What is the UK bed-and-breakfasting rule?

HMRC matches a crypto disposal first against same-day acquisitions, then against any acquisition in the following 30 days, before touching the Section 104 pool. This 30-day rule, historically called bed-and-breakfasting, stops you crystallising a loss and immediately rebuying the same asset.

Does the US wash-sale rule apply to crypto?

Not currently. IRC section 1091 disallows losses on stock or securities reacquired within 30 days, but the IRS treats most crypto as property, so the rule does not yet apply. Congress has repeatedly proposed extending it, so the tool still flags the pattern.

How are quantities matched?

The tool reports how many units of buys fall inside each matching window for every sell. It does not net partial lots or compute gains; it surfaces the re-acquisition pattern so you know which disposals need careful pooling.

No. It is an educational pattern tracker that highlights potential matching events. Actual gain calculations depend on cost basis, pooling, and fees, so confirm with HMRC guidance CRYPTO22200 or a qualified adviser.

Does it handle multiple assets at once?

Treat each asset separately. Matching rules apply per asset, so run one list per coin to avoid mixing disposals of different cryptoassets into the same windows.

What is the Crypto Wash Sale Rule Tracker (US / UK)?

Enter crypto buy and sell transactions to spot 30-day re-acquisition patterns that trigger UK HMRC same-day and bed-and-breakfasting matching, and flag US wash-sale rule exposure. A browser-based crypto tax planning helper. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Crypto Wash Sale Rule Tracker (US / UK)

Name: Crypto Wash Sale Rule Tracker (US / UK)
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Selling crypto at a loss and rebuying it days later may not give you the tax benefit you expect. Both the UK and (potentially) the US have rules that match a disposal back to a nearby re-acquisition, defeating the loss. This tracker scans your trades for those patterns so you know which disposals need careful pooling.

How it works

The UK HMRC matching order for cryptoassets (per guidance CRYPTO22200) is fixed and applies before the Section 104 average-cost pool:

Same-day rule — a disposal is matched first against any acquisition made on the same day.
30-day bed-and-breakfasting rule — then against acquisitions in the 30 days after the disposal.
Section 104 pool — anything left falls into the average-cost pool.

The US wash-sale rule (IRC §1091) is different: it disallows a loss if substantially identical property is acquired within 30 days before or after the sale, a 61-day window. Because the IRS treats most crypto as property rather than “stock or securities”, §1091 does not currently apply to crypto — but proposed legislation would change that, so the tool flags the pattern anyway.

For each sell row the tool counts buy units that land in the same-day window, the UK 30-day-after window, and the US 30-day-before window, then states which rule would match.

UK vs. US: the key differences

The two rules differ in a fundamental way that matters for tax planning:

UK bed-and-breakfasting looks forward. A disposal is matched to acquisitions made in the 30 days after the sale. You crystallise the loss on day 1, rebuy on day 5, and HMRC matches the rebuy to the earlier disposal — your loss is defeated. To use the loss, you must wait more than 30 days before rebuying, or use a different asset.

US wash-sale looks both ways. IRC §1091 checks a 30-day window before and after the sale. Selling at a loss on day 1 and having bought the same asset on day -15 (two weeks earlier) would defeat the loss. This symmetric window catches more patterns than the UK rule, and it applies to stocks now; if extended to crypto it would be significantly more restrictive than the current UK rule.

Concrete example with trade log

Suppose you hold 2 ETH and run the following transactions:

2026-02-10  buy   1 ETH
2026-02-15  sell  1 ETH   (at a loss)
2026-02-20  buy   1 ETH

Under UK rules: the sell on the 15th is checked against the same-day window (none) and then the 30-day-after window. The buy on the 20th is five days after the disposal, so it matches. The disposal is not pooled into Section 104 — it is matched to the 20th buy at its actual cost, potentially eliminating the intended loss crystallisation.

Under US rules (if extended to crypto): both the prior buy on the 10th (five days before) and the subsequent buy on the 20th (five days after) fall within the 61-day window. The loss would be disallowed on the portion matched.

The tool surfaces exactly these windows so you can see which buys are within range of each disposal before filing.

Planning to avoid unintended matching

If you want to crystallise a crypto loss and rebuy the same asset:

In the UK: wait more than 30 calendar days after the sale before rebuying.
In the US (if the wash-sale is extended to crypto): wait more than 30 days after the sale and ensure you did not buy the same asset in the 30 days before the sale.
Alternatively, buy a different but correlated asset (a different token in the same sector) to maintain market exposure without triggering the matching rule.

Tips and notes

Run one list per asset, since matching is per cryptoasset. Use clean YYYY-MM-DD dates — rows that fail to parse are ignored and counted separately. This tool surfaces matching events only; it does not compute the actual gain or loss, which depends on cost basis and fees. Confirm your treatment with HMRC guidance CRYPTO22200 or a qualified adviser before filing.