The UK's tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), published its first official statistics on taxable cryptocurrency gains on August 27, identifying 240 people who each declared more than £1 million in capital gains during the 2024-25 tax year. This group reported £717 million collectively, accounting for more than half of the £1.38 billion in total taxable gains declared by 17,600 taxpayers.
The data represents the first time HMRC has released statistics on crypto asset taxpayers following the introduction of a dedicated section on the Self Assessment tax return for cryptoasset capital gains. Across the wider taxpayer population, the 17,600 individuals reported £13.8 billion in crypto asset disposal proceeds, with an average of approximately £78,000 in taxable gains per person. The report also noted that approximately 87% of individuals declaring taxable crypto gains were male, while about 13% were female.
Tax Obligations and Compliance
Crypto asset disposals that may trigger tax include selling tokens, exchanging one cryptocurrency for another, spending digital assets on goods or services, and transferring them to another person outside specified exemptions. Crypto received through employment, self-employment, mining, staking, or lending may also be taxable as income.
HMRC has escalated its compliance efforts, sending 81,000 crypto tax letters during the previous 12 months—a 25% increase from approximately 65,000 letters and nearly three times the 27,714 issued during the 2023-24 tax year. The agency estimated that its crypto compliance and education activity generated an additional £168 million in capital gains tax during 2024-25.
International Reporting and Future Rules
The United Kingdom began implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Cryptoasset Reporting Framework in January. Under HMRC's requirements, service providers must submit their first reports between January 1 and May 31, 2027, covering qualifying customer information and transactions from the 2026 calendar year. Inaccurate, incomplete, or late submissions may generate penalties of up to £300 per user.
Separate reforms will change how certain decentralized finance transactions are treated from April 6, 2027. HMRC's planned crypto lending and liquidity pool rules will generally defer capital gains tax until an economic disposal occurs, with the government estimating that approximately 700,000 individuals could be affected by the revised treatment.
Taxpayers with undeclared income or gains can use HMRC's Crypto Disclosure Service, while amounts above the tax-free allowance for the 2025-26 tax year must be declared on a Self Assessment return by January 31, 2027.
