Capital Gains Tax on Crypto UK: Rates, Allowance, Examples

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is the tax you pay on the profit when you sell, swap, spend or give away crypto. For 2025/26 — the tax year that ended on 5 April 2026, with the return due 31 January 2027 — the first £3,000 of gains is tax-free and the rest is taxed at 18% or 24% depending on your income. This guide explains the rates for every year back to 2019/20, how to work out which rate applies to you, what you can deduct and how losses help, with worked examples that match the calculations our tool produces.

What is Capital Gains Tax on crypto?

Capital Gains Tax is charged on the gain you make when you dispose of a chargeable asset. HMRC treats cryptoassets as chargeable assets, so the normal CGT rules apply: your gain is what you received for the tokens minus what they cost you, and you pay tax only on total gains above the annual exempt amount.

You do not pay CGT for holding crypto or when its value goes up on paper. Tax is triggered by a disposal, which for crypto means selling for pounds, exchanging one token for another, spending tokens on goods or services, or giving them away to anyone other than your spouse or civil partner. Our guide to when you pay tax on crypto covers each event in detail.

What are the crypto Capital Gains Tax rates in the UK?

For 2025/26 the rates are 18% and 24%. The lower rate applies to gains that fit within your unused basic rate band; the higher rate applies to everything above it. There is no separate rate for crypto: the same rates apply to shares and most other assets.

The rates changed in the middle of 2024/25. The Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 raised the main CGT rates from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24% with immediate effect, so a disposal on 29 October 2024 and one on 30 October 2024 are taxed at different rates.

All of these figures come from GOV.UK's rates and allowances pages, which are linked in the Sources list. The Personal Allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000, which can push more of your gains into the 24% band.

How does the annual exempt amount work?

The annual exempt amount is the amount of gains you can make in a tax year before any Capital Gains Tax is due. For 2025/26 it is £3,000 for individuals. You cannot carry unused allowance forward to another year, and it is deducted from your net gains after losses.

The allowance has fallen sharply: from £12,300 in 2022/23 to £6,000 in 2023/24 and £3,000 from 2024/25. Someone who made £5,000 of crypto gains in 2022/23 owed nothing; the same gain in 2025/26 leaves £2,000 taxable. Where you have gains that would be taxed at both 18% and 24%, GOV.UK confirms you can set the allowance against the gains that would be taxed at the highest rate first.

How do you work out which rate you pay?

Follow the six steps GOV.UK sets out. Work out your taxable income (income minus your Personal Allowance and any other Income Tax reliefs), work out your total taxable gains, deduct the annual exempt amount, add the result to your taxable income, and compare the total with the £37,700 basic rate band. Gains within the band are taxed at 18%; gains above it at 24%.

Example (GOV.UK, 2026/27 rates, identical for 2025/26). Your taxable income is £20,000 and your taxable gains are £52,600. Deducting the £3,000 allowance leaves £49,600. Adding this to your income gives £69,600, which is £31,900 above the £37,700 band. So:

• £17,700 (the unused part of your basic rate band) is taxed at 18% = £3,186
• £31,900 is taxed at 24% = £7,656
• Total Capital Gains Tax: £10,842

If your taxable income is already above £37,700 before adding any gains, all of your gains above the allowance are taxed at 24%. If your income and gains together stay under £37,700, everything is taxed at 18%.

Note that your basic rate band can be extended if you make Gift Aid donations or personal pension contributions that get relief at source, which can bring more of your gains into the 18% band. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual at CG21204 explains this.

Worked example: two tax years of bitcoin

This example follows one investor through 2024/25 and 2025/26 with £20,000 of taxable income in each year. All values are in pounds and there are no fees. It is the same set of transactions our calculator's tests are built on.

2024/25. On 1 January 2025 you buy 1 BTC for £30,000, and on 1 February 2025 another 1 BTC for £40,000. Your bitcoin pool is 2 BTC costing £70,000. On 1 March 2025 you sell 0.5 BTC for £30,000. The pooled cost of 0.5 BTC is £17,500 (a quarter of £70,000), so your gain is £12,500. After the £3,000 allowance, £9,500 is taxable. Your income of £20,000 plus £9,500 is £29,500, well within the basic rate band, so the whole gain is taxed at 18%: £1,710. The disposal was after 30 October 2024, so the new rate applies.

2025/26. Your pool is now 1.5 BTC costing £52,500. On 10 June 2025 you buy 0.2 BTC for £16,000 and, the same day, sell 0.5 BTC for £45,000. On 25 June you buy 0.1 BTC for £8,500. The same-day and 30-day rules mean the June purchases are matched to the sale rather than added to the pool, giving a gain of £13,500 on that disposal (worked through in the section 104 pool guide). On 1 August 2025 you swap 0.3 BTC for 10 ETH worth £27,000. The pooled cost of 0.3 BTC is £10,500, so the gain is £16,500.

Total gains for 2025/26: £30,000. After the allowance, £27,000 is taxable. Your unused basic rate band is £17,700 (£37,700 minus £20,000 income), so:

• £17,700 at 18% = £3,186
• £9,300 at 24% = £2,232
• Total Capital Gains Tax: £5,418

The ETH you received has a cost of £27,000 for future disposals, and your bitcoin pool ends the year at 1 BTC costing £35,000.

How is 2024/25 taxed when gains fall either side of 30 October 2024?

You calculate the two periods separately. Gains on disposals from 6 April to 29 October 2024 are taxed at 10% or 20%; gains on disposals from 30 October 2024 to 5 April 2025 are taxed at 18% or 24%. The annual exempt amount and any losses can be allocated in the way that gives the lowest bill, which usually means setting them against the gains taxed at the higher rates first.

For example, if you had £5,000 of gains in September 2024 and £5,000 in December 2024, and all of your gains fall within the basic rate band, you would set the £3,000 allowance against the December gains (taxed at 18%) rather than the September gains (taxed at 10%). Your bill would be £500 (£5,000 at 10%) plus £360 (£2,000 at 18%), a total of £860, rather than £200 plus £900 the other way round. Our calculator does this allocation for you and shows which rate applied to each disposal.

What costs can you deduct from a crypto gain?

You can deduct the sterling amount you paid for the tokens, transaction fees, and certain professional costs of buying or selling. HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual (CRYPTO22150) lists the allowable expenses under section 38 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992: the consideration originally paid, transaction fees for getting the transaction onto the ledger, advertising for a buyer or seller, professional costs of drawing up a contract, and the costs of making a valuation to work out your gain.

Exchange fees are allowable when they relate to buying tokens (added to cost) or selling tokens (deducted from proceeds). For a crypto-to-crypto swap, HMRC accepts splitting the fee 50/50 between the disposal of the token you give up and the acquisition of the token you receive. Costs you cannot deduct include anything already claimed against Income Tax and the equipment or electricity used for mining.

How do losses reduce Capital Gains Tax?

Losses on crypto disposals are deducted from your gains in the same tax year before the annual exempt amount is applied. If you still have losses left over, or you made a net loss for the year, you can carry the unused losses forward to set against future gains — but only if you claim them.

You claim losses on your Self Assessment return, or by writing to HMRC if you have never made a gain and are not registered. GOV.UK gives you up to 4 years after the end of the tax year in which you made the loss. Brought-forward losses are only used to bring later gains down to the annual exempt amount, so you never waste your allowance. Two restrictions apply: you cannot claim losses on disposals to your spouse or civil partner, and losses on disposals to other family members or "connected people" can only be set against gains from disposals to the same person.

Do Scottish taxpayers pay a different rate?

No. Capital Gains Tax is not devolved, so Scottish and Welsh taxpayers use the same 18% and 24% rates and the same £37,700 basic rate band as everyone else in the UK, even though their Income Tax bands differ. HMRC's Capital Gains Manual (CG21204) states that when working out the available basic rate band for gains, "it is assumed the individual is not a Scottish or Welsh taxpayer".

In practice this means a Scottish taxpayer works out taxable income in the normal way, then compares income plus gains against the UK £37,700 band to split gains between 18% and 24%.

When do you have to report and pay?

You must report if your gains for the year are above the annual exempt amount, if you want to claim a loss, or — if you are already in Self Assessment — if your total disposal proceeds were more than £50,000 (for 2023/24 onwards). For 2025/26, the online Self Assessment deadline is 31 January 2027, and any tax is due on the same date. The SA108 capital gains pages include a cryptoasset section for reporting your disposals.

If you are not in Self Assessment, you can report through HMRC's real time Capital Gains Tax service by 31 December 2026 and pay by 31 January 2027. If you have gains from earlier years that were never reported, HMRC's Cryptoasset Disclosure Service is the route to put them right — our disclosure guide explains how, and the letter helper below will point you to the right years if HMRC has already written to you.

Sources

• Capital Gains Tax rates — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax: annual exempt amount for tax year 2019-20 — GOV.UK
• Changes to the annual exempt amount for Capital Gains Tax for 2020 to 2021 — GOV.UK
• Income Tax rates and allowances for current and previous tax years — GOV.UK
• Income Tax: Personal Allowance and basic rate limit from 2019-20 — GOV.UK
• Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax: if you make a loss — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax: work out if you need to pay — GOV.UK
• Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax: other capital gains — GOV.UK
• CG21204 — Rates of tax: available basic rate band — HMRC Capital Gains Manual
• CRYPTO22150 — Allowable expenses — HMRC Cryptoassets Manual
• CRYPTO22200 — Pooling — HMRC Cryptoassets Manual