You bought some bitcoin with dollars last spring. In the autumn you swapped half of it for a stablecoin, and you never moved a cent back to your bank. Is there anything to pay? In the United States and the United Kingdom the answer is yes, or at least something to report: the blockchain, dove gli utenti scambiano token direttamente dal proprio wallet senza affidare la custodia dei fondi a una società.">swap counted as a disposal. In France the same swap is not taxed at that moment. In Italy the answer depends on what you swapped into. Same trade, four different answers.
That is the lesson of crypto taxes in one example. The principle is shared almost everywhere: a tax bill does not come from owning a coin, it comes from an event, such as a sale, a swap, a payment or a reward you receive. What changes from country to country is which events count, how the gain is measured and at what rate it is taxed. This lesson teaches the principle first, then shows how the US, the UK, France and Italy apply it, with every rate dated. It follows our lesson on how to buy crypto for the first time, because buying is where the tax story starts.
One timing point makes 2026 different from earlier years. Platforms in the European Union and the UK began collecting data on their users’ transactions on 1 January 2026, and US brokers have been sending a new form, 1099-DA, for sales made from 2025. Tax offices will see far more than they used to. They do not see everything yet: most of those reports reach them in 2027.
Nothing here is tax advice. Rules change, and your own situation (residence, other income, trading activity) can change the answer. Check with your tax office or a qualified adviser before you file. Facts are as of October 2026.
Crypto taxes follow events, not wallets
A coin that sits in a wallet for five years creates no gain or loss for tax purposes, whatever happens to its price. The moment you give it up or receive something new, the tax system wakes up. Five questions cover almost every case:
- Did I dispose of a crypto-asset? Selling, swapping, spending and, in some countries, giving away all count.
- Did I receive one as income? Staking rewards, mining, some airdrops and being paid in crypto usually do.
- What did it cost me? This is the cost basis: the price paid plus allowed fees.
- What was it worth in my own currency on the day of the event? Dollars for the IRS, pounds for HMRC, euros in France and Italy.
- What do I need to record so I can prove all of the above later?
An exchange’s annual statement answers the first question for that platform only, and it often leaves the third one blank.
What counts as a taxable event
A taxable event is the moment a gain or a loss is “realised”, in tax language, or the moment you receive income. Four families of operations matter for most readers.
Selling crypto for dollars, pounds or euros
This is the event every country taxes. You hand over the coins, you receive money that is legal tender, and the difference between what you receive and what the coins cost you is a capital gain or a capital loss. “For U.S. tax purposes, digital assets are considered property, not currency,” the IRS says on its digital assets page, so selling them works like selling any other piece of property. HMRC in the UK treats the sale as a disposal subject to Capital Gains Tax. France taxes the sale under article 150 VH bis of its general tax code, Italy as “redditi diversi”, a category of miscellaneous income.
Swapping one crypto for another: the rule that differs most
Trading bitcoin for ether, or ether for USDC, feels like moving money around inside the same account. For the IRS it is a disposal: you gave up one piece of property and received another, so you compute a gain or loss in dollars at the time of the swap. HMRC’s guidance on selling cryptoassets lists exchanging one token for another next to selling and spending, so the UK answer is the same.
France takes the opposite approach. A swap between digital assets with no cash balance paid on top (a “soulte”) benefits from a deferral: no tax is due at the swap, and the gain is taxed later, when you convert to euros or pay for something. The deferral postpones the tax, it does not cancel it. An amendment voted at first reading in the French National Assembly on 16 October 2026 would end that deferral for swaps into euro or dollar e-money tokens regulated under MiCA, from 2027 at the earliest; it is not law, and our news report on the French stablecoin swap amendment follows its progress.
