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2025-12-08

How Investing vs Trading impacts tax

In most cases of buying and selling cryptocurrency as a retail investor, you are participating in investing rather than trading. The two are treated differently for tax purposes.

  • Investing is subject to capital gains tax or income tax, depending on the nature of the transaction.
  • Trading in this case refers to self-employment which is subject to income tax and National Insurance Contributions.

The key difference between investing and trading – along with the different tax treatments, is how losses generated in the crypto-activity can be used.

In their guidance, HMRC have explicitly stated that they would expect it to be exceedingly rare that any crypto-activity constituting buying & selling crypto would be classified as “trading”.

If you are uncertain, speak to a tax advisor as there are always exceptions, including but not limited to, developing tokens and large scale mining.

How is crypto tax calculated in the United States?

You can be liable for both capital gains and income tax depending on the type of cryptocurrency transaction, and your individual circumstances. For example, you might need to pay capital gains on profits from buying and selling cryptocurrency, or pay income tax on interest earned when holding crypto.

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blog
Dec 8
 
Dec
 
2025
 - 
10
min read

Product Update: Spam Filtering

Our new spam center gives you control over any crypto spam currencies that slip through automated detection. Mark entire currencies as spam in one click, manage all spam controls centrally, and maintain clean transaction data for precise reports.

Key takeaways
This tax guide is regularly updated: Last Update  
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Wham, bam, goodbye spam! Introducing the spam center

We automatically filter the vast majority of spam currencies for you. But for the occasional ones that may slip through, you now have direct control.

Our new spam center gives you three tools for the edge cases:

  • Currency-level spam filtering: Mark entire currencies as spam in one click when our automated filters miss one. Your transaction tables declutter instantly.
  • Centralized management: All spam controls in one location. Check what's already filtered or add exceptions as needed.
  • Automatic application: Any manual spam settings you add apply across all transactions and reports immediately. No need to update multiple places.

Most users won't need to touch this. But if you spot spam we haven't caught, you can fix it in seconds rather than categorizing individual transactions.

New category: spam out

We've added a spam out category to handle a specific edge case: fake outgoing transactions that appear in your wallet but weren't initiated by you.

These transactions exist on-chain but represent spam activity rather than genuine transfers. The spam out category lets you classify them correctly, keeping your disposal records accurate and your capital gains calculations precise.

Standard spam filtering catches incoming junk. Spam out handles the fake outgoings. Together, they give you complete control over spam classification.

Log in or sign up to see the spam updates in action.

The information provided on this website is general in nature and is not tax, accounting or legal advice. It has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on this information, you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs and seek professional advice. Summ (formerly Crypto Tax Calculator) disclaims all and any guarantees, undertakings and warranties, expressed or implied, and is not liable for any loss or damage whatsoever (including human or computer error, negligent or otherwise, or incidental or Consequential Loss or damage) arising out of, or in connection with, any use or reliance on the information or advice in this website. The user must accept sole responsibility associated with the use of the material on this site, irrespective of the purpose for which such use or results are applied. The information in this website is no substitute for specialist advice.

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