Read October 2026

Find retiring business owners

Companies House records the month and year of birth of every director and every person with significant control, so the owners near retirement can be found on the public register. What sets their timing is tax: Business Asset Disposal Relief rose from 10% to 14% in April 2025 and to 18% from 6 April 2026. Tell Joseph Ellul what you want to buy and he replies himself.

Source: GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility

Range of the published figures

5 to 100 %

the range the published figures span

Figures from 3 sources' own pages, read 2026-10-29. Every price, with its source

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What kind of business do you want to buy?

Where in the UK?

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How it works

Tell us the kind of business, the area, the price range and whether you would buy the shares or the business. Two minutes, no account.
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You get a reply about what a search for that brief involves. Ask questions, carry on, or do nothing.

This is a free information site run by Joseph Ellul. When you send a brief, he reads it and replies to you himself; it is not passed to any buyer, broker or firm, and you pay nothing to ask. The site carries no advertising, no sponsored placement and no affiliate links. Every rule is read from GOV.UK or the legislation on the date shown. Nothing here is tax, legal, regulatory or investment advice; check the source before you rely on a row.

UK owner exit tax rules

Last updated 2026-10-29

Every rule below is a sentence read from GOV.UK or the legislation on the date shown. The figure is the rule's own number; nothing here is our estimate or tax advice.

Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 4 of the 9 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 5 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source for each breakdown it prices, in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences for one breakdown), so a page that gives figures for several breakdowns gives one for each and N counts 7 figures, never sentences; 97 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the BADR rate by disposal date (14% to 5 April 2026, 18% from 6 April 2026), the £1m lifetime limit, the main CGT rates, the EOT relief and the Business Relief cap, each with the authority page that states it, applied to a worked sale price

UK owner exit tax rules
Rule	What it says	Read	Source
Capital Gains Tax, basic rate from 6 April 2026	18%	2026-10-12	Capital Gains Tax: what you pay it on, rates and allowances: Capital Gains Tax rates
Capital Gains Tax, higher rate from 6 April 2026	24%	2026-10-12	Capital Gains Tax: what you pay it on, rates and allowances: Capital Gains Tax rates
Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount 2026 to 2027	£3,000	2026-10-12	Capital Gains Tax: what you pay it on, rates and allowances: Capital Gains Tax rates
Inheritance Tax Business Relief	100%	2026-10-24	Business Relief for Inheritance Tax: Overview
Business Asset Disposal Relief from 6 April 2026	18%	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Business Asset Disposal Relief, 2025 to 2026	14%	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Business Asset Disposal Relief to 5 April 2025	10%	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Ownership period to qualify	2 years	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Sell assets within 3 years of closing	3 years	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Personal company: share of votes and profits	5%	2026-10-27	Business Asset Disposal Relief: Eligibility
Lifetime limit on qualifying gains	£1 million	2026-10-28	Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992

Business Asset Disposal Relief is 18% on gains on qualifying assets disposed of from 6 April 2026, 14% between 6 April 2025 and 5 April 2026, and 10% before that. (GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility)
The relief needs the owner to have owned the business for at least 2 years, and to hold at least 5% of the votes in a personal company. (GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility)
Capital Gains Tax is 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it from 6 April 2026, with a £3,000 annual exempt amount. (GOV.UK: Capital Gains Tax rates)

Cite this page

“UK owner exit tax rules”, Succession Gap, https://successiongap.co.uk/ (updated 2026-10-29). Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 4 of the 9 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 5 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source for each breakdown it prices, in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences for one breakdown), so a page that gives figures for several breakdowns gives one for each and N counts 7 figures, never sentences; 97 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the BADR rate by disposal date (14% to 5 April 2026, 18% from 6 April 2026), the £1m lifetime limit, the main CGT rates, the EOT relief and the Business Relief cap, each with the authority page that states it, applied to a worked sale price

The detail

Sourced, dated, kept current.

Retiring business owner exit tax rules, with sources
The tax rules that set when a UK owner sells: Business Asset Disposal Relief at 10%, 14% and 18%, the £1 million limit, the 2-year test and Business Relief.
Business owners over 60 in the UK: where the register shows them
How to find business owners over 60 in the UK: Companies House holds each director's and controller's month and year of birth, with the company's SIC code and postcode.
The succession gap in the UK: why owners sell, and when
The UK succession gap: owners near retirement with no successor, and the tax timing that moved with Business Asset Disposal Relief rising from 10% to 18%.

Questions, answered directly

How do you find retiring business owners in the UK?

From the public register: Companies House records the month and year of birth of every director and person with significant control, with the company's SIC code and postcode, so owners over a given age can be found by sector and area.(Companies House Public Data API: officer summary)

What is Business Asset Disposal Relief in 2026?

18% on gains on qualifying assets disposed of from 6 April 2026, up from 14% in 2025 to 2026 and 10% before that, with a £1 million lifetime limit.(GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility)

How long must an owner have owned the business?

At least 2 years, and in a company they must hold at least 5% of the votes and the economic rights.(GOV.UK: Business Asset Disposal Relief, eligibility)

Can an owner sell to the staff tax free?

A qualifying disposal to an employee ownership trust can be fully relieved from Capital Gains Tax, if the conditions HMRC sets out are met.(HMRC Capital Gains Manual CG67800: employee-ownership trusts)

Who answers a brief sent from this page?

Joseph Ellul reads it and replies himself. It is not passed to any buyer, broker or firm, and nothing here is tax, legal, regulatory or investment advice.(UK owner exit tax rules: every row, with its source)

Sources

This site's own dataset, every figure quoted from its source and dated:

The UK Owner Exit Tax Rules carries 7 published figures read from 3 sources' own pages, from 5 to 100 percent, read 28 October 2026.

The question this page is here to answer

What tax does a retiring owner pay on selling a company in 2026, to a buyer or to an employee ownership trust, and what changed?

The kind of business, the area, the price range and timing. Joseph Ellul reads it himself and replies directly. Free, no obligation.

Answered by Joseph Ellul, which reads every enquiry this page takes.

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