Italy sits in between. Its income tax code (article 67 of the TUIR) says a swap between crypto-assets with the same characteristics and functions is not a taxable event, without defining those words. In circular 30/E of October 2023, as summarised by Italian tax commentators, the Agenzia delle Entrate treated a swap of a cryptocurrency into an e-money token as taxable, while a swap between two ordinary cryptocurrencies is not. The official instructions for the 2026 return value a taxable swap (“permuta”) at the normal market value of the crypto-assets received. If you live in Italy and swap often, record every swap and ask an adviser how each one is classified. Stablecoins and e-money tokens are explained in our lesson on stablecoins.
Paying for goods and services with crypto
Spending crypto is a disposal in all four countries. If you pay for a laptop with bitcoin worth $1,500 that cost you $900, you have made a $600 gain on paper, even though no money reached your bank. In France this is one of the two events that end the swap deferral, along with conversion to euros. Small everyday payments are not exempt in the US: as of October 2026, bills in Congress would create a small-transaction exemption, but none has become law, as our report on the latest US crypto tax push explains.
What is usually not taxable
Buying crypto with your own dollars, pounds or euros creates no tax: you have only swapped money for property, and the price you paid becomes your cost basis. Holding creates no income tax either, however much the price moves. Moving coins between two wallets you own is not a disposal, because you still own them; the IRS notes one exception, when you pay the network fee in crypto, which is a tiny disposal of the coins used for the fee. If you are unsure what a transfer between wallets actually does on the chain, our lesson on how crypto transactions work walks through it.
Gifts are a special case. The UK treats giving tokens away as a disposal, except gifts to a spouse, a civil partner or a charity. In the US a genuine gift is not income for the person who receives it, but the cost basis usually follows the coins. France and Italy have their own gift and inheritance rules, which a later lesson covers.
Crypto capital gains tax, step by step
Once you know an event happened, the calculation follows the same pattern everywhere, with local variations on what counts as cost.
Gain equals what you received minus what it cost you
Proceeds are what you received: the cash from a sale, or the market value in your currency of whatever you received in a swap or a purchase. The cost basis is what you paid to acquire the coins you disposed of. Transaction fees generally reduce the gain: HMRC lists them among allowable costs, the IRS adds acquisition fees to basis, and the French notice lets fees be deducted from the sale price. A negative result is a capital loss.
A worked example with invented figures
The numbers below are round figures chosen for the example, not market prices.
- In March you buy 1.00 unit of a coin for $1,000 and pay a $10 fee. Your cost basis is $1,010.
- In October you swap that unit for a stablecoin worth $1,500 at the time, paying another $10 fee. Your proceeds after the fee are $1,490.
- Your gain is $1,490 minus $1,010, so $480, even though you never cashed out.
A US or UK resident reports that $480 (or its sterling value) for the year of the swap. A French resident would report nothing at the swap; the gain is measured later with a different formula, explained below. An Italian resident would need to check whether that particular swap counts.
Losses: what they can offset
Losses are worth recording because they reduce the tax on your gains. The rules differ widely:
- US capital losses first offset capital gains; up to $3,000 of net loss a year ($1,500 if married filing separately) can then reduce other income, and the rest carries forward to later years, according to IRS Topic 409.
- UK losses offset gains of the same year, and what is left can be carried forward to later years. HMRC has to be told about a loss first: you can claim it up to four years after the end of the tax year in which you disposed of the asset, according to gov.uk.
- French losses on digital assets offset gains of the same year only, across the whole household, and cannot be carried to later years.
- Italian losses can be carried forward and set against gains of later years, up to the fourth year after the loss, on condition that they appear in the return for the year in which they occurred.
Short term and long term in the US
The US is the only one of the four countries where how long you held the coin changes the rate. Coins held one year or less produce short-term gains, taxed at ordinary income rates. Coins held more than one year produce long-term gains, taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%. For tax year 2025, a single filer paid 0% on long-term gains with taxable income up to $48,350 and 15% up to $533,400, with 20% above that, according to IRS Topic 409. The UK, France and Italy tax a gain at the same rate after a week or after a decade.
