HMRC publishes 'Help with VAT on cryptoassets' (GfC21), stating there are no separate VAT rules for cryptoassets

What changed in detail

HMRC first published ‘Help with VAT on cryptoassets – GfC21’ on 15 October 2026. GfC21 is a Guidelines for Compliance document. It covers VAT liability, registration, customer information, place of supply and platform and marketplace record-keeping for UK and overseas businesses that sell, exchange or facilitate cryptoasset transactions.

The guidance states that there are no separate VAT rules for cryptoassets: VAT depends on what is supplied and how it is used, not on the definition or description of a token.

What it means

This is guidance, not a change to the law, so no new obligation arises on its own. Its value is that it collects HMRC’s expected approach to the VAT questions crypto businesses most often get wrong, such as place of supply and the records a platform should hold. Businesses should test their own transaction types against the underlying analysis rather than rely on the token’s label.