HMRC Crypto Letter? What It Means and What to Do Next

An HMRC crypto letter — or email or text — is a standard prompt, not a penalty. HMRC sends them to people whose exchange data suggests they may have crypto gains or income that do not appear on their tax record, and asks them to check and correct anything missing by the date printed on the letter. HMRC sent 81,172 of these letters, emails and texts to crypto holders in 2025/26, up from 64,982 in 2024/25 and 27,714 in 2023/24. If you have one, the right response is calm and methodical: confirm it is genuine, gather your records, work out your position for the years in question, and reply through the correct route — even if the answer is that you owe nothing.

This page explains what the letters are, how to check yours, what your options are and how penalties and interest work. The letter helper below turns that into a personalised checklist, and the news log at the bottom tracks what HMRC has changed and when.

Use the letter helper

Answer a few questions — what you received, the deadline on it, whether you have filed a Self Assessment return before, which years you sold or swapped crypto — and you will get a checklist with the recommended route, the years to calculate, the documents to collect and a deadline reminder. Your answers stay in your browser unless you choose an email reminder.

What is an HMRC crypto letter?

It is one of HMRC's "one to many" communications: the same letter, email or text sent to a large group of people whose data shows a common risk — here, crypto activity that does not match a tax return. HMRC has published on GOV.UK that if you have traded in cryptoassets it "may contact you by letter, email or text message", and that the letter or email will link to guidance on checking you have declared crypto activities correctly, reporting crypto income and gains, and what a disposal is. Text messages direct you to GOV.UK guidance.

People receive them because HMRC already holds data from UK exchanges and can request more. That data is expanding: under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF), UK crypto platforms have been collecting users' names, dates of birth, addresses and National Insurance numbers or UTRs since 1 January 2026, and their first reports, covering 2026 activity, are due to HMRC between 1 January and 31 May 2027. Platforms in other participating countries will report UK residents' activity to HMRC too. Our guide does HMRC know about my crypto? covers this in depth.

The scale has grown quickly. Freedom of Information figures obtained by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, reported by the BBC in August 2026, show 27,714 letters, emails and texts in 2023/24, 64,982 in 2024/25 and 81,172 in 2025/26. HMRC's own statement to the BBC was measured: "We regularly send letters to educate, remind or prompt customers to review their tax affairs, including customers who use crypto assets."

Is the letter genuine?

Probably, but check. Scammers copy HMRC's style, so verify before you act:

• Compare it with GOV.UK's list of genuine contacts. HMRC publishes descriptions of its current letters, emails and texts, including a Cryptoassets entry. Search "check a list of genuine HMRC contacts" on GOV.UK.
• HMRC will not ask for bank or card details by email or text. GOV.UK says HMRC will never send a notification of a tax rebate or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by text, and will only email about personal or payment information from an address ending in hmrc.gov.uk. A message that rushes you, threatens you, or asks you to transfer money or pay with vouchers is a scam.
• Do not click links in emails or texts. Type gov.uk into your browser and find the guidance yourself. Genuine HMRC crypto messages only point to GOV.UK pages.
• For a letter, contact the team it names using a phone number from GOV.UK, not one printed on the letter, if anything looks wrong.
• Report anything suspicious. Forward suspicious emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599, then delete them.

A genuine crypto letter asks you to review and correct your tax position. It does not demand immediate payment, ask for your login details or threaten arrest.

What does the letter ask you to do?

To review your crypto activity for the years it mentions, correct anything you have not reported, and respond by the date printed on the letter. The response deadline varies by campaign — some past letters gave 60 days — so use the date on your own letter and do not assume one from something you read online. The letter helper asks for your date and builds the reminder around it.

Reviewing means working out, for each year, whether you disposed of crypto (sold, swapped, spent or gifted it), what your gains and losses were under HMRC's pooling rules, whether you received staking, mining or other income, and whether any of it should have been reported. GOV.UK's guidance on selling cryptoassets sets out the rules; our complete UK crypto tax guide explains them in plain English.

What are your options?

There are four broad outcomes, and the right one depends on which years are affected and whether anything is owed.