Cost basis: the part everyone gets wrong
Most mistakes in crypto tax returns are not about the rate. They are about the cost: which coins did you sell, and what did those coins cost? If you bought bitcoin five times at five prices and sold part of it, each country has a rule that tells you which purchase price to use.
| Country (as of October 2026) | How the cost of coins sold is set |
|---|---|
| United States | Cost in dollars. You may identify the specific units sold; if you cannot, the first units bought are treated as the first sold (FIFO). Since 1 January 2025, basis is tracked wallet by wallet and account by account, not across all your holdings (Revenue Procedure 2024-28). |
| United Kingdom | Tokens of the same type are pooled at an average cost. Tokens bought on the same day as a sale, then those bought in the 30 days after it, are matched first. |
| France | One formula for the whole portfolio: the gain is the sale price minus total acquisition cost multiplied by the sale price divided by the value of the whole portfolio at the time of the sale. |
| Italy | The documented purchase cost of the coins sold. Without precise proof of cost, the cost is taken as zero, so the whole proceeds are taxed. |
The French formula is the least intuitive. The official example in the instructions for form 2086 uses a 1,000 euro total purchase cost, a portfolio worth 1,200 euros and a 450 euro sale: the gain is 450 minus (1,000 times 450 divided by 1,200), so 75 euros. The 375 euros of cost used up by that sale then come off the purchase cost for the next one: in the notice’s follow-up, a later 1,300 euro sale of a portfolio worth 1,300 euros gives 1,300 minus (625 times 1,300 divided by 1,300), so a 675 euro gain.
The UK pooling rule has a practical consequence: selling and buying back within 30 days does not reset your cost, because the new purchase is matched with the sale first. The Italian zero-cost rule has another: if you lost the records of an old purchase, you can end up taxed on the full sale price.
Income events in brief: staking, airdrops, mining, rewards
Some crypto arrives without a sale at all. Tax offices generally treat it as income when you receive it, valued at its market price that day, and then as a new asset with that value as its cost.
- US staking and mining rewards are ordinary income when you gain control of them (Revenue Ruling 2023-14 for staking), as are new coins received after a hard fork. They go on Schedule 1 of Form 1040, not on Form 8949.
- HMRC’s guidance on receiving cryptoassets treats tokens from mining, staking or lending, including through DeFi, as other taxable income when you are not trading. Selling them later triggers Capital Gains Tax on any rise since you received them.
- France treats staking and similar rewards as income rather than as a capital gain, and they do not go on form 2086; the exact income category depends on the case.
- Italy has less settled rules: how staking rewards are classified is still debated, and rewards of an income type are treated differently from capital gains.
An airdrop is the hardest case. The IRS treats coins from a hard fork airdrop as income; HMRC’s page on receiving tokens does not mention airdrops; France and Italy depend on the circumstances. A later lesson covers rewards in detail.
Records you need to keep
Every system of crypto taxes in this lesson puts the burden of proof on you. For each event, keep:
- the date and time, the asset and the quantity;
- the value in your own currency at that moment, and the source of that price;
- the fees paid and in which asset;
- the platform or wallet address involved, and the other side of the trade when there is one;
- the reason: purchase, sale, swap, payment, reward, gift or transfer between your own wallets.
An exchange’s yearly statement is a starting point, not a tax calculation. It knows nothing about coins you bought elsewhere and transferred in, which is why US forms often show proceeds with no cost. Export your history from every platform at least once a year, because accounts close and platforms fail. Transfers between your own wallets deserve a note too: without one, a tax office may read a deposit as a purchase or a withdrawal as a sale. Our lesson on custodial and self-custody wallets explains where each kind of record lives. How long to keep records depends on each country’s reassessment period; keeping them for several years after the last sale is a safe habit.
Why tax offices will see more: DAC8, CARF and Form 1099-DA
Until recently, tax offices learned about crypto gains mainly from the people who declared them. Three reporting systems change that from 2025 and 2026.
In the EU: the DAC8 directive
DAC8, Council Directive (EU) 2023/2226, was adopted on 17 October 2023. Member states had to transpose it by 31 December 2025, and it applies from 1 January 2026, according to the European Commission. Crypto-asset service providers collect identity and transaction data on their customers for 2026, report it to their national tax office, and the tax offices exchange it between member states by 30 September 2027. So 2026 is the first year covered, but the first exchanges happen in 2027. Our event page on the first DAC8 exchange tracks that date.
