The United Kingdom will require domestic crypto platforms to report all transactions from UK-resident users starting in 2026, expanding the scope of the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF).
The change will give His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) — the UK’s tax authority — automatic access to both domestic and cross-border crypto data for the first time, tightening tax compliance ahead of CARF’s first global information exchange in 2027.
CARF, designed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is a framework for the automatic cross-border exchange of crypto transaction data between tax authorities worldwide. Its rules require crypto asset service providers to perform due diligence, verify user identities, and report detailed transaction information on an annual basis.
The framework primarily focuses on cross-border activity, meaning that crypto transactions occurring entirely within the United Kingdom would fall outside automatic reporting channels, according to a policy paper shared by HMRC on Wednesday.
By expanding the framework to cover domestic users, the government aims to prevent crypto from becoming an “off-CRS” asset class, one that escapes the visibility applied to traditional financial accounts under the Common Reporting Standard.
UK officials say the unified approach will streamline reporting for crypto companies while giving tax authorities a more complete data set to identify noncompliance and assess taxpayer obligations.
The UK also proposed a “no gain, no loss” tax framework on Wednesday that would defer capital gains liabilities for decentralized finance (DeFi) users until they sell the underlying tokens, a shift the local industry has broadly welcomed.
Related: Kraken co-CEO warns UK rules meant to protect users punish them
Governments step up crypto tax oversight worldwide
As crypto moves further into the financial mainstream, governments worldwide are updating their tax codes to capture digital asset activity more clearly and consistently.
In South Korea, the National Tax Service announced in October that it will seize cryptocurrency held in cold wallets and conduct home searches for hardware devices if it suspects taxpayers are hiding digital assets to evade obligations.
More recently, Spain’s Sumar parliamentary group proposed raising the top tax rate on crypto gains to 47%, according to local reports. The amendments would shift crypto profits into the general income bracket and set a 30% flat rate for corporate holders.
On Thursday, Switzerland announced that it had postponed the start of automatic crypto information exchange with foreign tax authorities until 2027, as it determines which countries it will share data with. CARF rules will still enter Swiss law on Jan. 1, but their rollout has been delayed, with transitional measures planned to ease compliance for domestic crypto firms.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Representative Warren Davidson introduced a bill in November that would allow Americans to pay for federal taxes in Bitcoin, with the contributions routed into a strategic national BTC reserve.
The proposal, known as the Bitcoin for America Act, would exempt these payments from capital gains taxes by treating the transferred Bitcoin as neither a gain nor a loss for the taxpayer.
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