# Capital gains tax

url: https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/capital-gains-tax/
updated: 29 September 2026
licence: Our words, analysis, charts and derived calculations: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), credit [Tekstak Ltd](https://tek-stak.co.uk). Figures: each source's own licence, listed under Sources.
publisher: [Tekstak Ltd](https://tek-stak.co.uk)

# Capital gains tax



Last updated 29 September 2026.
Figures refresh every night. [How each figure is worked out](/methodology/).





**A tax on the profit when you sell something that has gone up in value, not on the sale price itself.** Anyone selling assets at a profit above the annual exempt amount: shares, second homes, buy-to-lets, business assets and valuables. Your own home is normally exempt. It raised **£24.3bn** in 2025–26, which is 2.6% of everything HMRC collects and 0.79% of the economy. That is up £10.6bn (77.6%) on the year before.



Figures for the 2025–26 financial year. Source:
[HM Revenue and Customs](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk).





## Key figures



- £24.3bnRaised in 2025–26

▲
- 2.6%Of everything HMRC collects

▲
2025–26
- 0.79%Of the whole economy (GDP)

▲
2025–26
- RecordThe most it has raised in real terms since 2006–07

Adjusted for inflation with the GDP deflator
As of 6 April 2025
- £3,000Tax-free allowance each year

Cut from £12,300 in 2023




Sources: [HM Revenue and Customs](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk), [HM Treasury](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp).





## What is the short version?



- **How big:** £24.3bn in 2025–26, 2.6% of everything HMRC collects; after inflation, 148% more than in 2015–16.
- **A higher-rate taxpayer selling shares:** The same £30,000 earned as salary would have attracted 40% income tax plus National Insurance. That gap is the whole argument about this tax.
- **Latest change, 2024:** The main rates rise to 18% and 24%, bringing them closer to but still below income tax rates.
- **Where it goes:** Nowhere in particular, like almost every tax: it is not earmarked.
- **The argument:** Part of any long-held gain is inflation rather than real profit; against that, a pound of gain buys as much as a pound of wages, so taxing it less is hard to justify.






## How much does it raise?




**Capital gains tax receipts, cash and real terms**










**The numbers behind this chart**





| Financial year | Cash | Real, 2025-26 prices |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 2006–07Details | £3,830m | £6,269m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£6,269m | | |
| 2007–08Details | £5,268m | £8,458m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£8,458m | | |
| 2008–09Details | £7,852m | £12,153m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£12,153m | | |
| 2009–10Details | £2,491m | £3,806m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£3,806m | | |
| 2010–11Details | £3,601m | £5,410m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£5,410m | | |
| 2011–12Details | £4,337m | £6,380m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£6,380m | | |
| 2012–13Details | £3,927m | £5,678m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£5,678m | | |
| 2013–14Details | £3,908m | £5,536m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£5,536m | | |
| 2014–15Details | £5,559m | £7,765m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£7,765m | | |
| 2015–16Details | £7,060m | £9,793m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£9,793m | | |
| 2016–17Details | £8,561m | £11,642m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£11,642m | | |
| 2017–18Details | £7,793m | £10,465m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£10,465m | | |
| 2018–19Details | £9,191m | £12,067m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£12,067m | | |
| 2019–20Details | £9,826m | £12,570m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£12,570m | | |
| 2020–21Details | £11,131m | £13,532m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£13,532m | | |
| 2021–22Details | £15,263m | £18,511m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£18,511m | | |
| 2022–23Details | £16,929m | £19,183m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£19,183m | | |
| 2023–24Details | £14,493m | £15,602m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£15,602m | | |
| 2024–25Details | £13,687m | £14,159m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£14,159m | | |
| 2025–26Details | £24,310m | £24,310m |
| Real, 2025-26 prices£24,310m | | |






Figures for the 2025–26 financial year. Source:
[HM Revenue and Customs](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk), [HM Treasury](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp).