Worldwide: the OECD’s CARF
DAC8 builds on the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), which the OECD finished in July 2023. Countries that sign up have their providers collect the same kind of data and exchange it with each other. A list published by Ireland’s tax office, Revenue, as of 10 June 2026 names 48 partner jurisdictions making first exchanges by 2027 on 2026 data, among them all the other EU member states, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Norway. Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates are among those listed for 2028. The United States is not on that list.
The UK rules took effect on 1 January 2026. Providers now ask UK users for their name, date of birth, address and tax reference, such as a National Insurance number, and someone who gives inaccurate details or none can face a penalty of up to GBP 300, according to gov.uk. Providers file their first reports on 2026 with HMRC by 31 May 2027.
In the US: Form 1099-DA
The US runs its own system. Brokers, which include centralized exchanges and some other platforms, must report gross proceeds on Form 1099-DA for transactions made on or after 1 January 2025, and the cost basis for certain transactions made on or after 1 January 2026, according to the IRS. Two limits matter for readers. The form does not cover staking rewards. And coins bought before 2026 or transferred in from another wallet usually arrive with no basis on the form: you still have to work it out. Our lesson on how centralized exchanges work explains why the platform only sees what happens on its own books.
None of this creates a new tax. It changes the odds that an undeclared sale or swap is noticed, and it makes the records described above more important, not less.
The rules in your country, side by side
The table summarises the four systems as of October 2026. Rates and allowances carry their tax year; check the official page before you rely on any of them.
| United States | United Kingdom | France | Italy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sale for fiat | Taxable | Taxable | Taxable | Taxable |
| Crypto-to-crypto swap | Taxable | Taxable | Deferred until conversion to euros or a payment | Depends on the assets swapped |
| Payment for goods | Taxable | Taxable | Taxable | Taxable |
| Rate on gains | Short term: income tax rates; long term: 0%, 15% or 20% (2025 thresholds) | 18% or 24% (2025-26 and 2026-27) | 12.8% income tax plus social levies: 31.4% in total under the 2026 social security law (year of first application debated) | 26% on 2025 gains; 33% on gains from 1 January 2026 (26% for euro e-money tokens) |
| Tax-free amount | None | GBP 3,000 a year (2025-26) | Sales totalling 305 euros or less in the year | None since 2025 |
| Main forms | Form 8949, Schedule D, Schedule 1 | Self Assessment or real-time CGT service | Form 2086, form 3916-bis for foreign accounts | Quadro RT, quadro RW |
If you live in the United States
Every return asks the digital asset question on Form 1040: did you, at any time during the year, receive digital assets as a reward or payment, or sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of them? You answer it whether or not a broker sent you a 1099-DA. Disposals go on Form 8949 and Schedule D, with gains split into short and long term; rewards go on Schedule 1. Cost is measured in US dollars, unit by unit or by FIFO, wallet by wallet since 2025. Losses beyond your gains can reduce other income by up to $3,000 a year. The IRS’s digital assets page, last updated on 2 September 2026, links the forms and the guidance. The IRS also warns that it does not ask taxpayers to register crypto on outside portals; fake tax letters are a known trick covered in our guide to avoiding crypto scams. Check with the IRS or a tax professional for your case.
If you live in the United Kingdom
HMRC applies Capital Gains Tax to selling, swapping, spending and giving away tokens. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Each person has an annual exempt amount of GBP 3,000 for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27, down from GBP 6,000 in 2023-24 and GBP 12,300 in 2022-23, according to the gov.uk rates page. Gains above it are taxed at 18% or 24% for disposals from 30 October 2024 and in 2026-27, depending on your total taxable income. Costs are pooled per token, subject to the same-day and 30-day rules. You report through Self Assessment, which has had a separate cryptoasset section since 2024-25, or through the real-time Capital Gains Tax service. Tokens received from staking, mining or lending are income first. Check with HMRC or an adviser for your case.
