Income first, not capital gains
The UK has no separate crypto tax, and most disposals fall under Capital Gains Tax, but tokens you receive for an activity are taxed as income before any sale. HMRC's Cryptoassets Manual applies one test to mining and staking rewards, and GOV.UK guidance says tokens you receive from employment or from activities such as mining, staking or lending count as income. Creator fees, where a token you launched pays you a share of trading fees in crypto, are not named in that guidance, but they are receipts for an activity you carry on and sit inside the same framework. Where the activity does not amount to a trade, the sterling value of the tokens at the date of receipt is miscellaneous income, less appropriate expenses. Where the degree of activity, organisation, risk and commerciality make it a trade, the tokens are trading receipts instead. Our crypto tax for expats guide covers the income categories in full.
The allowance, the base cost and the later gain
A £1,000 trading and miscellaneous income allowance can cover small amounts each tax year. Above that, you report the income through Self Assessment for the year of receipt, so you need to register if you are not already in it, and keep a record of each receipt with its date, quantity and sterling value. The value taxed as income then becomes your base cost for those tokens. When you later sell them, swap them for another token, spend them or give them away to anyone other than a spouse or civil partner, that is a disposal for Capital Gains Tax, and only the growth since receipt is a gain. For 2026/27 the annual exempt amount is £3,000, and crypto gains are charged at 18% within your remaining basic-rate band and 24% above it. Tokens sit in a section 104 pool with same-day and 30-day matching; our expat Self Assessment guide covers the filing side.
Residence, and why HMRC will see the receipts
Whether the UK taxes the fees at all depends on your residence, not on where the blockchain or platform sits. A UK resident is taxed on worldwide income and gains, and HMRC locates a crypto asset by the residence of its beneficial owner, so your tokens effectively travel with you. For someone newly arrived in the UK, the 4-year foreign income and gains regime that replaced the remittance basis from 6 April 2025 may be relevant to foreign income, which needs checking against the FIG regime guide. Do not assume the receipts are invisible. Since 1 January 2026 UK crypto providers must collect each user's name, date of birth, address, country of tax residence and National Insurance number or UTR under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, with first reports to HMRC due between 1 January and 31 May 2027 covering calendar year 2026, and international exchange between tax authorities starting in 2027.