A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
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Family offices boosted their stock holdings in the second quarter and trimmed their exposure to real estate and private market investments, according to the latest CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker.
Single family offices held 37% of their portfolios in stocks in the second quarter, up from 34% in the first quarter, according to the CNBC Portfolio Tracker powered by Addepar, the foundational data and artificial intelligence platform used by financial professionals globally.
The surge in family office stock holdings is the largest in several years and signals their continued bullishness on the AI trade and equities, despite fears of a bubble and highly concentrated market.
“I’d read it as family offices are more comfortable being more highly allocated to public equities,” said Addepar CEO Eric Poirier. “The increase in public equities was the biggest quarter-on-quarter shift that we’ve seen over the over the course of the last three four years.”
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The CNBC Portfolio Tracker provides a real-time look into the portfolios of single family offices, the private investment arms of wealthy families. While most information on family office investments comes from surveys, Addepar’s data reflects the actual portfolios of hundreds of family offices — aggregated and anonymized — representing a total of more than $1.4 trillion in assets.
The rise in stocks in the second quarter was offset by a pullback in private markets and real estate. Family office holdings of private companies, real estate, private equity, venture capital and private credit dropped by 3 percentage points. They also drew down their cash piles by less than 1 percentage point in the quarter, suggesting a push to put more of their money to work.
While the 3 percentage point swing from alts to stocks is substantial for family offices, and challenges the notion that the richest investors prefer exotic alts over retail-friendly stocks, it was largely the result of market fluctuations rather than active buying and selling. The rally in stock markets in the second quarter — with the S&P 500 up about 15% during the quarter — powered their stock gains. The declines in private market valuations, led by troubles in private credit, brought down their allocations to alts.
Yet family offices are letting their stock allocations grow as a share of their portfolio, rather than rebalancing, suggesting a long-term bullish tilt to stocks. Poirer said the AI trade is likely driving much of the interest.
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“The AI thematic bet is getting so much action and so much activity, and it’s being expressed in large part in public markets versus private markets,” he said.
The top five most commonly held stocks by family offices in the second quarter were Microsoft, owned by 77% of family offices, followed by Amazon and Alphabet (76%), Apple (70%) and Nvidia (69%).
In private markets, family office allocations to alternatives fell to 46% from 49% in the second quarter, the largest drop in years. Addepar said the decline was mainly driven by private credit funds marking down the values of their assets. Fully 18% of recent vintage private credit funds (vintages 2020 or later) have posted markdowns in net asset values, according to Addepar. That compares with an average of 9% in write-downs for private credit funds with vintages of 2016 or later through the first four years of the lifecycle.
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Real estate and venture capital funds also had markdowns, Poirier said.
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“We’re not actually seeing changes in inflows or outflows,” Poirier said. “It’s more just where family offices are marking their private holdings.”
Family office holdings of fixed income held steady at 8%, hedge funds remain at 7% and “other alts,” which includes commodities and collectibles, held at 6%. Their largest investment segment after pubic equities was private companies, at 15% of their portfolios.
Looking ahead to the third quarter CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker, Poirier said the big themes to watch will be in interest rates and bonds.
“The rates environment, the fixed income world is very dynamic right now,” he said.
The plans for the restaurant at Mayor Street, next to Queens Park, Bolton(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)
Plans for a new restaurant in Bolton are set to be considered.
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The three-storey building in question, on Mayor Street, next to Queens Park, was completed in 2024. The premises has a permitted retail use at ground floor, which is currently unoccupied and a flat above.
Queens Park is a grade II listed registered park and garden and is also designated as a conservation area. The building is around 85 metres from the entrance lodge to the park.
The application, in the name of Shahid Mahmood, requests a change of use for the ground floor from retail to restaurant.
Contained with the application are CGI visuals of the intended interior of the restaurant should the plans be passed. There is a car park directly opposite the application site serving the park.
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A design and access report in support of the plans said: “No external changes are proposed, other than a flue which is situated to the side elevation, towards the rear of the building.
“Internally, the ground floor will consist of a seating area, food preparation area and kitchen.
The proposed hours of opening for the restaurant are 9am-11pm; Monday to Sunday.
Pre-application advice sought from Bolton council said hat the proposed change of use itself would not have any impact on the character and appearance of the building or the surrounding area and in this regard would be acceptable.
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The advice added: “A noise and odour assessment would be required together including details of the extraction system and flue and any required mitigation.
“Signage would require separate consent and would need to be designed sympathetically to avoid harm to the Queens Park conservation area.”
Planners in Bolton will consider the plans in the coming weeks.
To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.
Confidence among British businesses has rebounded following the recent changes in Government, with 63 per cent now optimistic about the UK economy, up from 57 per cent in the first quarter, according to Barclays’ latest quarterly health check on the nation’s firms.
The bank’s Q2 Business Prosperity Index, which combines survey findings with anonymised client data from more than 900,000 UK businesses, also found that firms’ optimism about their own prosperity over the next 12 months has risen to 86 per cent, up from 83 per cent in the first quarter.
Business leaders appear to have welcomed the shift towards regional decision-making, with 60 per cent agreeing that devolution will improve economic opportunities in their area. Support was strongest in areas with prominent mayoralties: London (68 per cent), the West Midlands (64 per cent) and the North West (63 per cent).
More than a third (34 per cent) expect their business to benefit from the creation of No.10 North, and over half of those (55 per cent) expect it to increase investment and opportunities for their region. That sentiment was most prominent in London (69 per cent) and the Midlands (54 per cent), while 59 per cent of businesses in the North West believe it will enable greater control over regional decision-making. By sector, Technology (81 per cent) and IT and Telecoms (75 per cent) firms are the strongest supporters of devolution, and also expect to see the most benefit from No.10 North.
Abdul Qureshi, head of Barclays Business Banking, said: “Greater regional decision-making gives local leaders the opportunity to align skills, infrastructure, finance and business support more closely with the distinctive strengths of local economies. From technology clusters and advanced manufacturing to professional services, life sciences, clean energy and creative industries, the UK has deep regional specialisms that can be engines of national growth.”
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The confidence is starting to show up in behaviour. Barclays’ client data, comparing the second quarter of 2026 with the same period last year, shows SMEs increased savings by 1.5 per cent while the number of loans rose 0.9 per cent. Larger firms went further: among the bank’s corporate clients, the number of loans rose 3.2 per cent and lending values were up 9.3 per cent, suggesting some are already borrowing to fund investment and growth.
Several sectors delivered notably strong quarters. Software businesses recorded a 21.9 per cent rise in incoming cash flows, while commercial property investors focused on healthcare and residential developments saw increases of 22.5 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Residential property firms lifted lending balances by 7.6 per cent, with loan numbers up 7.0 per cent, a rise beaten only by housing associations (14.4 per cent) and restaurants and cafes (14.5 per cent).
Looking ahead, 56 per cent of businesses plan to increase investment over the next 12 months and 46 per cent are likely to seek new finance to support expansion and build resilience. Top priorities are staff training and development (41 per cent), research and development (36 per cent), new or upgraded equipment (34 per cent) and digital products (33 per cent). That marks a sharp shift in intent after a year in which just 23 per cent of businesses said they borrowed to fund investment.
The legacy of the pandemic still weighs on some financing decisions. Of the 42 per cent of businesses that received financial support during Covid, 67 per cent have since taken out additional finance. Among those that have not, 36 per cent cite concerns about taking on more debt and 26 per cent say borrowing costs are too high.
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Firms also made clear that confidence alone will not unlock spending. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) believe the new Government should prioritise reforming or reducing business taxation, a policy backed by 32 per cent of small and micro businesses, while 32 per cent of larger businesses want investment in technology and digital infrastructure to be the key focus.
Matt Hammerstein, chief executive of Barclays UK Corporate Bank, said: “The UK’s growth prospects depend on businesses having the confidence to invest. It is encouraging to see firms preparing to commit capital again, particularly in skills, R&D, equipment and digital capability, which are critical to improving productivity.
“The priority now is turning that intent into action. With clearer policy direction and the right access to finance, ambitious businesses across every region and sector can invest with confidence, scale faster and contribute to stronger economic growth.”
Barclays said its Business Prosperity Fund, part of the £22 billion of lending it has made available to business banking and corporate clients in 2026, is open to new and existing customers seeking to invest in resilience and growth.
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Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
Market volatility continued during the second quarter, as investors navigated persistent inflation pressures, shifting expectations for U.S. Federal Reserve policy and ongoing geopolitical developments in the Middle East. Economic data remained generally resilient, while still-high energy prices and
Young and less experienced investors now place more trust in artificial intelligence than in television, radio or social media influencers, according to research from the Financial Conduct Authority, which warns that many are leaning on AI without understanding how little protection they have if its guidance goes wrong.
