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Wondering how much the Capital Gains Tax on shares is? Let’s talk about CGT!
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is the tax you pay when you sell an asset for a profit. This could be property, digital currency or in this case… shares!
How much Capital Gains Tax you pay when selling company shares or share options for a profit depends on a few things:
Capital gains tax rates in the 2025/26 tax year. It’s paid on profits over the £3,000 CGT allowance 👇
| Type of asset | Basic rate | Higher rate |
| Shares | 10% | 20% |
| Residential property | 18% | 24% |
| Bitcoin/cryptocurrency | 10% | 20% |
| Other | 10% | 20% |
Simple! There is no CGT tax to pay if your annual contributions to your ISA stayed within the £20,000 limit.
If your ISA contributions go above the £20,000 annual limit, you won’t get any tax relief on the excess payments so be sure to keep an eye on this.
In this case the calculation is straightforward as well. Here are the tax bands to use to understand whether you owe CGT at the basic or higher rate.
The income tax rates in the 2025/26 tax year 👇
| Income | Tax rate | Tax band |
| Up to £12,570 | 0% | Personal allowance |
| £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% | Basic rate |
| £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% | Higher rate |
| over £125,141 | 45% | Additional rate |
Use our Capital Gains Tax calculator to work out how much you need to pay.
This is a key incentive when investing in EIS, SEIS or VCT companies. Read more about this topic in our guide to tax-efficient investments.
This is where it can get slightly tricky. This all depends on your relationship to your employer. This table should help break it down for you:
| Type of shares | How you received them | Capital Gains Tax |
| Your company’s common shares | You owned at least £2,000 worth of shares in your company | You only pay CGT on gains over £100,000 that you make during your lifetime |
| Your company’s common shares | You owned at least 5% of the company | You might qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief and pay CGT at a reduced rate of 10% |
| Your company’s common shares | Through a Share Incentive Plan (SIP) | — |
| You or other companies’ publicly listed shares | Through a Save As You Earn (SAYE) plan | — |
| Your company’s share options | Through a Share Option Plan | Normal rate (on the difference between the exercise price and what you sold them for) |
| