The UK tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. A disposal is matched to the year in which it happens, using sterling values at that time. A token that is simply held, or moved between wallets that you beneficially own, is not a disposal. Listing it on a platform is not a disposal until a transaction actually takes place.
Events that usually are disposals
- Selling tokens for sterling or another fiat currency.
- Swapping one cryptoasset for another. The proceeds are the sterling value of what you received.
- Spending tokens on goods or services. The proceeds are the sterling value of what you bought.
- Gifting tokens to another person, other than a transfer that qualifies as no gain and no loss, such as many transfers between spouses or civil partners who are living together. A gift is generally treated as made at market value.
- Using tokens to acquire an NFT, where that NFT is a separate asset. NFTs are dealt with one by one. They are not dropped into the fungible pool of a coin.
A gift to a registered charity can be treated differently from a gift to a friend. Do not assume the gain is nil. Read the charity rules that apply to the gift you actually made.
How the gain is measured
Proceeds, in sterling, minus allowable costs. Allowable costs typically include the sterling acquisition cost taken from the relevant pool or matching rule, and certain incidental costs of acquisition and disposal, such as exchange fees that relate to the transaction. Interest on a loan used to buy tokens is not, in the ordinary case, an allowable cost of the gain. The pool itself is explained in the records and pools note.
If you have already brought the acquisition into Income Tax, because the tokens were a reward or similar receipt, you do not tax that same value twice. The sterling amount charged as income is the acquisition cost for the later gain. If the tokens were income and you have not yet reported that income, fixing only the capital gain leaves the return short.
The 2026/27 rates, in one place
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Annual exempt amount | £3,000 |
| Rate inside the unused UK basic rate band | 18% |
| Rate above that band | 24% |
| Personal allowance, before any taper | £12,570 |
| UK basic rate band width | £37,700 |
| Income threshold at the top of the basic rate | £50,270 |
The taxable gain is stacked on top of taxable income to see how much of the UK basic rate band is left. An employment income of £42,000 uses some of that band after the personal allowance. The leftover band is taxed at 18% on the gain. Anything above it is taxed at 24%. There is no separate “crypto rate”.
Scottish income tax has its own bands for non-savings, non-dividend income. Those bands are not the bands you apply to the gain. Capital Gains Tax still looks at the UK basic rate band. A reader in Haddington and a reader in Hull can pay different income tax on the same salary and the same Capital Gains Tax on the same gain.
The personal allowance is reduced where income is above £100,000, by £1 for every £2 above that level. These notes do not recompute that taper. If it applies to you, the 18% slice is smaller than a flat reading of £12,570 would suggest.
Losses
A disposal can produce an allowable loss. Losses of the same year are set against gains. Unused losses can be carried forward, but a carried-forward loss is generally claimed, and the way it is used stops at the annual exempt amount rather than wasting the exempt amount. The practical point is dull and important: if you want the loss on the record, you usually have to tell HMRC. A loss that lives only in a spreadsheet is not a claim.
Tokens you cannot reach, because a key was lost or a platform failed, are not automatically a disposal or a negligible-value claim. HMRC’s manual sets conditions for negligible-value claims. Waiting, and hoping the loss is obvious, is not the same as meeting those conditions.
Spouses, civil partners, and your own wallets
Transfers between spouses or civil partners who are living together are commonly at no gain and no loss. The recipient steps into the transferor’s allowable cost. That is a deferral, not a deletion of the original cost. Transfers to children, siblings or unmarried partners are generally market-value disposals even when no money changes hands.
Moving bitcoin from a personal wallet to an exchange account in your own name is not, by itself, a disposal. The disposal is the later trade. Keep the transfer in the record anyway, because it explains where the units went and stops a later reconstruction from treating the deposit as a purchase.
A small illustration calculator
The form below applies only the annual exempt amount and the 18% / 24% split. It assumes one net gain, no losses, no other disposals, a full personal allowance already reflected in the “taxable income” figure you type, and no Scottish-band adjustment because none belongs in the CGT split. It is here so the arithmetic is visible. It is not your computation.
Where this leaves a real return
You report gains when the rules say so, not only when tax is due. Total gains above the exempt amount are one trigger. Total disposal proceeds above £50,000 are another, even if the gains are covered by the exempt amount. Wanting to claim a loss is another. The mechanics of the form are in the reporting note.
Worked pounds, with a salary and a swap kept separate, are in the examples.
