UK capital gains tax 2026

What capital gains tax covers

Capital gains tax (CGT) is the UK tax on the gain when you sell, give away or swap something that has grown in value. The gain is taxed, not the sale price. It covers shares and funds held outside an ISA, property that is not your main home, crypto assets and business assets. If you are UK tax resident, CGT can also apply to assets abroad, such as your portfolio in Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Milan.

If you are looking for your own country's tax on investment gains, this is not the page: residents there are taxed under its rules. This page deals with the UK tax that applies once you move to the UK or sell assets there.

How to work it out in 2026/27, and how to report

First deduct the annual exempt amount from the year's gains: £3,000 per person, £1,500 for trusts. Losses from the same year come off first, older losses afterwards; you can register losses up to four years after the end of the tax year. Transfers between spouses or civil partners generally trigger no CGT.

Then add the remaining gain to your taxable income. Whatever still fits into the £37,700 basic rate band costs 18%, the rest 24%. Higher and additional rate taxpayers pay 24% throughout. HMRC's own example: with £20,000 of taxable income and a £52,600 gain, £49,600 remains after the exemption, of which £17,700 at 18% and £31,900 at 24%, £10,842 in total. You may set the exempt amount against the gains taxed at the highest rate.

You get no bill; you report yourself: in your Self Assessment return by 31 January of the following year or through the real-time service by 31 December after the end of the tax year. If you are registered for Self Assessment, you must report gains below the exemption too if total sale proceeds exceeded £50,000. Gains inside an ISA stay entirely tax-free. Since 6 April 2026 carried interest falls under income tax rather than CGT.

Property: 60 days, for non-residents too

Since October 2024 there are no separate rates for residential property, but there are separate deadlines. Sell a UK residential property at a gain and you must report and pay within 60 days of completion, through a dedicated Capital Gains Tax on UK property account. If you are in Self Assessment anyway, the sale goes into the annual return as well.

Your main home usually stays tax-free: if you have only one home and have lived in it throughout, private residence relief applies automatically. It is different if you let it, used it for business or lived elsewhere for a while.

If you do not live in the UK, you must report every disposal of UK land, residential or commercial, even if no tax is due or you made a loss. The details are in selling UK property as a non-resident. Budget 2026 brought one easing: if you miss the 60-day return and then include the sale in your Self Assessment return, you stop collecting further late filing penalties from that point. That applies to returns filed from 28 October 2026; the change in the law is to follow in the Finance Bill 2026.

Business owners: Business Asset Disposal Relief and the new founders relief

If you sell your business or shares in your own company, Business Asset Disposal Relief can lower the rate. For shares, one condition is that you hold at least 5% of the shares and votes for at least two years and are an employee or director there. The rate rose from 10% to 14% for 2025/26 and has been 18% since 6 April 2026. That shrinks the advantage over the standard 24% to six points. Over your lifetime you can use the relief on £1 million of gains.

Budget 2026 of 28 October 2026 announced two more changes. First, the lifetime limit is to fall to £500,000 for disposals from 6 April 2027; the legislation comes with the Finance Bill 2026 and is not yet passed. Second, a founders relief is to apply from 6 April 2027: 10% on up to £10 million of lifetime gains for founders of high-growth companies. One of the conditions is five consecutive tax years of UK residence before the sale. The technical consultation has been running since 28 October 2026.

For business owners moving to the UK this means: an exit shortly after arriving is rarely the cheapest. The planning starts years before.

What the increases mean for your move to the UK

Once you are UK resident, the UK in principle taxes your gains abroad too. Newcomers have one important exception: the FIG regime can exempt foreign income and gains in the first four years of UK residence if you were not UK resident for at least ten years before. You choose the sources you claim it for. At 24% capital gains tax, that is real money.

The other side is your home country. Many European countries tax unrealised gains on larger shareholdings when a resident leaves, before the UK is even involved. Check your home country's departure rules before you move; how the UK and your country then share taxing rights on gains is in the UK's tax treaties.

And if you later leave the UK: non-residents normally pay no CGT on UK shares unless they come back within five years. Since 6 April 2026, all dividends received during such a period of temporary non-residence are also taxable in the UK. More in leaving the UK.

Sources: GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax, what you pay it on, rates and allowances; GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief; GOV.UK: Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax; GOV.UK: Tax when you sell your home; legislation.gov.uk: Finance Act 2025, section 7; legislation.gov.uk: Finance (No. 2) Act 2024, section 6; GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax, new Business Asset Disposal Relief lifetime limit (Budget 2026); GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax, introduction of a new founders relief (Budget 2026); GOV.UK: Check if you can claim the 4-year foreign income and gains regime