Key takeaways
- Crypto gains are taxed at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it for 2026/27, above a £3,000 annual exempt amount. The same rates and allowance applied for 2025/26 and from 30 October 2024.
- A disposal is selling, swapping one token for another, spending tokens, or giving them away to anyone other than a spouse, civil partner or charity. Holding and moving between your own wallets are not disposals.
- Cost is worked out by pooling: each token type has its own section 104 pool, after the same day rule and the 30 day rule have been applied.
- Tokens from mining, staking or lending are income at the sterling value on the day you receive them, taxed separately from any later gain.
- You must report if gains before losses exceed £3,000, if disposal proceeds exceed £50,000, or if you want to claim a loss. For 2025/26 that return is due by 31 January 2027.
Crypto gains are taxed at 18% and 24% for 2026/27, above a £3,000 annual exempt amount. The calculator below applies those rates to a single net gain, splitting it across the bands using your other taxable income. Every figure on this page was checked on GOV.UK on 18 September 2026. Disposals made in the 2025/26 tax year use the same rates and the same allowance, and belong on the return due by 31 January 2027.
Crypto tax calculator
Enter the gain you have made after costs, and the other taxable income you expect for the year. Choose the standard asset type: crypto is taxed as a standard chargeable asset, not as residential property.
The 2026/27 figures the calculator uses
| Figure | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount | £3,000 |
| Rate within the basic rate band | 18% |
| Rate above the basic rate band | 24% |
| Personal Allowance | £12,570 |
| Basic rate band | £12,571 to £50,270 |
HMRC's rates and allowances table gives 18% and 24% for individuals on assets other than residential property from 6 April 2026, and a £3,000 annual exempt amount for individuals. The same two rates and the same allowance applied for 2025 to 2026, and for disposals from 30 October 2024 onwards. Before 30 October 2024 the rates were 10% and 20%, so a calculation copied from an older tool will understate the tax. Sources: Capital Gains Tax rates and annual tax-free allowances and Capital Gains Tax: rates.
Gains stack on top of your income when HMRC decides which band they fall in. If your income uses part of the basic rate band, only what is left of that band is taxed at 18%, and the rest of the gain is taxed at 24%. Income Tax bands are on GOV.UK.
What counts as a disposal
HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual lists a disposal as selling tokens for money, exchanging them for a different type of token, using them to pay for goods or services, and giving them away to anyone other than a spouse or civil partner. GOV.UK also excludes gifts to charity.
- Selling tokens for pounds or another currency.
- Swapping one token for another, including a stablecoin. This is a disposal of what you gave up, at the sterling value of what you received.
- Spending tokens on goods or services.
- Giving tokens away, unless the recipient is your spouse, civil partner or a charity.
Holding tokens is not a disposal, and neither is moving them between wallets you control. The full list is at CRYPTO22100 and in the GOV.UK guidance on paying tax when you sell cryptoassets.
Working out the gain: pooling and the matching rules
This is the part a calculator cannot do for you. Each type of token has its own section 104 pool with its own pooled allowable cost, so you are not matching a sale to a particular purchase. You work out an average cost for everything you hold of that token and take a proportion of it.
HMRC's own example at CRYPTO22200: 100 tokens bought at £2 and 300 tokens bought at £1 give 400 tokens costing £500 in total, an average of £1.25 each. Selling 200 of them uses an allowable cost of £250.
Two matching rules are applied before the pool:
- [object Object]A disposal is matched first against acquisitions of the same token made on the same day (TCGA 1992 s105).
- [object Object]Anything left is matched against acquisitions of the same token in the following 30 days, earliest disposal first (TCGA 1992 s106A). Buying back inside 30 days changes the answer, which matters if you were selling to crystallise a loss.
- [object Object]Whatever remains uses the pooled average cost.
The matching rules are at CRYPTO22150. Non-fungible tokens are separately identifiable, so they are not pooled and the matching rules do not apply to them (CRYPTO22250).
What you can and cannot deduct
HMRC allows the sterling consideration you originally paid, transaction fees paid for the transaction to be included on the distributed ledger, advertising for a purchaser or a vendor, professional costs of drawing up the contract, and the cost of making a valuation or apportionment to work out the gain.
