Business Asset Disposal Relief was 10 per cent on disposals up to 5 April 2025. It went to 14 per cent for 2025/26, and it is 18 per cent for disposals on or after 6 April 2026. Most owners planning an exit are still carrying the old number in their head, and at the £1 million lifetime limit the difference between the two is £80,000. This free guide gives the five steps, with every rate checkable against the primary source.
Re-running the exit at 18 per cent rather than the 10 you remember; why the relief saves six points on the slice of your gain above the higher rate threshold and nothing whatever on the slice below it; the two-year conditions on shareholding, voting rights, office and trading status that cannot be repaired once a sale is in view; the targeted anti-avoidance rule at ITTOIA 2005 s.396B that turns a liquidation into income for an owner who keeps working in the same trade; and what actually widens the pool of people who could buy your company.
Because every rate in it is checkable, and checking it is the best introduction to how this practice works. The guide ends with a ten-minute call if you want the steps run on your own accounts and shareholder register — fixed fee, agreed in advance.