A crypto trade that never turned into cash can still leave a tax bill, and 81,000 warning letters saying so have gone out from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over the past year. Neela Chauhan, a partner at the accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, said that once HMRC gets the exchange data it is owed, chasing crypto investors will be 'like shooting fish in a barrel.'
The letter is not a fine, and it is not an investigation. It says HMRC holds records of crypto trades that do not match the person's tax return, and it asks them to check their figures and put anything right. The deadline to reply is 60 days.