Crypto Tax 2026/27: Rates, Allowances and Key Dates

For crypto disposals in the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027) you pay Capital Gains Tax at 18% or 24% on gains above a £3,000 tax-free allowance. Those figures are the same as 2025/26, so the rules have not moved, but this is the year you are living in, and there is still time to act before it ends on 5 April 2027. This guide sets out the 2026/27 rates and allowances with exact worked examples, the dates that apply, and what is genuinely new around this tax year.

What are the crypto Capital Gains Tax rates for 2026/27?

The rates are 18% and 24%. GOV.UK says that if you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer you pay 24% on your gains from 6 April 2026, and that if you are a basic rate taxpayer the rate depends on the size of your gain and your taxable income. There is no separate crypto rate; the same rates apply to shares and most other assets.

To find your rate, GOV.UK's method is: work out your taxable income (income minus your Personal Allowance and other reliefs), work out your total taxable gains, deduct the tax-free allowance, add what is left to your taxable income, and compare the total with the basic rate band. Anything within the £37,700 band is taxed at 18% and anything above at 24%. Our Capital Gains Tax on crypto guide covers this method and the earlier years in more detail.

What is the crypto tax-free allowance for 2026/27?

The annual exempt amount is £3,000 for individuals in 2026/27, as GOV.UK's rates and allowances table confirms. It was £3,000 in 2024/25 and 2025/26, £6,000 in 2023/24 and £12,300 in 2022/23. It applies to your total gains from all chargeable assets, not per coin, and it is used after you have set this year's losses against this year's gains.

The allowance does not roll over. If you make £2,000 of gains this year, the other £1,000 of allowance is gone at midnight on 5 April 2027.

What does crypto tax cost in 2026/27? Worked examples

These examples use the same engine as our calculator, with one bitcoin bought in May 2026 for £10,000 and sold in November 2026, and the taxable income shown. The first two are GOV.UK's own worked examples for 2026/27, and the calculator returns exactly GOV.UK's answers.

Taxable income here means income after your Personal Allowance (£12,570 for most people, reducing by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000). Someone on £60,000 of taxable income has roughly £72,570 of gross income, so their band is already used up and every pound of gain above the allowance is taxed at 24%.

What is different about crypto tax in 2026/27?

The rates and allowance are unchanged. Three developments matter around this tax year, and it helps to keep them separate:

• Exchange reporting is already under way. Since 1 January 2026, UK crypto platforms must collect your name, date of birth, address and National Insurance number or UTR under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF). Their first reports to HMRC, covering 2026 activity, are due between 1 January and 31 May 2027. HMRC's exchange data will therefore include activity from part of this tax year and part of the last. Our guide to what HMRC knows about your crypto explains what is reported.
• Draft rules on stablecoins and DeFi start from 6 April 2027. HMRC published draft legislation on 13 July 2026 to exempt eligible stablecoins from Capital Gains Tax and to treat qualifying crypto lending and liquidity pool transactions as "no gain, no loss". Both would apply from 6 April 2027, so neither changes anything for 2026/27. See our stablecoin tax guide for the detail.
• The 2026/27 return is filed after 5 April 2027. There is no rush to file early, but there is a rush to be ready: the SA108 Cryptoassets section applies to your 2026/27 return exactly as it does to 2025/26. Our guide on how to report crypto on your tax return walks through it.

What are the key dates for the 2026/27 tax year?

The return due next is 2025/26, on 31 January 2027. Our crypto tax deadlines guide covers that year's dates and the penalties for missing them.

What can you do before 5 April 2027?

Five practical things are worth doing while the year is still open, all of them lawful and all covered in more detail elsewhere on this site:

1. Work out where you stand now. Import your exports and see your gains and losses so far, so any decision uses real numbers rather than a guess.
2. Use the allowance if it suits you. Realising gains up to £3,000 costs nothing in tax, but selling and buying back the same token within 30 days is matched to the sale, so it does not reset your cost. See how to legally reduce crypto tax.
3. Realise or claim losses. You must report a loss to use it, and you have four years from the end of the tax year to do so. Losses from 2022/23 have until 5 April 2027. See our guide to claiming crypto losses.
4. Check gifts to a spouse. Transfers to a spouse or civil partner are no gain, no loss, which can let both of you use an allowance and basic rate band. See gifting crypto.
5. Give your exchange your details. UK platforms are asking for your National Insurance number under CARF, and a wrong or missing self-certification can carry a penalty of up to £300.

What if HMRC has already written to you?

Crypto letters are about earlier years, not 2026/27, but the 2026/27 rules are the same ones you will apply. If you have received a letter, email or text, use the HMRC crypto letter helper to work out which years to check and how to respond.

Sources

• Capital Gains Tax: rates — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances — GOV.UK
• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances — GOV.UK
• Capital Gains Tax: if you make a loss — GOV.UK
• Self Assessment tax returns: deadlines — GOV.UK
• Information you need to give to UK cryptoasset service providers — GOV.UK
• Check if you need to report cryptoasset data to HMRC — GOV.UK
• Tax treatment of cryptoasset loans and liquidity pools (draft measure) — GOV.UK
• Taxation of stablecoins (draft measure) — GOV.UK