How France and Italy differ
France and Italy follow the same principle with their own twists, summed up in the table. France defers swaps, measures gains with a whole-portfolio formula, exempts households whose sales total 305 euros or less in a year, and taxes the rest at 12.8% income tax plus social levies. The 2026 social security financing law raised those levies from 17.2% to 18.6%, taking the total to 31.4% instead of 30%, as the budget rapporteur reminded the National Assembly on 16 October 2026. Sources differ on whether sales made in 2025 already pay the higher levies, so check impots.gouv.fr for the year of your sale.
Italy taxed gains realised in 2025 at 26%. For gains realised from 1 January 2026 the rate is 33%, under article 1, paragraph 24 of Law 207 of 2024, the 2025 budget law. The 2026 budget law (Law 199 of 2025, article 1, paragraph 28) added an exception: income from holding, selling or using e-money tokens denominated in euros, the euro stablecoins defined by MiCA, stays at 26%, and simply converting euros into such a token, or back, is not a realised gain. Dollar stablecoins are not covered by the exception. Our lesson on MiCA explains what an e-money token is. Gains go in quadro RT and holdings in quadro RW, according to the Agenzia delle Entrate’s 2026 instructions. One more date to watch: Normattiva shows paragraph 24 repealed from 1 January 2027 by Legislative Decree 117 of 19 June 2026, the new consolidated income tax code, so the rate for 2027 gains will be read in that code. Detailed lessons for France, Italy and the US come later in this path.
Do you have to declare crypto you have not sold?
Often less than people fear, but rarely nothing at all. Owning coins creates no tax on gains anywhere in this lesson. The duties that remain are about reporting, and they differ.
US residents still answer the Form 1040 question. If all you did was buy with dollars, hold, or move coins between wallets you own without paying a fee in crypto, the answer is No. If you received staking rewards, mined or swapped anything, it is Yes. In the UK, holding alone creates nothing to report, but a swap counts as a disposal even if you never sold for pounds, which is the most common trap.
French residents file no form 2086 for a year with no sale to euros and no payment, but they do file form 3916-bis: every account with a digital asset provider established abroad has to be declared with the return, whether or not it was used. Italian residents who hold crypto-assets through wallets or accounts fill in quadro RW, and the tax of 2 per thousand (0.2%) on the year-end value is due even when nothing was sold, whenever no Italian intermediary has already charged stamp duty on those assets. Rewards received during the year are taxable in every country, sale or no sale.
Mistakes that cause trouble
The rules above lead to a handful of predictable errors. The first is forgetting swaps: in the US and the UK a year of trading between coins can produce dozens of taxable events with no cash withdrawal. The second is treating the exchange statement as a tax return, when it ignores coins bought elsewhere and often leaves cost blank.
The third is forgetting foreign accounts. An account on a platform based in another country is reportable in France and is part of the Italian RW picture, and since 2026 the platform itself reports to its own tax office, which passes the data on. Before you open an account, check in which country the platform is established. The fourth is ignoring small rewards, such as a few tokens of staking income each week, which add up to income you must declare. The last is losing records: without proof of cost, Italy taxes the whole sale price, and every other country leaves you to prove the cost yourself.
If you discover an old mistake, most tax offices offer a way to correct it. In the UK, HMRC runs a cryptoasset disclosure service for unpaid tax, and warns that someone who does not disclose may face a penalty of up to 100% of the tax due plus interest.
Where the taxes path goes next
This is the first lesson of the taxes path. Later lessons go country by country, with the forms line by line for France, Italy and the US, and cover staking, DeFi and gifts. Coindaro explains how the rules work; it does not prepare tax returns, and only your tax office or an adviser can confirm what you owe. The next fixed date is 31 May 2027, when UK providers send HMRC their first reports on 2026, followed by the first DAC8 exchanges between EU tax offices by 30 September 2027.
