Welcome to 2026 and the year that crypto marketplaces will start sharing records with HMRC so that users can be taxed appropriately. In other words, if you sell or receive cryptoassets then you need to include them on your tax return or face penalties in the future.
Under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF) cryptoasset services in the UK, you must collect data and report it to HMRC. Users’ details and a summary of their transactions will be in the reports, with the first due by the 31st of May 2027 giving details for 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2026.
What tax may be due?
Paying tax when you sell cryptoassets
You may need to pay Capital Gains Tax on gains you make when you sell, exchange or give away cryptoasset tokens. This includes selling them, exchanging for other cryptoassets, using them to pay for goods or services, or simply giving them away.
Paying tax when you receive cryptoassets
You may need to pay Income Tax and National Insurance contributions apply when you receive cryptoassets treated as income. Any cryptocurrency you receive from employment, or from activities such as mining, staking or lending count as income.
Tell HMRC about unpaid tax on cryptoassets
Now is the time to make a voluntary disclosure of any unpaid tax to HMRC if you have income or gains from cryptoassets from previous years, including exchange tokens, NFTs and utility tokens. If you do not contact HMRC to declare your unpaid tax, you could be liable to additional interest and penalties. This could include undeclared tax liabilities going back as far as 20 years if you have deliberately not paid enough tax, although this is unlikely seeing as Bitcoin only launched in 2009. Deliberately means that you knew you owed tax but chose not to tell HMRC or that you knew the figures on your tax return were wrong when you submitted it.
If you did not pay enough because you did not take enough care, you must pay HMRC what you owe for a maximum of 6 years. You’ll only have to pay HMRC what you owe for 4 years if you took care to make sure your tax affairs were right but still did not pay enough.
