HMRC has published guidance on the tax treatment of cryptoassets for businesses, incorporated into their manual at CRYPTO40000 onwards. The guidance only applies to exchange tokens and excludes security tokens and utility tokens, the definitions of these assets follow those adopted by the FCA in its guidance1. Exchange tokens are intended and designed to be used as a means of exchange, ie used in lieu of currency to buy and sell goods or services for example Bitcoin. Utility tokens grant the owner access to a current or prospective product or service and security tokens have rights which are similar to shares or debt.
The OECD have also published a Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and amendments to the Common Reporting Standard.
HMRC do not view cryptoassets as being currency2 so TCGA 1992, ss 252 (foreign currency bank accounts) and TCGA 1992, s 269 (foreign currency for personal expenditure) are not applicable and for companies the loan relationship rules, CTA 2009, s 328 (foreign currency rules), the Disregard Regulations in SI 2004/3256 and CTA 2010, s 9A (designated
To continue reading
View the latest version of this document, as well as thousands of others like it, sign in to Tolley+™ Research or register for a free trial
Web page updated on 17 Mar 2025 14:48