Last updated: July 2026

This article is general information about UK tax rules, as we understand them on the date shown. It is not advice on your circumstances. Tax rules depend on your own facts and can change, so please speak to a tax professional before acting on it.
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Recap treats margin trading as a type of derivative trade. Each time a margin position is closed, the realised profit or loss is recorded as a Margin Profit or Margin Loss transaction in the asset the position settles in, and Recap also records the acquisition or disposal of that coin. Fees and funding are recorded alongside them as Margin Fee and Margin Funding. This can get complex if you settle margin positions in crypto.
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Recap treats futures and perpetual contracts the same way as margin. Each time a position is closed, the realised profit or loss is recorded as a Futures Profit or Futures Loss transaction in the asset the contract settles in, which is usually a stablecoin such as USDT or USDC, or the coin itself on a coin-margined contract. Funding payments and trading fees are recorded alongside them as Futures Funding and Futures Fee.

Futures accounts are imported separately from spot accounts; we have guides for Binance USDS-M Futures, Binance COIN-M Futures, Kraken Futures and BitMEX. Futures trades from other platforms can be added as a Custom Account using the FuturesGain and FuturesLoss types in the Recap CSV template.
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The tax position regarding individuals trading and investing in CFD's (Contract for Difference), futures and margin trading is very unclear as there is no HMRC guidance specific to cryptoassets. We have requested written guidance from HMRC but are awaiting a reply.

Assuming the individual is not treated as a financial trader, it is not clear if the gains or losses are to be taxed under the capital gains regime or be treated as miscellaneous income.
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The HMRC Manuals sets out the tax position for futures (which includes CFD's) here.

BIM56880 states 'Retail contracts for differences are financial futures, and, unless the profits are taxable as trading income, in almost every case TCGA92/S143 charges the outcomes under the capital gains regime (CG56000+). SP03/02 gives guidance on when profits or losses are to be regarded as trading income. However, this was written long before the prevalence of cryptoassets and it was probably expected that most futures would be traded via a recognised futures exchange on the HMRC approved list.

CG56004 confirms that the legislation at Section 143(1) TCGA 1992 was introduced to ensure most transactions (if not trading) are treated as capital gains rather than miscellaneous income. It applies to:

None of the cryptoasset exchanges are on the HMRC list of recognised futures exchanges. Therefore, only over the counter futures, where one of the parties is an authorised person, would seem to be subject to the capital gains tax regime. CG56027 states that 'You may accept that any reputable financial concern is an authorised person. Any case of doubt or difficulty should be referred to Capital Gains Technical Group.'

We have asked HMRC to issue guidance to clarify which of the current cryptoasset exchanges can be regarded as an authorised person but are awaiting a reply.

It is therefore unclear whether or not gains and losses should be treated as capital gains or miscellaneous income and the individual will need to make their own call on the matter in the absence of guidance from HMRC.

CG56100 confirms that if the transactions are taxed as capital gains 'all debits and credits to the account, including commission and sums equivalent to interest and dividends, are brought within the computation of the net chargeable gain or allowable loss when the contract is closed out'. It is not clear if the same costs can be deducted if it is treated as miscellaneous income.
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Recap records each margin or futures trade in two parts.

The first is the profit or loss on the trade itself. Recap shows this on the Margin and Futures cards on the Tax screen, and in the Margin and Futures sections of the Capital Gains Report. Because of the uncertainty described above, these figures are for information only: they are not included in the capital gains totals and Recap does not apply the matching rules to them.

The second is the movement of the coin the trade settles in. When a position closes at a loss and the loss is paid in crypto, Recap records a disposal of that crypto at its market value on the day. When a position closes at a profit paid in crypto, Recap records an acquisition at market value. These acquisitions and disposals sit in that asset's pool alongside your other transactions and are matched in the same order as any other asset: same day first, then the 30-day rule, then the Section 104 pool. The gain or loss on the coins themselves is included in the capital gains totals.

This means it is up to you to decide, ideally with the help of a qualified tax professional, whether the margin and futures figures should be reported as capital gains or as miscellaneous income on your return.
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If you open a margin or futures transaction on the Activity screen and look at the Tax tab, the Disposals card shows the disposal of the coin the trade settled in, and the Effective Matches table lists the acquisitions it was matched to, with their dates.

A Match Type of Bed and Breakfast means the same coin was acquired within the 30 days after that disposal. A profit on a later trade paid in the same coin counts as one of those acquisitions, so active traders will see this often. Same Day and Section 104 work the same way as they do for any other disposal.

The Match Type describes how Recap matched the coin, not the margin or futures result, which stays on its own card. This is how Recap handles these transaction types; it is not a view on how margin or futures trading should be treated for tax.

​Need to sort out your crypto taxes? Use Recap, the privacy focused cryptocurrency accounting software to calculate the taxable gain or loss on your cryptocurrency investments!