs use capital losses on other assets to reduce your gain , but you’ll need to report them to us first | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Rate or regime | HMRC does not publish this on the page read here (HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets, read September 2026). The guidance names the Capital Gains Tax tax-free allowance and links to it but states no rate on this page; the rate is not a cryptoasset rule and is published in the general Capital Gains Tax guidance, which this ledger has not read. | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Holding-period rule | You need to work out your gain for each transaction you make. The way you work out your gain is different if you sell tokens within 30 days of buying them. | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Reporting form | Read guidance on how to report and pay your Capital Gains Tax by either: completing a Self Assessment tax return at the end of the tax year using the Capital Gains Tax real time service | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Filing deadline | HMRC does not publish this on the page read here (HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets, read September 2026). The page names Self Assessment 'at the end of the tax year' and the Capital Gains Tax real time service, and gives the tax year as 6 April to 5 April, but no filing date. | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| Exemption or allowance | You can get up to £1,000 allowance each tax year for trading and miscellaneous income. The income you earn from your cryptoassets will count towards this allowance. | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you receive cryptoassets read September 2026 |
| CARF / DAC8 status | HMRC does not publish this on the page read here (HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets, read September 2026). Neither HMRC guidance page nor the two manual pages read here mentions the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework or DAC8; HMRC's cryptoasset reporting notice was not among the sources in the guidance ledger. | HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets read September 2026 |
An absence here means we have no quotation, never that the transaction is untaxed.
CARF and DAC8
The OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and the EU's DAC8 make crypto-asset service providers report their users' transactions to tax authorities, which then exchange them. Where an authority states its own position, the cell quotes it. The OECD's commitment list is not on this site: oecd.org answers a bot wall, and this site does not publish a list nobody here has read.
HMRC does not publish this on the page read here (HMRC - Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets, read September 2026). Neither HMRC guidance page nor the two manual pages read here mentions the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework or DAC8; HMRC's cryptoasset reporting notice was not among the sources in the guidance ledger.
Cite or embed this figure
United Kingdom: 12 crypto tax treatments quoted verbatim from the tax authority's own guidance and 4 recorded absences (Taxooor Crypto Tax Index).
Cite as: "Taxooor Crypto Tax Index: United Kingdom", updated 2026-09-08, https://taxooor.com/tax/united-kingdom/.
Download the United Kingdom table (CSV), free to reuse with citation.