Selling or winding up the business you built is a big moment, and the tax can take a large slice if it isn't planned. We structure the exit, claim Business Asset Disposal Relief, and help you keep as much of the proceeds as the rules allow.
Selling Your Business
When you sell a business, or the assets or shares in your company, the profit is usually subject to Capital Gains Tax. Business Asset Disposal Relief (formerly Entrepreneurs' Relief) can reduce the CGT rate on qualifying disposals up to a £1 million lifetime limit, though the relief's rate has been rising, so timing and qualifying conditions matter more than ever. How the deal is structured, assets versus shares, earn-outs, and the timing across tax years all affect the final bill.
Your Tax Help Accountants plans your exit to be as tax-efficient as the rules allow. We check you qualify for Business Asset Disposal Relief and protect that qualification, advise on the structure of the sale, and where you are closing a solvent company with retained profits, we look at whether a Members' Voluntary Liquidation lets you extract them as capital rather than dividends. The goal is simple: keep more of what you have built.
Business Asset Disposal Relief has strict qualifying conditions and its rate has been increasing, so exits that would have been very lightly taxed a few years ago cost more now. Planning ahead of a sale, ideally well before, is where the real saving is protected.
The Detail That Matters
When you sell a business, the profit is usually a capital gain, and Business Asset Disposal Relief can cut the tax rate substantially on qualifying sales. But the relief has conditions and a lifetime limit, and how the deal is structured can change the tax dramatically.
A business sale is normally taxed as a capital gain: proceeds less base cost, with the main CGT rates of 18% and 24%. Structuring the sale as a capital disposal rather than an income receipt is the first and biggest decision.
Qualifying disposals attract a reduced CGT rate on up to a £1m lifetime limit: 10% historically, rising to 14% from April 2025 and 18% from April 2026. You generally need to have owned the business, or 5% of the company, for at least two years.
Asset sale versus share sale, earn-outs, deferred consideration and loan notes all change the timing and amount of tax. Getting the structure right, and qualifying for the relief, can be worth a very large sum on a significant sale.
Reliefs depend on conditions met before completion (shareholdings, trading status, employment), so planning months ahead, not at the last minute, is what secures the lower rate. We plan the exit around the tax.
Sellers often leave tax planning until the deal is agreed, by which point the two-year qualifying conditions or the ideal structure can no longer be arranged, forfeiting relief worth tens of thousands.
Key Figures
How We Help
We check and protect your qualification for BADR, which reduces the CGT rate on qualifying business disposals up to the £1 million lifetime limit, and claim it correctly.
Assets versus shares, earn-outs, and timing across tax years all change the tax. We advise on the structure that leaves you with the most after tax.
Where you are winding up a company with retained profits, we look at a Members' Voluntary Liquidation to extract them as capital, often more efficient than dividends.
All the forms, calculations and correspondence handled on your behalf, so you never have to decode HMRC's rules or sit on hold.
A clear fixed fee quoted after a free call, your position explained in plain English, and never a surprise bill.
We act quickly, and where earlier years are involved we put those right too, reclaiming refunds or minimising penalties.
The tax on a business sale is largely set by decisions made before completion, qualifying for relief, how the deal is structured, and timing. Once the deal is signed, the options narrow. Planning early is what protects the relief and keeps the bill down, which is why it pays to involve us well ahead of a sale.
Recent Client Outcome
A company owner planned to sell for around £600,000 and assumed the full main CGT rate would apply.
What we did. We confirmed they met the Business Asset Disposal Relief conditions, held over the two-year period, structured the sale as a share disposal, and timed completion to lock in the relief.
The outcome. The qualifying gain benefited from the reduced BADR rate rather than 24%, saving a substantial five-figure sum, and we planned the timing of the proceeds to use two years' annual exemptions.
Confirming the relief and structuring the deal around it, rather than after, protected a large part of the sale proceeds.
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