Capital Gains Tax Rates 2025/26: What Will You Pay?

If you have made a gain on a property, some shares, or crypto, the obvious question is: how much tax will I actually pay? This guide sets out the Capital Gains Tax rates for the 2025/26 tax year, the tax-free allowance, and how to work out roughly what you owe.

The rates changed fairly recently, so even if you thought you knew them, it is worth a fresh look.

The tax-free allowance comes first

Before any rate applies, everyone gets an annual exempt amount. For 2025/26 this is £3,000. It is the slice of gains you can make in the tax year before any Capital Gains Tax is due.

You take this off your gain first. Only what is left after the £3,000 is taxed. The allowance is per person, so if you own an asset jointly, you each get your own £3,000.

The rates for 2025/26

For the 2025/26 tax year, Capital Gains Tax is charged at two rates:

• 18% on gains that fall within your basic-rate income band
• 24% on gains above that, in the higher-rate band

What changed recently is that these rates now apply to almost everything. Residential property, shares, crypto and other assets are all taxed at the same 18% and 24%. Until late 2024, shares and other non-property assets were taxed at lower rates of 10% and 20%, so if that is the figure in your memory, it is now out of date.

How your rate is decided

The rate you pay is not simply about how big your gain is. It depends on your income too.

Here is how it works. Your taxable gain is added on top of your income for the year. Any part of the gain that still fits inside your basic-rate band is taxed at 18%. Any part that sits above the basic-rate threshold is taxed at 24%.

In practice, that means a higher-rate taxpayer, whose income already uses up the basic-rate band, will usually pay 24% on the whole gain. A basic-rate taxpayer might pay 18% on part of the gain and 24% on the rest, depending on how large the gain is.

A quick example

Mei is a basic-rate taxpayer. She sells some shares held outside an ISA and makes a gain of £13,000.

First, she takes off the annual exempt amount: £13,000 minus £3,000 leaves £10,000 to be taxed. That £10,000 gain is then added on top of her income. The part that still fits within her basic-rate band is taxed at 18%, and any part that pushes her into the higher-rate band is taxed at 24%. Exactly how it splits depends on how much of her basic-rate band her salary has already used up.

This is why two people with the same gain can owe different amounts. The gain is the same, but the income underneath it is not.

Reducing what you pay

There are legitimate ways to bring a CGT bill down, such as making sure you have claimed all allowable costs, using both partners' annual exempt amounts on jointly owned assets, and timing disposals sensibly across tax years. These are worth exploring before you sell, not after, so a little planning goes a long way.

Different asset, different reporting

The rates are the same across assets, but how and when you report can differ. If you sell a UK residential property with tax to pay, you usually have 60 days from completion to report and pay. For shares and crypto, you generally report the gain on your Self Assessment return. We cover both in separate guides.

Want to know exactly what you owe?

Working out a Capital Gains Tax bill means getting the gain, the allowable costs, and the rate split all correct, and it is easy to over or underpay if you are guessing. A chartered accountant calculates it precisely, claims everything you are entitled to, and handles the reporting. You fill out one form, and we take it from there.