Your exit tax roadmap

Choose the month you'd like to complete the sale and answer four questions about property, a holding company, employee share options and family shareholders. The roadmap works back from your date and gives a dated list of tax steps, from locking in Business Asset Disposal Relief two years ahead to paying capital gains tax after the sale. Steps that don't apply to you are left out.

Ideally at least two years before the sale. Business Asset Disposal Relief needs its conditions met for the two years before you sell, and restructuring, such as separating property or inserting a holding company, takes time and HMRC clearances. Starting early also leaves time to prepare for due diligence and to plan inheritance tax before shares become cash.

A step is flagged as overdue when its date has already passed for the sale date you chose. Some overdue steps can still be dealt with, but others, such as meeting the BADR conditions for the full two years, can't be backdated. Prioritise those steps now, or consider whether a later sale date would give you more room.

Click Add to my calendar to download a calendar file called exit-tax-roadmap.ics, with every milestone as an all-day event on its date. Open the file to import it into Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. If you change your sale date or answers, download a new file, as events already imported won't update.

Yes. Use Print or save as PDF to print the roadmap, or choose to save it as a PDF in your browser's print options. The questions and buttons are left out of the printout, so the copy shows just your dated plan. It's a useful starting point for a conversation with your advisers.

Some steps only apply in certain situations. If the company owns property a buyer may not want, the roadmap adds a step to decide what happens to it. A holding company, employee share options and family shareholders each add their own steps, such as checking EMI paperwork or formalising family members' roles for BADR.

Complete any restructuring, with HMRC clearances in hand, before you go to market, and prepare for the buyer's tax due diligence. Plan inheritance tax for the proceeds, compare offers on what you'd keep after tax, and have the structure reviewed before signing heads of terms. In the final month, negotiate the tax warranties, indemnities and tax covenant in the sale agreement.

Capital gains tax on a sale is usually due by 31 January after the end of the tax year of the sale, which runs from 6 April to 5 April. The roadmap adds this date for you. The deadline to claim Business Asset Disposal Relief is a year after that, so for a 2026/27 sale it's 31 January 2029.

No. It's a general planning guide based on typical timings, not advice. Dates are set by working back whole months from the start of your chosen sale month. The right timetable depends on your business, the buyers and the deal, so use it as the starting point for a conversation with your advisers.

No. The roadmap runs in your browser, and your sale date and answers aren't stored or sent anywhere. The calendar file is created on your own device. If you accept analytics cookies, we record only that the tool was used or the calendar file was downloaded, not what you entered.