Four in five less experienced investors have used AI for help with investment decisions, and about two thirds reported doing so occasionally or regularly. More than half of those questioned, 56 per cent, said they would trust AI tools, even though almost three quarters, 73 per cent, know that AI can provide inaccurate information.
Traditional sources fare worse. Just under half of respondents, 47 per cent, said they trust television and radio, 46 per cent trust the press, and less than a third, 29 per cent, trust social media influencers, according to the regulator’s survey, which polled 666 UK adults aged 18 to 40 who own investments or would consider buying them in the next year.
The protection gap
The FCA’s bigger concern is what investors believe happens when AI gets it wrong. Almost half, 44 per cent, mistakenly believed AI-generated financial information was regulated, and more than a third, 38 per cent, admitted to thinking an investment decision based solely on AI was fine.
About a third, 32 per cent, wrongly thought they would be entitled to reparation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service if AI advice were to be wrong. In reality those protections are limited to people who have received advice that causes harm through an authorised financial adviser, and an investment is not considered for compensation simply because it subsequently performs poorly.
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General purpose AI chatbots are not regulated, although tools specifically set up to provide financial advice could fall within the FCA’s remit. If a firm regulated by the FCA were to launch its own AI tool providing regulated financial advice, those using it may be eligible for protection. The regulator has been running live trials of such technology, with Barclays and Lloyds among the banks testing AI tools in its AI sandbox programme.
Use your own judgment
Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the FCA, said: “AI can help you research companies, understand jargon or explore options before you make a decision. But you need to understand how you’re protected and continue to use your own judgment.”
The FCA advised those thinking of investing to make the final decision themselves, to verify the information AI offers, to think long term, and to remember that AI can only work from historical data, meaning it cannot predict how a future investment will perform.
While AI can summarise complex topics and make research more time-efficient, it can also produce incorrect information, known as hallucinations. The regulator publishes guidance on using AI for investment research on its InvestSmart website, alongside explanations of different schemes, golden rules for smart investors, and material on crypto and high-risk investments. It also offers a tool to help investors understand whether they are informed or likely to act rationally, so they can better understand what influences their decision-making.
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Jamie Young
Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk
Corby Spirit and Wine Limited (CSW.A:CA) Q4 2026 Earnings Call August 27, 2026 9:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Florence Tresarrieu – President, CEO & Director Juan Alonso – VP, CFO & Director
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Conference Call Participants
Nick Corcoran – Acumen Capital Finance Partners Limited, Research Division
Presentation
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Operator
Good morning. Welcome to the Corby Spirit and Wine Fiscal Year 2026 Q4 Financial Results Conference Call for the period ended June 30, 2026. Joining me on the call this morning are Florence Tresarrieu, President and Chief Executive Officer; Juan Alonso, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Hopefully, you’ve had the opportunity to review the press release, which was issued yesterday.
Before we begin, I would like to inform listeners that information provided on today’s call may contain forward-looking statements, which can be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.
Risks and uncertainties about the company’s business are more fully discussed in Corby’s materials, including annual and interim MD&A filed with the securities and regulatory authorities in Canada as required.[Operator Instructions]
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Now I would like to turn the call over to Ms. Tresarrieu.
Florence Tresarrieu President, CEO & Director
Thanks, Elad. Thank you. So good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review Corby Spirit and Wine Fourth Quarter and Full Year fiscal 2026 results. Despite a challenging market, fiscal 2026 was very much a record year for Corby with a strong top line growth, continued momentum in RTDs and further market share gains in spirits. We delivered double-digit revenue growth with net sales increasing 10% on a reported basis and 11% organically, driven by continued momentum in RTDs and ongoing market share gains in spirits. These results reflect the strength of our portfolio and the consistency of our execution. Across both spirits and RTD, strong sales execution drove market share gains across our portfolio, supported in
Seeking Alpha’s transcripts team is responsible for the development of all of our transcript-related projects. We currently publish thousands of quarterly earnings calls per quarter on our site and are continuing to grow and expand our coverage. The purpose of this profile is to allow us to share with our readers new transcript-related developments. Thanks, SA Transcripts Team
EY is urging its junior staff to get back into the office more often to sharpen the softer skills that industry executives believe will become increasingly important as the use of artificial intelligence grows.
The Big Four firm has not made any formal changes to its working from home policy, but confirmed that partners are reminding younger consultants about “the importance of meaningful time spent together” in the office for their personal development.
