Crypto tax calculator UK
Crypto tax calculator UK: enter each disposal by hand, or import your exchange history, and the calculator below works out the capital gains tax on your cryptocurrency. There is no special crypto regime. Crypto is a chargeable asset, so the same 18% and 24% rates and the same £3,000 annual exempt amount apply as to shares.
What makes crypto its own puzzle is the number of transactions. Every sell, swap and spend is a disposal that realises a gain or a loss in pounds, and the calculator matches each one to the coins it came from: same-day buys first, repurchases within 30 days next, then the average-cost pool.
The basics
Every disposal is a chargeable event
Buying cryptocurrency with pounds is not a taxable event. The tax falls on disposal, and for crypto a disposal is broader than a sale back to pounds. Swapping one coin for another disposes of the coin you give up at its market value. Spending coins on goods disposes of them at what they were worth at the till. Gifting them disposes of them too.
Each disposal's gain is what it brought in, measured in pounds at the time, minus the cost of the coins it consumed. The year's gains and losses net together, the £3,000 annual exempt amount comes off what is left, and the chargeable gain is split 18%/24% by your income, exactly as a share disposal would be.
There is no holding-period discount and no special rate. A coin held for six days and a coin held for six years pay the same 18% or 24%. What moves the bill is the size of the gain and how much basic-rate band your other income leaves free.
What one crypto year pays, 2026/27
| Piece | Figure |
|---|---|
| Chargeable rates | 18% and 24% |
| Annual exempt amount, all assets combined | £3,000 |
| Basic-rate band the gain can fill | £37,700 |
| Special crypto rate | none |
Pooling
Same-day, 30-day, then the pool
The calculator never treats each sale as finding its own specific coin. It matches disposals to acquisitions in a fixed statutory order, and the order is what stops the tax bill depending on which parcel you pretend to sell.
Same-day acquisitions go first: coins bought on the date of the disposal are treated as the coins sold. Next comes the 30-day rule, the bed-and-breakfast provision: coins repurchased within 30 days after the disposal are matched to it, earliest repurchase first, so selling and buying back cannot refresh a cost base. Whatever is still unmatched comes out of the Section 104 pool, which holds every earlier acquisition of that coin at average cost.
Disposals are processed in date order, so an earlier disposal's 30-day window claims a later buy-back before that buy could serve a later sale. The import wizard runs this matching over your whole exchange history and tags each slice of each disposal with the rule that consumed it.
Worked example
Bitcoin bought at £8,000, sold at £24,500: £3,240 of CGT
You buy one whole bitcoin for £8,000 on 1 November 2024 and sell all of it on 15 September 2026 for £24,500. It is the only bitcoin you ever held, so the whole parcel comes out of the Section 104 pool and there is no matching to do.
The gain is £16,500. There are no losses and no other disposals, so the £3,000 annual exempt amount comes straight off, leaving £13,500 chargeable. Your income of £60,000 already exceeds the basic-rate band of £37,700, so none of the gain fits at 18%. The whole £13,500 is charged at 24%, and the tax is £3,240.
One bitcoin disposal in 2026/27
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale proceeds | £24,500 |
| Cost base (purchase price) | £8,000 |
| Capital gain | £16,500 |
| Annual exempt amount | −£3,000 |
| Chargeable at 24%, income £60,000 | £13,500 |
| Tax on the disposal | £3,240 |
Common mistakes
Errors that move the number
- Treating a swap as a pause. Trading bitcoin for ether disposes of the bitcoin at its pound value at the swap. The gain is chargeable even though no pounds arrived.
- Spending coins and forgetting it. Paying for goods with crypto is a disposal at the coins' value on the day. Small spends add up over a year.
- Averaging the whole wallet's cost per coin manually. The pool already holds average cost; matching rules decide which slices leave it, and a manual average double-counts the 30-day rule.
- Netting losses inside one exchange against gains on another by hand. The calculator pools every source and nets the year itself.
- Ignoring the annual exempt amount's combined scope. It is one £3,000 across crypto, shares and property together, not per asset class.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How is crypto taxed in the UK?
As capital gains. Crypto is a chargeable asset, each disposal realises a gain or loss in pounds, and the year's net gain is charged at 18% or 24% after the £3,000 annual exempt amount.
Is swapping one cryptocurrency for another taxable?
Yes. A swap disposes of the coin you give up at its market value in pounds. That value is both the proceeds of one disposal and the cost base of the new coin.
How does pooling work?
Each disposal is matched to same-day acquisitions first, then to coins repurchased within the following 30 days, earliest first, and finally to the Section 104 pool of everything bought earlier at average cost.
Is there a special crypto tax rate?
No. Crypto gains are charged at the same 18% and 24% as shares and other chargeable assets, with the same £3,000 annual exempt amount.
Does holding crypto longer reduce the tax?
No. The UK has no holding-period discount for capital gains. The rate follows your income band, not the length of ownership.
What happens to crypto losses?
They offset capital gains of the same year, across every asset class. Anything unused carries forward to future years. They never reduce salary or pension income.
Sources
Where these figures come from
Also on capitalgainstax.net