How crypto airdrops are taxed in the US, UK, Germany and France

Airdrop tax depends on where you live and what you did to get the tokens. The US taxes tokens from a hard-fork airdrop as income when you control them. The UK and Germany ask whether you did something in return. France taxes sales, and we found no airdrop rule.

This guide uses only official sources we read on October 7, 2026: the IRS, HMRC, the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the French tax authority. A rule we could not confirm in an official source is left out. It is general information and not tax advice.

The three moments that decide your tax

Every country below asks the same three questions in different words. Did the airdrop create taxable income when the tokens arrived? Do rewards from staking or similar activity count as income when they arrive? What is your gain or loss when you sell or swap?

The first moment varies most. The US sets the tax at receipt, at the market value when you gain control. The UK and Germany look at whether you did something in return. France has no airdrop rule in the pages we read.

The second moment is steadier, because the US, UK and Germany all treat staking rewards as income when received. The third follows you every year, since the cost you record at receipt decides your later gain.

How four countries treat an airdrop

United States. The IRS covers airdrops in Rev. Rul. 2019-24, which deals with an airdrop that follows a hard fork. New tokens received that way are ordinary income in the year you receive them. The amount is their fair market value when the airdrop is recorded on the ledger, provided you can transfer, sell or exchange them. If an exchange holds your address and does not support the new token, you are treated as receiving it only once you can dispose of it.

Your basis is the amount you reported as income. A later sale gives a capital gain or loss against that basis. It is short term if you held the tokens one year or less, and the holding period starts the day after receipt. Sales go on Form 8949 and Schedule D, and the income goes on Schedule 1.

The IRS FAQs for 2025 and later carry the hard-fork rule forward as FAQs 104 to 107, added on December 15, 2025. The pages we read give no rule for activity-based drops, such as points that convert to tokens. The same reasoning about control and value is the obvious reference, but that is our reading, not IRS text.

United Kingdom. HMRC's manual says Income Tax will not always apply to airdropped tokens received in a personal capacity. It may not apply if you receive them without doing anything in return, and outside a trade. Airdrops given in return for, or in expectation of, a service are taxable as miscellaneous income or as receipts of a trade.

Capital Gains Tax can apply when you dispose of the tokens, even if no Income Tax arose on receipt. A disposal includes selling, swapping for another token and paying for goods or services. Airdropped tokens go into their own section 104 pool, or into your existing pool if you already hold that token. HMRC says value already charged to Income Tax is not charged again, so you pay Capital Gains Tax only on gains after receipt.

Germany. The BMF letter of March 6, 2025 turns on whether you performed a service. Posting about the project on social media counts. So does giving data beyond what delivery needs, and the letter notes that a public key is enough to receive an airdrop. In those cases the tokens are income under section 22 no. 3 of the income tax act, at the market price when you receive them. If this kind of income totals under €256 in the calendar year, it is not taxable.

Without a service, the letter says a gift may be involved, and gift tax rules apply. Where chance also decides who gets tokens, it says the chance element interrupts or overlays the link between your service and the reward. A hard fork alone creates no such income. When tokens arrive for a service, they count as acquired then, so a sale within one year is a private sale transaction. A year's gains stay tax-free if they total under €1,000.

The acquisition cost is the value of what you gave, which can be presumed to equal the tokens' market price. If no market price can be determined, the letter does not object to a value of €0.

France. The tax authority's published commentary, called BOFiP, taxes disposals, not receipts. A taxable disposal is a sale for legal currency, a swap for a non-digital good, a swap with a cash balance, or payment for a service. Swaps between digital assets with no cash balance are deferred and need not be reported. The pages we read do not mention airdrops. We therefore cannot say what a French resident owes on receipt, or which acquisition price applies to tokens received free, because the BOFiP free-acquisition rule covers inheritances and gifts.

For private individuals, the BOFiP text in force since April 23, 2024 sets a flat 12.8 percent income tax plus social charges, which it puts at 17.2 percent, for 30 percent in all. You can opt for the progressive income tax scale instead. Sales whose prices total €305 or less in the year are exempt. Accounts held abroad must be declared, and BOFiP lists a €750 fine per undeclared account. Confirm the current social-charge rate before filing, because that commentary dates from April 2024.