The consensus in the industry is that interpersonal skills are becoming a key part of the job, with AI equalising the technical work and data that firms can produce. Senior partners believe that how staff present that work and interact with clients will determine which firms win new business, and argue that those skills are best learnt in person from more experienced colleagues.
“This change we’ve seen in the last few years where people have set up their lives to be … at home a lot is just not the route to success in the world of AI,” Sayeh Ghanbari, EY’s UK head of consulting, told the FT.
She added that, with AI increasingly doing more of the routine work, human consultants will “have to be good at what we’re really good at, which is to be human. To build a career in consulting and develop all of those human skills … you cannot do that through so much remote work”.
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A spokeswoman for EY said that although the firm would not be changing its “longstanding approach to flexibility”, spending more time with colleagues in the office can “strengthen how our people develop their skills, build relationships and serve our clients”.
Echoes across white-collar Britain
Leaders in other white-collar industries have made similar arguments for in-person working. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan, has long said that younger bankers need to be in the office to learn professional judgment from their seniors, while Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, believes the rapid rise of AI has made working at the office “even more important”.
The big accounting and consulting firms noticed that the generation of school leavers and graduates who joined during the pandemic were slower to develop the softer skills than previous cohorts of new starters, who had not been forced to work from home.
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In response, firms have put on training sessions to show junior workers how to present work and speak with clients. More senior staff, who may have lost some of their sharpness while working from home, have also been encouraged to attend.
Even so, most firms remain reluctant to update their hybrid working policies while rivals are still offering flexibility, and hybrid working remains entrenched across much of the UK workforce. For now, EY’s message to its juniors is encouragement rather than mandate: the office is where careers in the age of AI will be built.
Jamie Young
Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk
SAN FRANCISCO — Hugging Face, the AI platform known primarily as a hub for open-source software models, unveiled a small robotic duck Thursday that developers, students and hobbyists can train at home using reinforcement learning, marking the company’s latest push into affordable, open-source physical AI hardware.
The device, called Microduck, is now available for pre-order at $399, with shipments expected before Christmas, according to TechCrunch. The launch was announced by Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue on social media Thursday morning.
Hugging Face Unveils Microduck, a $399 Open-Source Robot Duck You Can Teach New Tricks Right at Home
A tiny robot built for experimentation
Standing just 25 centimeters, or roughly 9.8 inches, tall and weighing about 800 grams, or under 2 pounds, Microduck is designed less as a finished consumer gadget and more as a hands-on platform for people interested in experimenting with reinforcement learning and what the industry calls “physical AI” — systems that learn to interact with the real world rather than operating purely in software.
Delangue described the device in direct terms on social media. “It’s a tiny $399 open-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning,” Delangue said, according to TechCrunch.
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What it can do out of the box
Microduck ships with seven pre-trained behaviors, according to a report from Tao Media: it can walk, sit, stand, kick, grab small objects, roller-skate and recover to its feet after falling over. The robot’s articulated beak doubles as a small gripper, allowing it to pick up objects weighing up to 800 grams. A game controller is included with the device to allow immediate hands-on interaction.
Beneath its playful design, Microduck is equipped with a substantial sensor package for a device at this price point. According to Tao Media, the robot packs 15 motors along with a wide-angle camera, LiDAR, microphones, a speaker, two inertial measurement units, near-field communication, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Open source from top to bottom
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Central to Microduck’s design is its fully open software stack. The robot’s software development kit, its MuJoCo-based simulation environment, and its full reinforcement learning training stack are published publicly on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, according to Tao Media. Even the seven behaviors that ship with the device can be inspected and retrained by users, meaning nothing about how the robot operates is hidden inside a proprietary black box.
That openness extends to how users can develop new skills for the robot. Because training reinforcement learning models directly on physical hardware would require thousands or even millions of trial-and-error attempts, likely damaging the robot in the process, Hugging Face and its robotics partner have built the system around a “sim-to-real” workflow, according to Hackster.io. Developers train new behaviors virtually in simulation first, then transfer the resulting policy onto the physical robot. Users can run that training locally on their own computers or through Hugging Face’s cloud infrastructure before deploying it to the device.
Part of a broader robotics push
Microduck is not Hugging Face’s first venture into physical hardware. The company acquired French robotics startup Pollen Robotics in April 2025 specifically to build affordable, open-source AI hardware, and the two companies previously launched Reachy Mini, a small desktop robot, months after the acquisition, according to TechCrunch. Hugging Face had also previously released open-source humanoid robots called HopeJR and Reachy Mini at a lower $250 price point.
