The problem
Clients with crypto arrive in January with exchange CSVs and wallet addresses, and working out gains under share pooling, same-day and 30-day rules by spreadsheet takes most of a day. If you have 12 such clients a year and each takes 4 hours, that's 48 hours a year, about 4 hours a month.
What the AI does
Koinly imports transactions from exchanges, wallets and blockchains, and the vendor says it uses AI to match transfers and tag transactions. It produces a UK report using share pooling with the same-day and bed-and-breakfast rules. Importing and previewing gains is free; downloading the tax report needs a plan for that tax year. You review the transactions it flags, check the gains against the client's records and decide what goes on the return.
A worked example
A tax adviser in Brighton has 12 Self Assessment clients with crypto. Each client sets up Koinly, connects their exchanges and buys the plan for their transaction count; the adviser reviews the result and works from the downloaded report.
Before
About 4 hours of spreadsheet work for each of 12 clients: 48 hours a year
After
About 1.5 hours to review and check each: 18 hours a year
What it's worth
About $133£100€119A$192C$188 a month in adviser time, averaged over the year, against $49£37€44A$71C$70 to $98£74€88A$142C$139 if you pay for the reports yourself. That is 2.5 hours saved on each of 12 clients, 30 hours a year or 2.5 hours a month, at an assumed $53£40€48A$77C$75 an hour. Plans cost $49 (about $49£37€44A$71C$70) per client per tax year for up to 100 transactions or $99 (about $98£74€88A$142C$139) for 1,000, so 12 clients is about $591£444€528A$852C$835 to $1,181£888€1,057A$1,705C$1,669 a year; many advisers pass this on to the client.
How to set it up
- Ask each crypto client to create a Koinly account and connect every exchange and wallet they used.
- Check the imported balances against the exchanges' own closing balances before looking at gains.
- Work through the transactions Koinly flags, such as unmatched transfers, with the client.
- Buy, or have the client buy, the plan for the tax year and download the UK report.
- Review the gains and the treatment of staking or other income yourself before anything goes on the return.
What goes wrong
- The calculation is only as good as the import. A missing wallet or exchange makes every later gain wrong, so ask the client for a full list.
- Koinly's labels for staking, airdrops and DeFi are its view; how they are taxed is your judgment against HMRC guidance.
- The pricing page showed dollars and pricing for accountants' multi-client plans is on request, so check the price at checkout.
- Exchange records include personal financial data. Agree with the client who holds the Koinly account and how you access it, under UK GDPR.