**Capital gains tax as a share of the economy, 1966–67 to 2022–23**










**The numbers behind this chart**



Search




| Financial year | % of GDP |
| --- | --- |
| 1966–67 | 0.018% |
| 1968–69 | 0.1% |
| 1970–71 | 0.236% |
| 1972–73 | 0.28% |
| 1974–75 | 0.389% |
| 1976–77 | 0.228% |
| 1978–79 | 0.183% |
| 1980–81 | 0.19% |
| 1982–83 | 0.193% |
| 1984–85 | 0.189% |
| 1986–87 | 0.234% |
| 1988–89 | 0.407% |
| 1990–91 | 0.272% |
| 1992–93 | 0.133% |
| 1994–95 | 0.113% |
| 1996–97 | 0.122% |
| 1998–99 | 0.194% |
| 2000–01 | 0.29% |
| 2002–03 | 0.132% |
| 2004–05 | 0.17% |
| 2006–07 | 0.257% |
| 2008–09 | 0.496% |
| 2010–11 | 0.221% |
| 2012–13 | 0.227% |
| 2014–15 | 0.296% |
| 2016–17 | 0.423% |
| 2018–19 | 0.422% |
| 2020–21 | 0.534% |
| 2022–23 | 0.715% |











Figures for the 2022–23 financial year. Source:
[Office for Budget Responsibility](https://obr.uk/data/).





**How "real terms" is worked out**



Real terms use HM Treasury's GDP deflator, rebased to 2025-26 prices. That is the
measure the Treasury and the OBR use for public finances; the consumer price index is the
right one for a shopping basket, not for the size of the state.






## How does it work?



Capital gains tax is charged on the gain, not the proceeds. If you bought for £50,000 and sold for £80,000, the gain is £30,000 and that is what is taxed.

Everyone gets an annual exempt amount, tax-free. It has been cut sharply: it was £12,300 in 2022-23 and is now £3,000, which has pulled far more people into the tax without any rate changing.

The rate depends on your income tax band, because the gain is stacked on top of your income. Basic-rate taxpayers pay less; higher-rate taxpayers pay more. Business Asset Disposal Relief gives a lower rate on qualifying business sales up to a lifetime limit.

Your main home is exempt through Private Residence Relief, which is why most people never encounter this tax. Assets held in ISAs and pensions are also outside it entirely.

The rates for 2026-27:





| What | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Tax-free allowance (annual exempt amount) | £3,000 |
| Rate on gains within the basic-rate band | 18% |
| Rate on gains above it | 24% |
| Business Asset Disposal Relief rate | 14% on up to £1,000,000 in a lifetime |





Rates: [GOV.UK, Capital Gains Tax rates](https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax/rates).
Checked by hand 22 September 2026.

The gap between capital gains rates and income tax rates is the central argument. Income from work is taxed more heavily than income from selling assets, which creates an incentive to convert one into the other.



### What does this mean for you?



Put in a gain: the sale price minus what you paid and the costs of buying and selling.


Your gain
£



On a gain of £20,000, a higher-rate taxpayer would pay **£4,080**, 20.4% of the gain, after the £3,000 allowance.



2026-27: the first £3,000 of gains is tax-free and the rest is taxed at 24% for a higher-rate taxpayer. A basic-rate taxpayer pays 18% on the part that fits inside their unused basic-rate band. Not your home, which is usually exempt.






### A higher-rate taxpayer selling shares





| Step | Amount | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sale proceedsDetails | £80,000 | |
| | | |
| Original costDetails | £50,000 | |
| | | |
| GainDetails | £30,000 | |
| | | |
| Annual exempt amountDetails | £3,000 | |
| | | |
| Taxable gainDetails | £27,000 | |
| | | |
| Capital gains tax at 24%Details | £6,480 | |
| | | |





**The same £30,000 earned as salary would have attracted 40% income tax plus National Insurance. That gap is the whole argument about this tax.**




[Work out capital gains tax on a sale](https://howlongisit.co.uk/capital-gains-tax-calculator)





## How has it changed?




**Capital gains tax-free allowance**








The annual exempt amount in pounds: the gain you can make each year before any tax is due.




**The numbers behind this chart**





| From tax year | Allowance |
| --- | --- |
| 2020–21 | £12,300 |
| 2023–24 | £6,000 |
| 2024–25 | £3,000 |






Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source:
[HM Revenue and Customs](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-capital-gains-tax/capital-gains-tax-rates-and-annual-tax-free-allowances).