Nothing is owed

If your review shows no tax was due — gains within the annual exempt amount (£12,300 for 2020/21 to 2022/23, £6,000 for 2023/24, £3,000 from 2024/25), or no disposals at all — reply or confirm as the letter instructs and keep your calculation and exchange exports as evidence. Do not simply ignore the letter because the answer is nil.

Tax is owed for the current or last tax year

Include it on your Self Assessment return. For 2025/26, the online return and payment are due by 31 January 2027; if you have never filed, register by 5 October 2026. A 2024/25 return that left crypto out can be amended online until 31 January 2027. If you are not in Self Assessment and only have a capital gain for 2025/26, you can use HMRC's real time Capital Gains Tax service by 31 December 2026 and pay by 31 January 2027.

Tax is owed for earlier years

Use HMRC's Cryptoasset Disclosure Service. You gather your records, calculate the tax for each year, work out interest and a penalty percentage, submit online and pay within 30 days of submitting. How far back you go depends on behaviour: 4 years if you took reasonable care, up to 6 if you were careless, up to 20 if it was deliberate. Our step-by-step disclosure guide covers every stage.

It is complicated

If you used DeFi lending or liquidity pools, traded NFTs or on margin, dealt in large sums, ran anything that looks like a business, or think HMRC could see your behaviour as deliberate, get a qualified UK tax adviser involved before you respond. The disclosure form asks you to characterise your own behaviour, and the difference between "careless" and "deliberate" is worth professional advice.

How far back does HMRC go?

Four, six or twenty years, depending on why the tax was not paid. GOV.UK's disclosure guidance says: if you took reasonable care but still got it wrong, you pay what you owe for 4 years; if you did not take enough care, a maximum of 6 years; if you deliberately did not tell HMRC, a maximum of 20 years. "Deliberate" means you knew you owed tax and chose not to say so, or knew your return was wrong when you sent it.

For many letter recipients the older years turn out to owe nothing, because the annual exempt amount was £12,300 as recently as 2022/23. But you need the calculation to show that, and you need complete records to produce it — HMRC's record-keeping guidance (CRYPTO10400) expects you to keep the type of token, date, quantity, sterling value and running balance for every transaction, because exchanges "may only keep records for a short period".

How are penalties worked out?

Penalties are a percentage of the tax that should have been paid, and the percentage depends on two things: your behaviour (reasonable care, careless, deliberate, or deliberate and concealed) and whether your disclosure was unprompted or prompted. A disclosure after an HMRC letter is prompted. Within each range, HMRC reduces the penalty for the quality of your disclosure — "telling, helping and giving" access to records.

HMRC's factsheet on inaccuracies in returns (CC/FS7a) gives these ranges:

Where you never filed a return for a year you should have, the "failure to notify" factsheet (CC/FS11) applies, with non-deliberate ranges from 0% to 30% depending on timing and prompting, and no penalty where you had a reasonable excuse. Two points from the factsheets are worth knowing: taking a long time (HMRC gives 3 years or more as an example) to disclose usually stops you reaching the bottom of the range, and HMRC can suspend a penalty for a careless inaccuracy for up to 2 years if it can set conditions you can meet.

We explain penalties rather than calculate them, because the behaviour judgement is yours to make and HMRC's to check. Late payment interest is separate and is charged daily from the original due date until you pay; HMRC's rate is linked to the Bank of England base rate and the current and historic rates are on GOV.UK.

What should you gather?

• Full transaction history exports (CSV or XLSX) from every exchange you used in the relevant years — including closed accounts, where you can still get them.
• Bank statements showing deposits to and withdrawals from exchanges.
• Wallet addresses for any self-custody wallets, and the exchange withdrawal records that fed them.
• Records of staking, mining, lending or airdrop rewards, with dates.
• Any previous tax returns and correspondence with HMRC.

The letter helper produces a documents checklist tailored to your answers, and our calculator's import review flags missing history, unmatched transfers and negative balances so you know what is still missing before you rely on the numbers.

What if you cannot pay?

Contact HMRC before the deadline rather than after it. For the disclosure service, GOV.UK says to call the helpline on 03000 55 22 94 if you cannot pay within 30 days of submitting, to discuss your options. For a Self Assessment bill, HMRC offers payment plans, and arranging one before the due date can avoid late payment penalties, although interest still runs.