It does not allow the costs of mining activity such as equipment and electricity, because they are not incurred wholly and exclusively to acquire the tokens, and it does not allow costs already deducted against profits for Income Tax. See CRYPTO22150 and the GOV.UK guidance above.
Two worked examples
A gain inside the basic rate band.
- You bought 2 ETH for £1,500 each, a pooled cost of £3,000.
- You sell both for £4,200 each, proceeds of £8,400.
- Gain: £8,400 less £3,000 = £5,400.
- Less the £3,000 annual exempt amount: £2,400 is taxable.
- Your salary is £45,000, so £32,430 of income is taxable after the Personal Allowance and £5,270 of the £37,700 basic rate band is unused.
- The whole £2,400 fits in that band, so it is taxed at 18%. Tax due: £432.
A gain that crosses the band.
- Same disposal, but you sell more: a gain of £10,000 after costs.
- Less the £3,000 annual exempt amount: £7,000 is taxable.
- Your salary is £48,000, so £35,430 is taxable income and £2,270 of the basic rate band is unused.
- £2,270 is taxed at 18% (£408.60) and the remaining £4,730 at 24% (£1,135.20).
- Tax due: £1,543.80.
Both examples assume the full Personal Allowance and no other gains or losses. The allowance tapers away between £100,000 and £125,140 of income, which changes how much basic rate band is left.
Crypto that is income, not a gain
Tokens from mining, staking or lending, including from DeFi, count as income rather than a capital gain when you receive them. Where the activity does not amount to a trade, the sterling value of the tokens at the time of receipt is taxable as miscellaneous income, with appropriate expenses reducing the amount chargeable (CRYPTO21150 and CRYPTO21200). Selling those tokens later is a separate Capital Gains Tax event, and the amount already taxed as income becomes their acquisition cost.
There is a £1,000 trading and miscellaneous income allowance each tax year. GOV.UK sets out what to do with it:
| Total miscellaneous income from all sources | What you need to do |
|---|---|
| £1,000 or less | Covered by the allowance. Keep your records. |
| Between £1,000 and £2,500 | Contact HMRC. |
| Over £2,500 | Register for Self Assessment. |
More detail is in our guides to staking and mining tax and DeFi tax. The source is GOV.UK's guidance on receiving cryptoassets.
When you have to report a crypto disposal
You fill in the Capital Gains Tax summary pages if your chargeable gains before losses were more than £3,000, if you sold or disposed of chargeable assets worth more than £50,000, or if you want to claim an allowable loss. The £50,000 proceeds threshold applies for 2023 to 2024 onwards. Proceeds, not profit: a year of active trading can pass £50,000 with no gain at all.
- Self Assessment for 2025/26: online return and payment by 31 January 2027, paper return by 31 October 2026, and registration by 5 October 2026 if you have not filed before.
- Disposals in 2026/27 go on the return due by 31 January 2028.
- If you are not already in Self Assessment, a gain can be reported through HMRC's real time Capital Gains Tax service instead, by 31 December after the tax year. Anyone already in Self Assessment must still put the disposal on the return.
- Losses are claimed on the return, and must be claimed within 4 years of the end of the tax year of the disposal.
The cryptoasset section of the return is boxes 13.1 to 13.8 on the SA108, available for 2024 to 2025 onwards. Our guide to reporting crypto on Self Assessment goes box by box. Sources: when you must report a gain, the real time service, losses and Self Assessment deadlines.
What the calculator does not do
It gives you the tax on one net figure. It does not reconstruct your year, and the reconstruction is usually the work:
- It does not pool your acquisitions or apply the same day and 30 day rules.
- It does not convert transactions into pounds. You need an exchange rate you have applied consistently and can explain.
- It does not separate income from gains, so staking and mining rewards have to be handled on their own.
- It does not carry losses forward, and it does not handle negligible value claims.
- It assumes you are UK resident and taxed on the arising basis.
For losses, lost keys and theft, see crypto losses and negligible value claims. Exchange reports are not tax calculations, and GOV.UK says plainly that they will not keep track of your pooled costs.
Get your crypto return prepared
GoForma prepares crypto Self Assessment returns for £298, which covers up to 25,000 transactions and includes a Koinly licence. Our accountants are ACCA and AAT qualified. If you want to talk it through first, the consultation is free.
Crypto tax accountants gives the full scope, cryptocurrency Self Assessment is the priced service, and crypto tax in the UK is the long guide behind this page.
