Did you know that if you sell, give away or exchange an asset that has increased in value, you’ll need to pay capital gains tax? Even if you give an asset away, because you pay tax on the gain, not on how much you’ve received. And this can be between 10% and 28%.

We know that doesn’t make for easy reading. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

Allowances and reliefs

With our help with good tax planning, you’ll be amazed at how much we can whittle away at your tax liability. 

The good news is that some assets don’t attract capital gains tax. For those that do attract capital gains tax, we can help by:

• delaying payment of the capital gains tax by rolling the proceeds of a business asset over to another business asset
• reducing the rate of tax payable to 10% if you qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief
• claiming letting relief on a rental property you’ve lived in
• claiming EIS relief on qualifying investments
• claiming acquisition, disposal and improvement costs
• offset capital losses suffered in the past.

There are also special rules for gifting to your spouse or civil partner, and for gifting to charities - rules that can be really handy when disposing of assets. 

Choosing the right time to sell your assets

Here are a few examples of why good timing is everything:

• If you sell an asset on the 6th of April instead of the 5th, you’ll have an extra 12 months until you have to pay the tax over to the HMRC. 
• Depending on the size of the gain, you can half the tax you pay from 20% to 10% if you can dispose of the asset in a year with little or no other income.
• Spreading the disposal of assets over a number of years, so that you claim your annual tax-free allowance each year rather than wasting it (as it can’t be carried forwards).