Home StatisticsUK NFT Tax Statistics for 2026

UK NFT Tax Statistics for 2026

Name: UK NFT Tax Statistics for 2026
Creator: KoinX
Published: 2026-04-22T06:10:40.414Z

Researched By: Avinash D.

Reviewed By: Ankush Kumar

Published: 22 Apr 2026

Last Updated: 22 Apr 2026

Non-fungible tokens occupy a distinct and legally consequential position within the UK tax framework. As digital assets that are unique, separately identifiable, and untethered from the pooling rules that govern fungible cryptoassets, NFTs carry their own CGT calculation methodology and present compliance challenges that neither traditional art collectors nor cryptocurrency traders have encountered before. In 2026, those challenges are intensifying: the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 has formalised NFTs as a third category of personal property under English law, the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework requires service providers to report NFT transaction data to HMRC, and the CGT annual exempt amount has been permanently fixed at £3,000, bringing more NFT gains into scope than at any point in the market’s history.

At KoinX, we help investors and creators track and report NFT activity with the precision HMRC’s case-by-case treatment demands, and the data below reflects the regulatory and fiscal environment in which that work now takes place.

This article assembles over thirty verified statistics drawn exclusively from primary sources: HMRC internal manual guidance, the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual, HMRC official CGT statistics, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the House of Commons Library, HM Treasury impact assessments, the Law Commission, the FCA consumer research series, and OECD CARF documentation. Every figure is cited with its originating document URL.

Scope and Methodology

All statistics were compiled under the following criteria applied uniformly throughout:

Sources were required to pass the primary source test: only organisations that produced the data themselves were included. This encompasses HMRC official publications and internal manuals, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the House of Commons Library and House of Lords Library as parliamentary record sources, HM Treasury impact assessments, the Law Commission, and the FCA consumer research series. Blog posts, accounting firm commentaries, and news aggregators were excluded regardless of how authoritative they appear.

A two-year publication window was applied. Statistics must derive from documents published in 2024 or 2025. Where a source is older and no more recent equivalent exists, the original year is explicitly retained in the bullet. All bullets carry the year of the originating document.

Geographic scope is the United Kingdom throughout. HMRC’s Cryptoassets Manual guidance on NFTs applies to England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland for tax purposes, though the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 extends specifically to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Statistical integrity was maintained by limiting each bullet to a single numeric finding from a single source, with no synthesis, inference, or rounding beyond the original publication. Source URLs point to the specific manual page, statistical publication, impact assessment, or parliamentary document rather than homepages.

A material limitation is acknowledged: HMRC does not publish a specific NFT revenue line or NFT-specific tax gap estimate. NFT gains are captured within the broader CGT statistics under the “other assets” or “financial assets” categories and are not disaggregated. The CGT statistics cited here represent the full market into which NFT gains feed; NFT-specific data points are drawn from HMRC Cryptoassets Manual provisions and CARF guidance that address NFTs directly.

Key Numbers Defining UK NFT Tax in 2026

Non-Fungible Tokens are separately identifiable and are not pooled under section 104 matching rules, unlike fungible cryptoassets, based on the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual at section CRYPTO22200.
The total CGT liability across all assets in the 2023 to 2024 tax year was £12.1 billion for 378,000 taxpayers, realised on £65.9 billion of gains, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 edition published July 2025.
The main CGT rates increased from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24% respectively for disposals made on or after 30 October 2024, covering NFT disposals within scope, based on the HMRC tax information and impact note published November 2024.
The CGT Annual Exempt Amount is permanently fixed at £3,000 for individuals and personal representatives from the 2024 to 2025 tax year onwards, based on the HMRC impact assessment for the CGT Annual Exempt Amount measure.
The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 2 December 2025 and came into force immediately, establishing NFTs and crypto-tokens as a recognised third category of personal property under English law, based on the Law Commission announcement published December 2025.
The OBR estimates CGT will raise £20.3 billion in 2025 to 2026, representing 1.6% of all receipts, based on the Office for Budget Responsibility Capital Gains Tax fiscal page.
The reduction in the Annual Exempt Amount to £3,000 from 2024 to 2025 was estimated to bring up to 570,000 individuals and trusts into the scope of CGT on a cumulative basis, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment.
An estimated 260,000 individuals and trusts were expected to be brought into the scope of CGT for the first time as a result of the AEA reduction to £3,000 by 2024 to 2025, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment.
The HMRC Cryptoasset Disclosure Service, available for voluntary disclosure of unpaid tax on exchange tokens, NFTs, and utility tokens, was last updated in January 2024, based on the GOV.UK guidance page.
Under CARF, NFTs are considered relevant cryptoassets subject to reporting obligations if they are traded on marketplaces, indicating use for payment or investment purposes, based on the HMRC International Exchange of Information Manual IEIM8000280.

HMRC Guidance on NFT Classification and Tax Treatment

HMRC’s Cryptoassets Manual establishes that the tax treatment of all types of tokens is dependent on the nature and use of the token and not the definition of the token, based on CRYPTO10100 of the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual.
HMRC identifies 4 main types of cryptoasset: exchange tokens, utility tokens, security tokens, and stablecoins, and NFTs may fall within or alongside these categories depending on their specific characteristics, based on CRYPTO10100 of the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual.
HMRC does not consider cryptoassets, including NFTs, to be currency or money, which means that the tax provisions relevant to currency and money do not apply, based on CRYPTO10100 of the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual.
HMRC’s voluntary disclosure service explicitly names NFTs alongside exchange tokens and utility tokens as cryptoassets in scope for underpaid tax disclosure, based on the HMRC GOV.UK guidance page updated January 2024.
NFTs are not pooled under the section 104 rules that apply to fungible tokens because each NFT is a separately identifiable asset, meaning the same-day and 30-day matching rules do not apply to NFTs, based on the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO22200.
For CARF reporting purposes, an NFT may be treated as not a relevant cryptoasset only if it simultaneously meets 4 conditions: it does not represent financial assets or fungible cryptoassets, is not an investment product, is not a FATF virtual asset, and has low value below USD 200 with no meaningful trading volume, based on the HMRC International Exchange of Information Manual IEIM8000280.
HMRC’s GOV.UK guidance for cryptoasset service providers identifies NFTs among the assets requiring user identification data collection and reporting under CARF from 1 January 2026, based on the HMRC information guidance for users updated January 2026.
From the 2024 to 2025 tax year, Self Assessment tax returns include a dedicated cryptoasset section for reporting gains and losses from NFT and cryptoasset disposals, based on HMRC’s guidance on selling cryptoassets updated May 2025.

