Bull Market

HMRC Crypto Letters: Sources Disagree on Prior-Year Figure

HMRC Crypto Letters: Sources Disagree on Prior-Year Figure

crypto.news and Coinfomania both report roughly 81,000 HMRC crypto tax warning letters for 2025/26, but they disagree on which figure represents the ‘previous year’ and therefore on the reported growth rate.

crypto.news and Coinfomania both report roughly 81,000 HMRC crypto tax warning letters for 2025/26, but they disagree on which figure represents the ‘previous year’ and therefore on the reported growth rate.

What all sources agree on

  • HMRC sent over 81,000 (81,172 per crypto.news) warning letters, emails and text messages to crypto holders during the 2025/26 financial year.
  • The figure 27,714 appears in both reports, though attributed to different years.
  • Unpaid tax can attract penalties of up to 100% of the amount owed.
  • The letters relate to gains accrued during the crypto bull market roughly spanning 2022 to 2025.

Where the reports disagree

1Which year’s figure serves as the ‘previous year’ comparison, and the resulting growth rate

81,172 warnings reached crypto investors in 2025/26, up from 64,982 during the previous financial year.

crypto.news

The latest total was therefore about 25% higher than the previous year and nearly three times the figure recorded two years earlier.

crypto.news

This figure nearly triples the 27,714 letters sent in 2024, indicating a significant increase in the agency’s scrutiny of cryptocurrency transactions.

Coinfomania

The number of warning letters tripled compared to the previous year.

Coinfomania

What would settle it: The original Freedom of Information response data from HMRC or UHY Hacker Young’s published year-by-year figures.

What to make of it

Treat the ~81,000 letters sent in 2025/26 as established, but do not rely on either outlet’s stated growth rate (25% vs nearly threefold) until the underlying year-by-year FOI figures are checked directly.

Treat the ~81,000 letters sent in 2025/26 as established, but do not rely on either outlet’s stated growth rate (25% vs nearly threefold) until the underlying year-by-year FOI figures are checked directly.

Original source: AltcoinGordon

Syndicated coverage. Originally reported by altcoingordon.com.