Had a meeting with my accountant last week and I brought up bitcoins again. He had previously told me if I was buying to hold it's classed as speculating (ie gambling) and no income tax to pay, just CGT if I went over the threshold.

To clarify, I asked last week this question:

"so in theory, I can buy £100 worth of btc week one, sell for £200 week two, and repeat this process throughout the year, if the prices dipped/rose accordingly, and I gambled on that... and at the end of the year my profit of £2600 (£100 profit each 2 weeks) would be subject only to CGT (and ofc falls below the yearly threshold)"

^ Again, a theoretical question, so I could get confirmation that the ONLY thing I need to worry about is CGT (as I'm not a trader arbing on localbitcoins etc, simply a speculator 'gambling' on polo/bittrex/etc). This time I got as a reply:

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"We have reviewed various documents and the tax treatment is a very grey area. It appears profit on trading in Bitcoins may be taxable depending on the frequency and profit being generated.

To enable us to look at it in more detail and hopefully ensure we give you the correct advice could you please let me have the following information:

How often to you buy Bitcoins as an investment.

How much do you tend to invest each time.

How much profit have you made.

It appears if you are investing on a regular basis it may be considered to be trading and be subject to Income Tax or Capital Gain Tax."
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This has put the wind up me slightly (I have around £30k in various crypto at any one time), and I would love if anyone can point me directly to some more concrete 'evidence' so to speak, regarding the difference between being a trader liable for income tax on earnings versus a speculator trying to cash in on dips/lows. My thoughts are trader (in anything) = buy 'stock' from source A, sell said stock at place(s) B(C,D,E,etc)

I'll be stunned if what I do is classed as trading, but as fellow UK people will know, the taxman will grab any chance to anally probe all and sundry if it means they can make a pound from it. I also get that accountants are a bit like seo experts... ask 10 and get 10 different answers, and as for the HMRC it's pot luck whether you get a competent civil servant or a f**kwit giving you totally wrong info, so a bit of a long shot but if anyone KNOWS the answers to what constitutes a trader liable for income tax (CGT is pretty simple) I'd be forever grateful for some input.

Thanks in advance :-)