Capital Gains Tax Statistics Relevant to NFT Disposals

In the 2022 to 2023 tax year, CGT taxpayers disposed of 1.4 million assets worth £188 billion and realised gains of £82 billion, with financial assets accounting for 83% of disposals, 70% of disposal proceeds, and 77% of gains, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 edition.
In the 2023 to 2024 tax year, total CGT liability was £12.1 billion, representing a decrease of 18% from the 2022 to 2023 tax year, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 publication.
In the 2023 to 2024 tax year, the total amount of gains was £65.9 billion across all CGT taxpayers, a decrease of 19% from the previous year, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 publication.
The number of CGT taxpayers in 2023 to 2024 increased by 1% to 378,000, largely explained by the reduction of the Annual Exempt Amount from April 2023 which brought up to 87,000 additional taxpayers into the CGT scope, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 commentary.
In 2023 to 2024, 40% of CGT came from taxpayers who made gains of £5 million or more, a group representing less than 1% of all CGT taxpayers each year, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 publication.
CGT is currently paid by fewer than 1% of UK adults each year, based on the Autumn Budget 2024 summary published by the London Datastore citing HM Treasury data.
The CGT rate increase from 30 October 2024 will affect an estimated 264,000 individuals in 2025 to 2026 who will pay more CGT as a result of the increase from 10% to 18% and from 20% to 24%, based on the HMRC CGT Rates of Tax impact assessment published November 2024.
The increases to the main CGT rates in the Autumn Budget 2024 are forecast to raise £90 million in 2024 to 2025, rising to £1.44 billion in 2025 to 2026, based on the House of Commons Library briefing on Capital Gains Tax recent developments, published January 2026.
In the 2024 to 2025 tax year, 163,000 taxpayers filed a CGT on UK Property return, reporting 183,000 disposals and £10.3 billion in gains on residential property for a total CGT liability of £2.2 billion, the highest figures since the service’s introduction, based on the HMRC Capital Gains Tax Statistics 2025 publication.
CGT raised £13.3 billion in 2024 to 2025 in total, compared with income tax receipts of £310 billion in the same year, based on the House of Commons Library briefing on Capital Gains Tax, published January 2026.

NFT Legal Property Status and Regulatory Framework

The Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, based on the Law Commission’s recommendations, establishes that a thing is not prevented from being personal property merely because it does not fall into either of the traditional categories of things in possession or things in action, explicitly covering NFTs and crypto-tokens, based on the GOV.UK Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill factsheet.
The UK government introduced the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill into the House of Lords on 11 September 2024 alongside an impact assessment, based on the House of Commons Library research briefing CBP-10305 published February 2026.
The Law Commission identified crypto-tokens as the main type of digital asset likely to fall into the third category of personal property, with NFTs specifically named among the digital assets covered, based on the GOV.UK factsheet for the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill.
Under the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual, where an NFT has an underlying physical or intangible asset, the situs of the NFT for CGT purposes is determined by the location of that underlying asset rather than the residence of the beneficial owner, based on CRYPTO22600 of the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual.

CGT Annual Exempt Amount and Reporting Thresholds

The CGT Annual Exempt Amount for individuals is permanently fixed at £3,000 for the 2024 to 2025 tax year and all subsequent tax years, and at £1,500 for most trustees, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment published November 2022.
The CGT proceeds reporting limit is permanently fixed at £50,000, meaning individuals must report to HMRC where total disposal proceeds exceed this figure even if the gain is below the annual exempt amount, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment.
95% of all CGT payers file their returns online, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment published November 2022.
The Annual Exempt Amount was £12,300 from 2021 to 2022, reduced to £6,000 from April 2023, and further reduced to £3,000 from April 2024, a 76% reduction over 3 years, based on the HMRC AEA impact assessment.

UK Cryptoasset Adoption and NFT Context Statistics

8% of UK adults held cryptoassets in 2025, equivalent to approximately 4.5 million adults, down from 12% in 2024 but double the 2021 level, based on FCA Cryptoassets Consumer Research 2025 Wave 6.
12% of UK adults owned cryptoassets in August 2024, equivalent to approximately 7 million adults, based on FCA Cryptoassets Consumer Research 2024 Wave 5.
91% of UK adults were aware of cryptoassets in 2025, unchanged from 2024, indicating widespread familiarity with the broader digital asset ecosystem within which NFTs sit, based on FCA Cryptoassets Consumer Research 2025 Wave 6.
Under CARF, UK RCASPs must submit their first reports covering NFT and cryptoasset transaction data to HMRC between 1 January and 31 May 2027 for the 2026 calendar year, based on the HMRC guidance for cryptoasset service providers updated January 2026.
75 jurisdictions had committed politically to implementing CARF as of November 2025, including mandatory reporting obligations covering NFT transactions where they qualify as relevant cryptoassets, based on the OECD CARF 2025 Monitoring and Implementation Update.