The new tax year starts in just weeks. For most CFOs and finance directors, this is a real money moment.
Capital gains tax planning is the one lever many finance leaders overlook until it’s too late. If you have corporate or personal asset disposals coming up, the decisions you make between now and April 5th will either save or cost thousands.
The Real Problem
Tax planning isn’t optional anymore. It’s operational. The difference between “we’ll deal with this” and “we planned for this” is money.
I’ve seen it: a company delays a property sale by three weeks thinking it won’t matter. It does. The difference between selling in March and May is your entire annual exemption. For some businesses, that’s £20,000 in extra tax.
It gets worse if you’re running multiple entities, holding investments across tax years, or timing director bonuses around capital events. One poorly timed disposal ripples through corporation tax, VAT, and National Insurance.
What Changed
Capital gains tax rates remain at 20% for basic rate taxpayers on most gains. The exemption limit is now £3,000, down from £6,000. That’s a permanent cut.
More importantly: the government is tightening carried interest rules and scrutinizing pre-owned asset arrangements. If you have offshore structures or complex group arrangements, your tax adviser needs to audit those before April, not after an HMRC enquiry notice arrives.
What You Need to Do
Map every asset you might dispose of before next April 6th. Property, investments, shares, bonds, goodwill, IP, business interests if you’re selling a division. If you’re uncertain whether something will sell, plan for both scenarios. Flexibility in tax is expensive, but surprises are worse.
Find unrealised losses in the portfolio. Share positions worth less than you paid, property investments that are underwater. Crystallising losses against gains this year only works before April 5th. Next tax year, you can only match losses against that year’s gains. Misalignment costs real money. Have your tax adviser run the numbers on whether harvesting losses is worth the transaction costs. Usually it is.
Align tax timing with your operational reality. Tax planning fails when it forces deal dates. But within a realistic disposal window, timing matters enormously. If you’re selling a business and closing is flexible by a couple of weeks, talk to your adviser. The difference between closing before or after April 6th can be six figures.
The Carry-Forward Myth
Some CFOs assume unused CGT exemption rolls forward to next year. It doesn’t. Every tax year starts fresh. If you don’t use your £3,000 exemption this year, it’s gone. You can’t bank it.
You could cluster all disposals into one year to conserve exemptions, but that assumes you control the timing of multiple sales, which most businesses don’t. More often, one sale surprises you and another lands in the wrong year.
Real planning assumes you can’t control the calendar, then builds in buffer.
Entrepreneurs’ Relief Ended
Entrepreneurs’ Relief — the preferential rate for selling business assets — ended in 2020. If someone on your team still thinks it’s available, that’s a £100k+ risk.
All disposals now sit at 20% CGT. The old hierarchy is gone. If your models still use it, update them.
What To Do This Week
Email your tax adviser with the list of potential disposals and ask for ballpark CGT estimates on each. You don’t need a 20-page memorandum; you need numbers.
Run scenario analysis: what’s the tax bill in March versus May? The difference could be £5,000 or £50,000. You need to know before you commit.
Check timing requirements for any reliefs you’re claiming. Some reliefs require the replacement asset within a specific window relative to the disposal date. Get this right now.
Why This Matters
A £500,000 gain triggers a £100,000 tax bill. If you didn’t plan for it, that money comes from cash meant for dividends, reinvestment, or debt repayment. Your balance sheet changes overnight.
For public company CFOs, an unplanned tax charge can blow your year-end narrative. For private business leaders, it’s cash that could have gone into growth or your pocket.
The best time to plan was three months ago. The second-best time is now.
If You’ve Already Filed
If accounts are filed, you’re not out of options. Advance notification to HMRC and some planning tools still exist after year-end. Talk to your adviser about what’s still possible.
If you have no disposals planned, run the scenario anyway. A client deal drops unexpectedly. A reinvestment opportunity lands. When it happens, you want to know the tax mechanics before you commit.
The CFOs sleeping well in March aren’t the ones who planned everything. They’re the ones who planned enough that nothing surprises them.
Need to work through your capital gains or corporate tax position? Get in touch. mark@tanous.co.uk