How it got here, and why each change was made:



- **1965**Capital gains tax is introduced, to stop income being converted into untaxed capital.
- **1982**Indexation is added so that gains caused purely by inflation are not taxed.
- **1998**Taper relief replaces indexation, cutting the rate the longer an asset is held.
- **2008**Taper relief and indexation are both abolished for a flat 18% rate, greatly simplifying it and cutting the bill for many.
- **2016**Rates are cut for most assets but kept higher for residential property, an explicit attempt to steer investment away from housing.
- **2023**The annual exempt amount is cut from £12,300 to £6,000, then to £3,000 the following year.
- **2024**The main rates rise to 18% and 24%, bringing them closer to but still below income tax rates.






## Where does the money go?



**Nowhere in particular.** Capital gains tax is not earmarked. It goes into the Consolidated Fund with almost every other tax and is spent on whatever the government of the day decides. Anyone who tells you a particular tax "pays for" a particular service is describing an illustration, not a rule.



Because it is not earmarked, the only honest way to show what it pays for is by proportion. If
capital gains tax receipts of £24.3bn were spent in the same proportions as all
public spending in 2025-26, they would break down like this. It is an illustration of scale,
not a statement about where those particular pounds went.




**If £24.3bn of capital gains tax were spent like all public money in 2025-26**



- 1. Social protection, including the state pension

£8.1bn 33.2% of spending
- 2. Health

£5.1bn 21% of spending
- 3. Debt interest

£2.6bn 10.6% of spending
- 4. Education

£2.5bn 10.2% of spending
- 5. Economic affairs, including transport

£1.9bn 7.7% of spending
- 6. Defence

£1.3bn 5.3% of spending
- 7. Public order and safety

£1.1bn 4.5% of spending
- 8. General public services

£705m 2.9% of spending
- 9. Housing and community

£438m 1.8% of spending
- 10. Environment

£389m 1.6% of spending
- 11. Culture, media and sport

£292m 1.2% of spending





Spending shares from HM Treasury’s Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses. An illustration of scale, not where these particular pounds went.




**Show as a table**





| Name | Equivalent share of capital gains tax |
| --- | --- |
| 1. Social protection, including the state pension | £8.1bn |
| 2. Health | £5.1bn |
| 3. Debt interest | £2.6bn |
| 4. Education | £2.5bn |
| 5. Economic affairs, including transport | £1.9bn |
| 6. Defence | £1.3bn |
| 7. Public order and safety | £1.1bn |
| 8. General public services | £705m |
| 9. Housing and community | £438m |
| 10. Environment | £389m |
| 11. Culture, media and sport | £292m |








See [for every £100 of tax](/for-every-100-pounds-of-tax/) for the full picture.





## Does it change what people do?



Capital gains tax is unusually easy to time, because you choose when to sell. Receipts therefore jump ahead of an announced rise and slump afterwards, and estimates of what a rate change raises are unusually unreliable. That timing flexibility, not avoidance, is the main reason the revenue is volatile.



[When a tax rise stops raising money](/when-tax-rises-lose-revenue/) looks at the
cases where the effect has been large enough to move the revenue.





## How does that compare with other countries?



**In 2024 the UK raised 10.8% of GDP this way: fifth of the 12 countries compared here.**




**Revenue from this heading as a share of GDP, 2024**



- 1. Denmark

25.2%
- 2. Canada

12.8%
- 3. Italy

11.8%
- 4. Sweden

11.3%
- ◆5. United Kingdom

10.8%
- 6. United States

10.3%
- 7. Germany

10.1%
- 8. Netherlands

9.8%
- 9. France

9.3%
- 10. Spain

9.1%
- 11. Ireland

6.6%
- 12. Japan

5.6%




◆ UK





**Show as a table**





| Name | Share of GDP |
| --- | --- |
| 1. Denmark | 25.2% |
| 2. Canada | 12.8% |
| 3. Italy | 11.8% |
| 4. Sweden | 11.3% |
| 5. United Kingdom (UK) | 10.8% |
| 6. United States | 10.3% |
| 7. Germany | 10.1% |
| 8. Netherlands | 9.8% |
| 9. France | 9.3% |
| 10. Spain | 9.1% |
| 11. Ireland | 6.6% |
| 12. Japan | 5.6% |






Figure as of 1 January 2024. Source:
[OECD](https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_REV_COMP_OECD%40DF_RSOECD).




