How the April 2026 BADR Change Affects Exits

On 6 April 2026, Business Asset Disposal Relief jumps from 14% to 18%.

For anyone sitting on a qualifying £1m gain, that's an extra £40,000 gone. Not a rounding error. Not something to "look at after Easter." Forty grand, on the difference between completing a deal on the 5th of April and the 6th.

And yet I'm still having conversations with owner-managers who think they've got time.

A quick recap of how we got here.

BADR used to be called Entrepreneurs' Relief. Back then, you got a 10% CGT rate on up to £10m of lifetime gains. That was the deal the government struck with people who built businesses: take the risk, create the jobs, and we'll tax your exit sensibly.

In 2020, the £10m limit was slashed to £1m.

In April 2025, the rate rose from 10% to 14%.

In April 2026, it rises again to 18%.

The headline rate of CGT sits at 24%. So the "relief" is now worth 6p in the pound. That's the quiet hollowing-out of a policy that was sold as a reward for entrepreneurship.

Why I'm telling you this now.

If you're an owner-manager thinking about exit in the next 12–24 months, the window to lock in 14% is essentially closed. Realistically, you cannot run a credible sale process, negotiate heads of terms, complete diligence, and sign SPAs before 6 April 2026. It takes months.

And before anyone asks: no, you can't game it by signing an unconditional contract now and completing later. HMRC's anti-forestalling rules mean the disposal is treated as happening at completion, not signing, unless the contract genuinely wasn't done for tax reasons. Your advisor will confirm this.

So what's the practical takeaway?

Three things.

One: stop waiting for the "perfect year." I speak to owners every week who are holding out for one more strong trading period before they go to market. I understand the instinct. But a £40k tax drag on a £1m gain — or £200k on a £5m gain across a husband-and-wife shareholding — often outweighs a marginal uplift in EBITDA multiple. Do the maths on your specific situation.

Two: model the real post-tax number. Most owners I meet quote me a gross headline price they'd accept. Very few have sat down with their accountant and worked out what actually lands in their personal account after CGT, fees, working capital adjustments, and any deferred consideration. The post-April picture is materially different to what it was two years ago.

Three: if you're not ready to sell, get your house in order anyway. Two-year ownership tests, trading status, share structure, property held personally vs in the company — these all affect whether BADR even applies when you do exit. Sort this now, not when a buyer is at the table.

The bigger picture.

For businesses in my space — UK precision engineering and manufacturing — most exits sit comfortably inside the £1m–£10m range where BADR materially affects the seller's net position. That's also the range where we spend most of our time at Titan.

The reliefs aren't what they were. The timelines aren't what sellers expect. And the gap between a well-prepared exit and an unprepared one is widening.

If you're thinking about your own exit over the next few years, the work starts now. Not in April.