HMRC crypto news

A dated log of the changes that affect letter recipients, with sources. Updated monthly.

19 August 2026 — 81,172 crypto letters, emails and texts in 2025/26. The BBC reported Freedom of Information figures obtained by UHY Hacker Young showing HMRC sent 81,172 warning letters, emails and texts to crypto holders in 2025/26, up from 27,714 in 2023/24. HMRC said it "regularly send[s] letters to educate, remind or prompt customers to review their tax affairs". (BBC News; UHY Hacker Young)

13 July 2026 — Draft legislation on DeFi lending, liquidity pools and stablecoins. HMRC published draft Finance Bill measures that would treat qualifying cryptoasset lending and liquidity pool transactions as "no gain, no loss" and exempt disposals of eligible stablecoins from Capital Gains Tax, both from 6 April 2027. Earlier years are unaffected. (Cryptoasset loans and liquidity pools; Taxation of stablecoins)

12 March 2026 — HMRC lists crypto letters, emails and texts as genuine contacts. GOV.UK's list of genuine HMRC contacts gained a Cryptoassets entry confirming HMRC may contact people who have traded cryptoassets by letter, email or text, with links to guidance. Use it to check yours. (GOV.UK)

1 January 2026 — Cryptoasset Reporting Framework in force. UK crypto platforms must collect users' name, date of birth, address and National Insurance number or UTR, with a penalty of up to £300 for users who give inaccurate details or none. First reports, covering 2026, are due between 1 January and 31 May 2027. (Information you need to give to UK cryptoasset service providers; Check if you need to report cryptoasset data to HMRC)

20 October 2025 — 64,982 crypto nudge letters in 2024/25. Freedom of Information data obtained by UHY Hacker Young showed 8,329 letters in 2021/22, none in 2022/23, 27,713 in 2023/24 and 64,982 in 2024/25 (the August 2026 release puts the 2023/24 figure at 27,714). (Chronicle Live)

29 May 2025 — Cryptoasset section added to Self Assessment. GOV.UK confirmed that Self Assessment returns include a cryptoasset section on the capital gains pages from the 2024/25 return onwards. (GOV.UK)

30 October 2024 — Capital Gains Tax rates rose to 18% and 24%. The main rates increased from 10% and 20% for disposals on or after 30 October 2024, part way through 2024/25, and the annual exempt amount stayed at £3,000. (GOV.UK)

29 November 2023 — Cryptoasset Disclosure Service launched. HMRC published its dedicated online service for voluntarily disclosing unpaid tax on cryptoassets from earlier years. (GOV.UK)

Sources

• Check genuine HMRC contact that uses more than one communication method — GOV.UK
• Check a list of genuine HMRC contacts — GOV.UK
• Identify tax scam phone calls, emails and text messages — GOV.UK
• Report suspicious HMRC emails, texts, social media accounts and phone calls — GOV.UK
• Tell HMRC about unpaid tax on cryptoassets — GOV.UK
• Check if you need to pay tax when you sell cryptoassets — GOV.UK
• Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax: other capital gains — GOV.UK
• Self Assessment tax returns: deadlines — GOV.UK
• Self Assessment tax returns: if you need to change your return — GOV.UK
• Compliance checks: penalties for inaccuracies in returns or documents — CC/FS7a — GOV.UK
• Compliance checks: penalties for failure to notify — CC/FS11 — GOV.UK
• HMRC interest rates for late and early payments — 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
• Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances — GOV.UK
• Tax treatment of cryptoasset loans and liquidity pools — GOV.UK
• Taxation of stablecoins — GOV.UK
• CRYPTO10400 — Record keeping — HMRC Cryptoassets Manual
• 81,000 warning letters sent to crypto holders in HMRC tax crackdown — BBC News, 19 August 2026
• Cryptocurrency investors under increased pressure from HMRC investigations — UHY Hacker Young, 20 August 2026
• HMRC sending 65,000 letters to UK households as they 'step up' pursuit — Chronicle Live, 20 October 2025