UK DeFi Crypto Taxes Guide 2024

Whether you've got liquidity mining tokens, staking rewards or you're using DeFi lending platforms... HMRC wants to know about it. But navigating HMRC DeFi guidance isn't always easy. That's why we've put together our UK DeFi tax guide, covering everything you need to know about how HMRC views DeFi transactions including crypto loans tax, DeFi staking tax, liquidity mining tax, crypto CFDs tax, and more in our Ultimate UK DeFi Tax Guide.

We're only covering DeFi taxes in the UK in this guide, if you want to learn more about crypto tax in the UK generally, check out our Ultimate UK Crypto Tax Guide.

HMRC DeFi Taxes

HMRC has finally released guidance on how they plan to tax DeFi. But it's not exactly straightforward. It all comes down to whether your crypto is viewed as income or capital. This means it all depends on how your specific DeFi protocol works.

From a tax perspective - the 'nature of the transaction' defines the tax treatment. So if it has the nature of capital, it's subject to Capital Gains Tax. Meanwhile, if it has the nature of revenue, it's subject to Income Tax.

To try and simplify this a bit more, a lot of your DeFi trades are going to be seen as disposals now. This includes adding/removing liquidity, staking crypto, and in some instances the rewards you receive from DeFi protocols - if you receive that reward in one large sum (like if you traded a liquidity pool token that had increased in value).

Meanwhile, returns may be seen as income in some instances. HMRC says this is more likely if:

• The return to be received has been agreed - as opposed to speculative and unknown

• If the return is paid by the borrower/DeFi platform

• If the return is paid periodically throughout the period of lending/staking

So if you're earning new tokens or coins on a periodic basis through your DeFi activities - this is more likely to be seen as income and subject to Income Tax.

In brief, your potential tax liability may look something like this:

Let's dive into it in more depth to understand the potential tax liabilities.

Income or capital asset

HMRC views crypto in one of two ways and subjects them to two different types of tax. In the UK DeFi trades are either seen as income and subjected to Income Tax or seen as a capital asset and subjected to Capital Gains Tax - or both!

The lines on what is considered income can get quite blurry. However, some crypto transactions are clear-cut. For example, the following investments are seen as income and subject to Income Tax:

• Getting paid in crypto - known as ‘money’s worth’ and subject to Income Tax and National Insurance contributions

• Mining crypto - depending on the degree of activity

• Staking crypto - depending on the degree of activity

• Airdrops - in most instances

Capital Gains Tax, on the other hand, only applies when you sell, swap, spend, or gift your crypto (excluding to your spouse). This is known as a ‘disposal’ of an asset. It’s important to note that even when you pay Income Tax on a crypto asset, you’ll also pay Capital Gains Tax when you later dispose of your crypto asset. Similarly, even if you didn’t pay Income Tax on your crypto asset, you’ll still pay Capital Gains Tax when you dispose of it.

Crypto transactions which are subject to Capital Gains Tax in the UK include:

• Selling your crypto for fiat currency

• Swapping your crypto for another cryptocurrency

• Spending your crypto on goods or services

• Gifting your crypto (excluding gifting your crypto to your spouse or civil partner)

What this means is that quite a few DeFi transactions already have guidance. For example, swapping crypto on dexes is covered under the existing guidance. However, there are some other transactions covered in the new guidance so we’ll look at the common types of DeFi transactions and how HMRC is likely to view them.

DeFi crypto loans tax UK

HMRC has released extensive guidance around lending and borrowing crypto through DeFi protocols.

For the lender, when you loan out crypto - you make a disposal which is subject to Capital Gains Tax. If you know the amount of crypto you're receiving in return for the loan - you should include this in your capital gains calculations. If you don't you can calculate this later. When you receive your crypto back after the loan, your capital is treated as an acquisition - but any return is not. Your return may be subject to Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax - depending on how you receive it.

For borrowers, a loan is treated as an acquisition - and any loan interest payments are an allowable expense. When they pay back the loan, this will be treated as a disposition which is subject to Capital Gains Tax.

Crypto staking tax UK

This one is pretty clear-cut because although staking exists within DeFi, it also existed long before, so HMRC has specific guidance.

New tokens from staking are generally going to be miscellaneous income and subject to Income Tax. You’ll also have to pay Capital Gains Tax when you later dispose of the asset. However, in some protocols - where you stake and receive tokens representing your asset in the staking pool (like Lido) - this may be more akin to a disposal and therefore a gain or loss must be calculated when interacting with the protocol.

Yield farming tax UK

Yield farming is big news in DeFi right now. Speaking broadly, it refers to any crypto assets strategically invested to yield the greatest returns - hence the name. You can earn different kinds of yields - for example, tokens, interest, or by being paid the transaction fee. The whole purpose of yield farming is to strategically stack different crypto investments on top of each other to yield the largest rewards.

You can refer to the different sections within this guide to identify how each would be treated from a tax perspective.

Read next: Learn about yield farming and how to earn passive income from crypto.

Liquidity mining tax UK

New HMRC guidance states that adding and removing liquidity is subject to Capital Gains Tax. The liquidity pool token you receive in return inherits the cost basis of your added capital.

You will pay tax on the rewards earned - and it depends on how you earn them. If you receive new tokens or coins in return for your capital, you'll likely pay Income Tax. Whereas if you receive liquidity pool token(s) in return for your capital that increases in value - but that value is not realised until you remove your capital - this is more likely to be seen as a capital gains transaction.

Read next: What is liquidity mining?

Crypto CFD tax UK

HMRC has no specific guidance on CFD trading options in the crypto market like derivatives, margin trading, and leveraged trading. However, they have a lot of guidance available on how these are taxed in traditional financial markets.

The advice on traditional finance markets is pretty straightforward - these will normally be seen as individual investments, except in extraordinary circumstances where they may be viewed as trading. For individual investments, you’re only liable to pay Capital Gains Tax on any profits when your position closes.

Of course, there are some instances where your contract liquidates, in these instances, this would be viewed as a disposal and you’d similarly be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax on any profits.

It’s important to note that because there is no specific advice on crypto CFD trading, you should still speak to a UK tax advisor for specific guidance on your crypto tax for these transactions.

Read next: What is crypto margin trading?

Gas fees tax UK

HMRC has clear guidance on allowable expenses when calculating transaction or gas fees. Transaction fees are an allowable expense, so you can add them to your cost basis. Transfer fees are also an allowable expense in most instances.

Read next: What are gas fees?

Wrapped crypto tax UK

In some instances, you’ll need to ‘wrap’ coins before you can deposit them into a smart contract. An example of this is when you want to use BTC on an Ethereum-based platform, you can ‘wrap’ BTC and exchange it for an ERC-20 token of an equivalent value that does work within the platform.

HMRC does not have clear guidance on this just yet. However, as you’re swapping one coin for another, it is very likely that they would view this as a kind of disposal and subject any gain to Capital Gains Tax.

Read next: Learn more about wrapped tokens and tax.

How to calculate UK DeFi taxes with Koinly

Koinly helps UK crypto investors calculate their crypto income, capital gains and losses, and expenses. All you need to do is import your crypto transactions from your wallets to Koinly through CSV or API. Once your transactions are imported, Koinly will calculate your crypto taxes for you. All you need to do is head over to the tax reports page, where you’ll see a simple summary of your crypto taxes. Below this, you’ll find a variety of tax reports you can download and submit to HMRC when filing your annual Self Assessment Tax Return.

You can find more great information about filing your UK tax reports in our UK crypto tax guide and you can find the UK Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax rates in our UK Tax Rates guide. Also, check out our guide for more tips on how to pay less crypto tax in the UK.