UK crypto tax, optimised.

UK Crypto Capital Gains Tax

Estimate the CGT you owe on crypto disposals for the 2025/26 tax year. Drag the sliders to model your total proceeds and cost basis. Other income determines whether your gain falls in the basic or higher rate band.

How UK crypto tax actually works

1. Every disposal is a taxable event. That includes selling for fiat, swapping one coin for another, paying for a coffee with crypto, gifting (except to a spouse), or using crypto as collateral that's then liquidated.
2. Calculate the gain per disposal: market value of what you received minus the Section 104 pool cost basis for that asset.
3. Aggregate all gains and losses in the tax year. Losses offset gains in the same year and can be carried forward indefinitely once registered.
4. Apply the £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount to the net gain. AEA is per-person and use-it-or-lose-it.
5. Tax the remainder at 18% or 24% depending on which band the gain falls into when added to your other income.

Worked example — £20k gain, £40k other income

• Total disposal proceeds: £50,000
• Section 104 pool cost basis: £30,000
• Gross gain: £20,000
• Annual Exempt Amount used: £3,000
• Taxable gain: £17,000
• Other income (£40k salary) uses £27,430 of basic band, leaving £10,270 of basic band for the gain
• Gain in basic band (£10,270 × 18%): £1,849
• Gain in higher band (£6,730 × 24%): £1,615
• Total CGT: £3,464
• Net proceeds: £46,536

Section 104 pooling — why exchange exports are usually wrong

UK CGT for crypto uses three matching rules in this order:

1. Same-day rule: dispose and acquire the same coin on the same day, the disposal matches the same-day acquisition first.
2. Bed-and-breakfast rule: disposal matches any acquisitions in the next 30 days.
3. Section 104 pool: everything else goes into a pool with an averaged cost basis. Each disposal uses the pool's average cost.

Most exchange CSV exports give you a per-trade view that ignores all three rules. They tell you "you sold 1 ETH for £2,000, you bought it for £1,500, gain £500" — but if you also bought 0.5 ETH a week later, the bed-and-breakfast rule applies and changes the cost basis.

This is why Take Home (and any UK-aware crypto tax tool) reconstructs your full transaction history across all wallets and exchanges before calculating gains. It's the only way to get cost basis right.

Loss harvesting and offsetting

Capital losses can be:

• Offset against gains in the same tax year automatically.
• Carried forward indefinitely if registered with HMRC within 4 years of the loss arising.
• Used against any capital gains, not just crypto. So a crypto loss can shelter a gain on a property or shares.

Practical implication: if you have unrealised losses and also have realised gains this year, sell the losers before April 5 to crystallise the loss. You can buy back the same coin after 30 days without the bed-and-breakfast rule kicking in.

Where Take Home helps

• Section 104 pool reconstruction across all wallets, exchanges, and DeFi positions — not just one CSV export.
• Income vs capital classification for staking, mining, airdrops, lending rewards (income), vs trading gains (capital).
• Loss harvesting opportunities flagged before each tax year end with the actual tax saved per disposal.
• DeFi treatment — LP token entries/exits, liquidity provision rewards, lending platform interest — all of which HMRC has different rules for and most generic calculators ignore.
• Self-Assessment crypto schedule generated from your data, ready for your accountant or for filing yourself.