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Is this crypto airdrop taxable in the UK?

Paste a claim transaction hash. We'll tell you whether HMRC treats it as taxable miscellaneous income at the GBP value on receipt — and what that means for the cost basis of the tokens.

For informational purposes only — not tax advice. Verify with a qualified tax adviser.

We classify the transaction against ChainTax's dedicated airdrop handler. Result is informational — verify with a qualified tax adviser.

How HMRC taxes airdrops

The mechanics in three steps — the same logic ChainTax applies to every airdrop in your wallet automatically.

1

Receipt date FMV

The GBP fair market value of the tokens at the moment they land in your wallet is treated as miscellaneous income on the SA100 main return (CRYPTO21250).

2

Section 104 cost basis

The same GBP value enters your Section 104 pool as cost basis — so a later sale is computed against it for Capital Gains Tax (CRYPTO21260).

3

Two separate computations

Income tax on receipt and CGT on disposal are computed separately. A later sale at a loss does not wipe out the income tax on the original receipt.

Worked example — 400 ARB at $1.40

  • Mar 2023: claim 400 ARB at $1.40 → ~£457 miscellaneous income in 2022/23.
  • 2024: sell 400 ARB at £0.80 → £320 proceeds. Section 104 cost basis £457 → capital loss of £137 on SA108.
  • Net effect: income tax on £457 + a CGT loss of £137 available against other gains. The two figures live on different SA pages.

Source: HMRC Cryptoassets Manual CRYPTO21250 and CRYPTO21260. Further reading: full airdrop tax guide and how income classification works.

UK airdrop tax — the rules in plain English

What HMRC treats as taxable, how to report it, and where the traps are.

Are crypto airdrops taxable in the UK?
Usually yes. HMRC treats most airdrops as miscellaneous income at the GBP market value on the date the tokens land in your wallet. The taxable amount is the fair market value at receipt — not when you sell. That value also becomes the cost basis of the tokens for the Section 104 pool when you later dispose of them. Source: HMRC Cryptoassets Manual, CRYPTO21250.
When is a "free" airdrop NOT taxable as income?
HMRC carves out a narrow exemption: if tokens are received without doing anything in return — no service, no trade, no expectation of payment — and they are not received in connection with a trade or business, the receipt itself may not be taxable as income. In practice almost every notable airdrop (UNI, ENS, OP, ARB) was distributed to reward prior usage, which HMRC treats as a service. Under HMRC CRYPTO21250the safer reading is "taxable as miscellaneous income unless you have a clear basis to argue otherwise." When you eventually sell, Capital Gains Tax still applies — but cost basis is then £0 if no income was declared.
How do I report an airdrop on Self Assessment?
Airdrop income goes on SA100 (the main return) under "Other income" — specifically the miscellaneous income section. The figure is the GBP fair market value of the tokens at the moment they were received, summed across the tax year. SA108 is for the later disposal of those tokens (capital gains), not the receipt itself. ChainTax separates these automatically — airdrops appear in the income totals, and the same tokens enter the S104 pool at the same GBP value so any future disposal uses the right cost basis.
What's the difference between an airdrop and a hard fork?
A hard fork (e.g. ETH/ETC, BTC/BCH) splits an existing chain into two. HMRC CRYPTO22600 treats the new tokens as effectively splitting the cost basis of your original holding — not as new income. An airdrop is a distribution from an existing project to wallets meeting some criterion; it is usually miscellaneous income at FMV on receipt. The mechanism matters: if the tokens come from a new chain that emerged from a split, it is a fork. If they come from an existing contract distributing to chosen wallets, it is an airdrop.
How is the GBP value at receipt date worked out?
HMRC requires fair market value in GBP at the moment of receipt — the block timestamp of the claim transaction. ChainTax looks up the GBP price for each airdropped token at that exact day via a fallback chain: our PriceCache → Kraken → DefiLlama → CoinGecko. USD prices are converted via the ECB FX rate for that day. If a long-tail token has no price feed on the day of claim, we mark the valuation as unavailable rather than guess — so you can supply your own figure.
What if I later sell my airdropped tokens at a loss?
You can still owe income tax on the receipt-date value, even if the tokens later collapse. That is the trap with airdrops. Worked example: 400 ARB land in March 2023 at £1.40 each → £560 miscellaneous income that tax year. If you sell all 400 in 2025 for £400, you also have a capital loss of £160 (£560 cost basis − £400 proceeds), reportable on SA108 and offsetable against other capital gains. Income tax and capital gains tax are separate computations — losses on one cannot wipe out the other.
Which airdrops does this checker recognise?
The checker uses ChainTax's dedicated airdrop handler, which covers the major Merkle distributors: UNI (Uniswap, Ethereum), ENS (Ethereum), 1INCH (Ethereum), OP (Optimism Season 1), ARB (Arbitrum), and Mint Club (Base). For airdrops outside this set, ChainTax falls back to a heuristic that classifies one-sided inbound token receipts from a distributor contract as Income — see the result for the specific call. Hard forks, faucets, and token-migration unlocks use different mechanisms and are classified separately.

Sort every airdrop, swap, and LP in one report

This tool checks one transaction at a time. ChainTax sorts your whole wallet — airdrops as income at receipt-date FMV, the same tokens entering the Section 104 pool for later disposals — and generates an HMRC-ready report.

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