✅ How should I plan a business exit before the CGT changes?
Start from the arithmetic: BADR rises from 14% to 18% on 6 April 2026 - worth up to £40,000 per shareholder on the £1m lifetime limit, with gains above it staying at the 24% main rate. Completing (not just agreeing) before 6 April captures the lower rate - realistic for deals already in motion, aggressive for a standing start given diligence timelines. The plan: price the saving honestly, run the readiness checklist now, prefer buyers with funding already arranged, and never trade £100k of price for £40k of tax. Money Pilot funds buyers to completion - 200+ lenders, zero broker fees, FCA regulated (FRN: 968705).
Business exit planning 2026 has a date circled on it: from 6 April 2026, Business Asset Disposal Relief rises again - 14% to 18% - completing the staircase that started at 10%. On a full £1m of lifetime relief that step is worth up to £40,000 per shareholder; across a husband-and-wife holding, double it. The temptation is a sprint to completion; the trap is a rushed sale that loses more on price than it saves on tax. This guide holds both truths: what the deadline is really worth, and the readiness work that protects value at any speed.
Bank of England held base rate at 4.25% in June 2026 - waiting for inflation to cool.
73% of UK SMEs expect to grow in the next 12 months - confidence remains strong.
BADR rate increase April 2026 - the staircase and the stakes
The badr rate increase april 2026 is the final announced step of a three-year climb: 10% until April 2025, 14% for 2025/26, 18% from 6 April 2026 - always on the first £1m of qualifying lifetime gains, with the excess at the 24% higher CGT rate. What the step costs: a £1m qualifying gain pays £140k this tax year, £180k next; a £2m gain (half relieved) moves from £380k to £420k. What matters for planning: it is completion (or unconditional exchange) that fixes the tax point, not heads of terms; qualifying conditions (5% shareholding, officer/employee status, two-year clock) must already be satisfied; and anti-forestalling rules around artificial acceleration have teeth - real deals done faster are fine, paper exercises are not. One more honest note: the gap to the standard 24% rate is now just six points - BADR still matters, but it no longer carries a bad deal.
Prepare business for sale checklist UK - the value work tax can’t do
The prepare business for sale checklist uk below is where exits are genuinely won - every line either raises the multiple or shortens diligence, and shortened diligence is what makes an April completion possible at all:
- Three years of clean, explained financials - management accounts reconciling to filed accounts, adjusted EBITDA stated with defendable add-backs
- Owner-dependence reduced visibly - a second tier that runs the business; key relationships institutionalised, not personal
- Contracts formalised - customers, suppliers and staff on paper, with change-of-control clauses known in advance, not discovered in diligence
- Revenue quality evidenced - recurring vs one-off split, concentration named (one customer over ~25–30% gets priced), pipeline documented
- The diligence pack pre-built - statutory registers, property and leases, IP, policies, disputes, tax: a clean data room can compress diligence by weeks
- Tax housekeeping done early - BADR conditions verified per shareholder, clearances sought where structures need them
Business valuation multiples UK SMEs - honest numbers for the spreadsheet
Business valuation multiples uk smes cluster tighter than owners hope and move on quality factors more than sector romance.
Planning ranges, not promises:
- The broad SME band - most trading SMEs transact around 3–6× adjusted EBITDA, with smaller or owner-reliant firms toward the bottom
- What moves you up the band - recurring revenue, contracted income, management depth, growth with margins, clean numbers
- What drags you down - customer concentration, owner-dependence, lumpy project revenue, deferred capex, messy books
- Premium pockets exist - strong recurring-revenue and strategic-fit businesses can clear the band; marketing promises aren’t comparables, completed deals are
- The deadline lens - a half-turn of multiple on £500k EBITDA is £250k: six times the BADR saving - readiness work beats rate-chasing whenever the two conflict
Routes and timing - matching the exit to the clock
With months to the deadline, route realism matters: a deal already in motion can be driven to pre-April completion with disciplined diligence and a funded buyer; an MBO is often the fastest clean route from a standing start - the buyers already know the business, so diligence compresses (process in our MBO guide); an EOT makes the deadline largely irrelevant - 0% CGT regardless, compared properly in our EOT vs trade sale guide; and a fresh open-market sale started now more likely completes after April - plan on 18%, and let readiness work claw back multiples instead. Sellers should also interrogate every bidder’s funding: proof of arranged finance is the difference between an April completion and a July apology.
The buyer-funding edge - and the call to make early
Here is the lever sellers control more than they think: deals complete at the speed of the buyer’s money. Money Pilot’s desk funds acquirers - trade buyers, MBO teams, MBIs - through acquisition funding structured against the target’s cash flows, which means a seller running a deadline can quietly insist on funded bidders, and a buyer who wants the April price advantage shared can arrive with finance in principle. 200+ lenders, zero broker fees, and completion timetables treated as the deliverable they are. Call 020 4634 8617 - alongside your accountant, who owns the tax - before the diligence clock starts. FCA regulated (FRN: 968705).
