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HMRC has contacted me about cryptoassets

Last reviewed 31 August 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts

What this letter is
A nudge from HMRC, sent by letter, email or text, asking you to check whether tax is due on your crypto gains or income.
Who gets it
People HMRC's data suggests may have underpaid income tax or capital gains tax on crypto transactions. The current wave runs from July 2026 to March 2027 and arrives by letter, email or text, and possibly through the HMRC app. Yes, genuine HMRC contact about crypto does arrive by text: GOV.UK lists this campaign on its genuine contact pages.
Is the deadline legally binding?
Where this letter gives a reply date, the letter sets it, not the law. The deadline section below explains what that means and what ignoring it can cost.
Your options at a glance
Nothing to report · Amend your return · Cryptoasset disclosure service
Reply window: set by the letter, not by law

The 2024 wave gave 60 days from the letter date. The current wave's descriptions do not publish a day count, so go by any date printed on your letter.

A reply window in a crypto nudge letter is administrative, set by the letter rather than by law.

Two clocks can run at once here, and the second one is legal: the window to amend a return is fixed by statute at 12 months from the filing deadline. For the 2024 to 2025 tax year that means 31 January 2027. If you deliberate past it, the simpler amendment route closes while you think.

Source: ICAEW, 23 Jul 2026; ICAEW, 9 Aug 2024

Why you got it

UK and overseas exchanges already provide data. From January 2026 the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework requires providers to collect standardised user and transaction data, with the first reports reaching HMRC between January and May 2027, so more waves are predictable.

To check whether your crypto disposals and income are fully declared, then amend your return if there is still time, or use HMRC's cryptoasset disclosure service if there is not. If you believe nothing is due, the current wave asks for no action.

Holding the letter now? Paste it into the checker for a plain-English identification.

Your options, honestly

Nothing to report

If your gains sit within the annual exempt amount for the relevant years, or everything is already declared, the current wave asks for no action. Keep your transaction records and workings.

Amend your return

Open while you are within 12 months of the filing deadline for the year. This window is fixed by law, so check it first.

Cryptoasset disclosure service

HMRC's dedicated route when it is too late to amend. Payment is expected within 30 days of submitting the disclosure. That timing is a term of the service.

If HMRC finds undeclared crypto income or gains, penalties can reach 100 percent of the tax due, with the usual prompted and unprompted ranges applying. The disclosure service asks for payment within 30 days of submitting, and looks back 4, 6 or 20 years depending on behaviour. Sources: ICAEW, 23 Jul 2026; GOV.UK crypto disclosure guidance, updated 15 Jan 2024.

You may owe nothing

Many recipients traded within the exempt amounts, made losses, or already declared everything. If that is you, no action is what the current wave asks for. Keep the records that show it.

If you do nothing

Interest accrues on late tax, penalties of up to 100 percent of the tax can follow, and a later disclosure is likely to be treated as prompted. The exchange data does not go away.

The letters themselves say it: if your health or personal circumstances make dealing with this difficult, you can tell HMRC and they can give you extra support. That is a standing HMRC service, and using it is normal.

Already past the date in your letter? Read this before anything else.

Questions worth asking an adviser

  • Is my amendment window still open for the years involved?
  • How should staking, swaps and transfers between my own wallets be treated?
  • Do my records support the figures, and what is missing?
  • Which route costs less in my case, amendment or the disclosure service?

Keep the date without keeping the worry

Letters like this give a reply window. Put the date somewhere that is not your head.

Want a professional to look at it?

Some letters are worth handing to a specialist, and knowing when is half the value of a check. An adviser will treat what you say in confidence and will not judge how it got here. If we cannot point you anywhere useful, we will say so.

Where to get help

You can deal with HMRC directly, free, without any adviser. If money is tight: TaxAid (low incomes, older people included) and Citizens Advice help for free.

If Tax Letters ever introduces you to a firm, the firm may pay for the introduction. You never pay Tax Letters for it, and it never changes what these pages say. How Tax Letters is funded.

Sources