Four differences stand out:

• The test. The US asks about control and value. The UK and Germany ask what you did in return.
• Hard forks. The US taxes them on receipt. Germany sees no service income, and new tokens take the original coins' acquisition date.
• Holding periods. The US splits short and long term at one year. Germany taxes private sales within one year.
• Swaps. The US, UK and Germany treat a token swap as a disposal. France defers it when no cash balance is involved.

Staking rewards and swaps

Staking rewards are the clearest of the three moments. Rev. Rul. 2023-14 says a cash-method taxpayer includes the fair market value of staking rewards in gross income for the year they gain dominion and control, measured when that happens. In the ruling's example, the taxpayer could not sell the 2 new units for a brief period, so control began the next day. The same holds when you stake through an exchange. The ruling says it does not address other rules, such as section 83.

On June 4, 2026 the Tax Court issued T.C. Memo. 2026-46, Paschall v. Commissioner. It ruled that $33,354 of Cardano staking rewards credited to an eToro account in 2021 was income when received, because the holder could convert the tokens to cash at any time. The court said its conclusion did not rest on the revenue ruling.

HMRC treats staking as miscellaneous income at the sterling value when you receive the tokens, unless the activity amounts to a trade. That depends on degree of activity, organisation, risk and commerciality. HMRC's guidance mentions a £1,000 allowance for trading and miscellaneous income. Contact HMRC if your miscellaneous income is between £1,000 and £2,500, and register for Self Assessment above £2,500.

Germany taxes passive staking through a pool or platform under the same section 22 no. 3 at the market price on receipt. During the year you may use the date the rewards are credited to your wallet. Rewards not yet claimed count by year end. Staking tokens count as acquired, so selling them within a year is a private sale.

For France, BOFiP names only mining, as non-commercial profits, and we found no staking rule.

Records that save you later

Every source asks for records, but they ask for different things. The IRS wants records of receipts, sales, exchanges and the fair market value of the tokens. HMRC lists token type, date received, number received, total held, sterling value and bank statements. It also says exchange reports are not tax calculations and do not track pooled costs.

Germany's letter asks you to document which order method you use for each wallet, and your moves inside wallets. It accepts daily prices only if you take both purchase and sale values from the same source and time. France's form 2086 asks for the total acquisition price of your whole portfolio and its value at each sale. A record that works in all four has these parts:

1. The claim: date, time, token, quantity, wallet address and transaction hash.

2. The value in your currency at that moment, with the price source and a saved screenshot or export.

3. What you did to qualify: tasks, posts, data supplied. Germany turns on this, and the UK asks whether you did anything in return. After the claim is recorded, keep the trail that follows it:

4. Every transfer between your own wallets. The IRS says these are not taxable, but tokens spent on costs can be.

5. Each sale or swap: date, units, proceeds, fees and which units you identify. From 2025 the IRS asks you to identify units wallet by wallet before the sale. Otherwise the earliest units in that wallet count as sold first.

6. Exchange statements and any tax form. IRS Form 1099-DA covers sales through custodial brokers, and the IRS says you must report taxable transactions whether or not you receive a form.

What you cannot settle without an adviser

A guide cannot answer these, and the sources do not either.

• Activity-based drops in the US. The rulings we read cover hard-fork airdrops and staking. They do not say whether points converted to tokens are income at receipt.

• Tokens with no market yet. Germany accepts €0 when no price can be determined. The IRS accepts an explorer's value as evidence for peer-to-peer receipts, otherwise you must show your value is accurate.

• Locked or vesting tokens. The IRS test is control. Rev. Rul. 2023-14 says it does not address other rules, and your vesting terms decide which apply. Three more limits come from scope and timing:

• Trade or private holding. A business activity changes the regime in all four countries.

• Your own situation. The sources cover national rules. They do not settle tax residence, treaties or US state tax.

• Law that is still moving. CoinDesk reported on October 4 that House Ways and Means passed a crypto tax bill in September and that Senator Steve Daines introduced one in the Senate. Both were bills in progress. A market-structure bill like the one in our CLARITY Act guide does not change tax rules.

For the practical side of claiming, see our claim checklist. For how drops work in general, see our airdrop explainer.