Most countries tax capital gains at a lower rate than income, on the argument that some of the gain is inflation and that the underlying profits were often taxed already through corporation tax. The size of the discount varies widely.




**What is being compared**



The OECD does not publish capital gains separately for every country, so the comparison is taxes on individuals’ income and gains together.



Countries are those this site compares throughout, not the whole OECD, and a country appears only
where it reports this heading for 2024.






## What are the arguments?





### The case for taxing gains lightly



- Part of any long-held gain is inflation rather than real profit.
- Company profits were often already taxed through corporation tax.
- High rates lock people into assets rather than reallocating capital.
- A lower rate encourages risk-taking and investment.





### The case for taxing gains like income



- A pound of gain buys as much as a pound of wages, so taxing it less is hard to justify.
- The gap creates a whole industry converting income into capital.
- Gains accrue overwhelmingly to those who already have assets.
- Cutting the exempt amount has pulled in small investors while the rate gap still favours the largest.






Both columns are set out as their strongest case, not as a preferred answer and a strawman. See
[how this site handles contested questions](/neutrality/).





## Common questions


What is capital gains tax and when do I pay it?
A tax on the profit when you sell something that has gone up in value, not on the sale price itself. Anyone selling assets at a profit above the annual exempt amount: shares, second homes, buy-to-lets, business assets and valuables. Your own home is normally exempt.How much does capital gains tax raise?
£24.3bn in 2025–26, which is 2.6% of everything HMRC collects.Where does capital gains tax go?
Nowhere in particular. Capital gains tax is not earmarked. It goes into the Consolidated Fund with almost every other tax and is spent on whatever the government of the day decides. Anyone who tells you a particular tax "pays for" a particular service is describing an illustration, not a rule.





## Use this data



The figures belong to the bodies that published them and are used under their terms, listed in
[Sources for this page](#sources); most are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence.
Only our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, published under
[CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse them, including
commercially, if you credit [Tekstak Ltd](https://tek-stak.co.uk) and link back to this page.



### Download



- [Capital gains tax receipts by financial year (CSV)](/data/receipts-capital-gains-tax.csv)
[JSON](/data/receipts-capital-gains-tax.json) HM Revenue and Customs: [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- [Public sector receipts as a share of GDP since 1900 (CSV)](/data/obr-total-receipts-share-gdp.csv)
[JSON](/data/obr-total-receipts-share-gdp.json) Office for Budget Responsibility: [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- [Total HMRC receipts by financial year (CSV)](/data/receipts-total.csv)
[JSON](/data/receipts-total.json) HM Revenue and Customs: [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)

- [All data, field definitions and licences](/data/)




### Embed the live figure



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## Sources for this page





| Source | Publisher | Figures as of | Updated | Licence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk) | HM Revenue and Customs | the 2025–26 financial year | annual | [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) |
| [Historical public finances database](https://obr.uk/data/) | Office for Budget Responsibility | the 2022–23 financial year | annual | [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) |
| [GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp) | HM Treasury | the 2025–26 financial year | annual | [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) |
| [Capital gains tax annual exempt amount](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-capital-gains-tax/capital-gains-tax-rates-and-annual-tax-free-allowances) | HM Revenue and Customs | 22 September 2026 | annual | [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) |
| [Revenue Statistics: comparative tables](https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?df[ds]=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df[id]=DSD_REV_COMP_OECD%40DF_RSOECD) | OECD | 1 January 2024 | annual | [CC BY 4.0 (OECD)](https://www.oecd.org/en/about/terms-conditions.html) |





Each source's figures are used under the licence shown. Our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations
are ours, under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

## Related pages

- [Next in this section: Inheritance tax](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/inheritance-tax/)
- [How much are HMRC penalties and interest, and how much do they raise?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/hmrc-penalties-and-interest/)
- [How much are probate, court, Land Registry and planning fees?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/probate-court-land-registry-and-planning-fees/)
- [How is each figure on this site worked out?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/methodology/)

## More from this publisher

- [UK tax calculators](https://howlongisit.co.uk)

Published by [Tekstak Ltd](https://tek-stak.co.uk). Our words, analysis, charts and derived calculations: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), credit [Tekstak Ltd](https://tek-stak.co.uk). The figures belong to the publishers listed under Sources and are used under their licences. Figures last updated 29 September 2026.