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The broader strategy reflects a belief within the company that robotics represents the next major frontier for artificial intelligence, extending a technology that has largely been confined to software into systems capable of physically interacting with the world, according to Axios.
Addressing privacy concerns
The launch of a camera-and-microphone-equipped robot designed for home use raises familiar privacy questions that have followed other AI hardware devices. Delangue has previously addressed those concerns directly with TechCrunch, arguing that robots powered by open-source models offer better privacy protections than what he described as “a black box system” controlled by a small number of organizations — a distinction he said matters especially when the leadership of those organizations lacks stability.
Even so, open-source design does not guarantee complete data privacy on its own. Once consumers install third-party software applications on top of an open model, those apps can gain access to a device’s cameras and microphones, and depending on how they are built, could potentially transmit that data to outside services.
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Launch comes amid acquisition speculation
Microduck’s debut arrives at a notable moment for Hugging Face. The company is reportedly set to be acquired by Nvidia at a valuation of roughly $13 billion, according to a report from The Information cited by TechCrunch. Nvidia and Hugging Face have maintained a partnership for years, with Nvidia providing infrastructure support for the startup’s operations.
When asked about the reported deal, Delangue declined to comment directly on reporting that the company had hired bankers to explore a potential sale valued near $13 billion, according to Axios, and did not immediately respond to questions about the specific report of a possible acquisition by Nvidia.
Lowering the barrier to robotics research
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The broader significance of Microduck, according to those covering its release, lies in its price point relative to the cost of comparable research robots. Much of the current wave of interest in physical AI has centered on expensive humanoid robots and industrial systems that remain largely inaccessible to individual developers, students and hobbyists. By packaging core concepts like embodied perception, reinforcement learning and sim-to-real policy deployment into a $399 device, Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics are betting they can meaningfully broaden who gets to participate in robotics experimentation, much as the company’s model-sharing platform has done for software-based AI development over the past several years.
Some 240 people declared more than £1 million each in capital gains from cryptoassets in the 2024 to 2025 tax year, according to figures published by HM Revenue and Customs, with the group reporting £717 million in gains between them.
In total, 17,600 individuals made disposals of cryptoassets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin that were liable to Capital Gains Tax during the year. Between them they reported disposal proceeds of £13.8 billion and gains of £1.38 billion, an average gain of £78,000 per person. Around 87 per cent of those reporting cryptoasset gains were male and around 13 per cent were female.
The figures, published as part of HMRC’s annual Capital Gains Tax statistics, are the first of their kind. HMRC has been able to isolate crypto gains following the introduction of a dedicated part of the Self Assessment return for cryptoasset capital gains, giving the tax authority, and the wider public, a first clear view of how much money is being made from digital assets in the UK.
Exchanges will hand over customer data from 2027
The disclosure comes as HMRC prepares for a step up in its visibility of crypto trading. From January 2026, the UK began implementing the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, an international standard developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Under the framework, cryptoasset service providers will be required to report customer information to tax authorities, and HMRC will start receiving that data from 2027, helping it to identify cryptoasset gains and income that have not been declared. Service providers that fail to comply may face penalties of up to £300 per user, under data sharing rules for crypto platforms that mirror the information banks already pass to the taxman.
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James Murray MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General, said: “Taxes are due on cryptoasset gains just like any other gains, and we want to make sure people making gains from crypto know about what taxes they owe.
“This important work is supporting the Government’s efforts to close the tax gap, so that everyone pays their fair share towards our vital public services.”
What business owners need to check
For company directors and the self-employed who hold or accept crypto, the tax treatment reaches further than many assume. Capital Gains Tax may apply when an individual disposes of cryptoassets, and that includes exchanging one type of cryptoasset for another, not just cashing out into pounds. Income Tax and National Insurance may apply to cryptoassets received through employment, self-employment, mining, staking or lending.
John-Paul Marks, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive, said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for people to understand and meet their tax obligations when it comes to cryptoassets.
“As new international reporting rules come into force, it’s more important than ever for people to check they are paying any tax owed.”
Anyone with undeclared income or gains from cryptoassets can put their affairs in order through the Crypto Disclosure Service on GOV.UK. Gains above the tax free allowance for the 2025 to 2026 tax year must be declared, and any tax paid, through Self Assessment by the deadline of 31 January 2027.
Jamie Young
Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk
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