Mishcon Private's Stuart Adams and Moustapha Hammoud have been quoted in the 2022 Citywealth Crypto Report, which discusses the ups and downs of crypto and some of the legal implications.
Stuart commented: "HMRC does not regard crypto as money or currency. One must determine whether the owner is trading or investing. HMRC’s view is that most people will hold crypto as a personal investment and be subject to CGT on disposal. Fees and crypto assets earned through mining etc. will typically suffer income tax, but that is far from clear, and consideration must be given to whether that is income of a trade. None of this is specifically legislated for.”
Moustapha added: "Clarity is improving, and I can think of three examples of epitomise this. From a taxation perspective, there is some certainty about how HMRC will treat crypto-related events for tax purposes. Helpfully, the UK also provides a number of structures through which to hold crypto, including trusts, partnerships and companies. This makes the UK a good jurisdiction for its variety of structuring options. Finally, governmental institutions are grappling with crypto, and I take this to be a good thing. Whilst they have issued warnings to investors, they are trying to work with exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase - whilst there have been disagreements on the types of services being offered by the exchanges, governmental institutions do not seem to be discarding the significance of crypto. This can only be a good thing - rumours of the Bank of England’s idea to introduce a digital central bank currency is proof (if true).”
Please click here to find out more about the Mishcon de Reya Blockchain Group and here to read the report (behind a paywall).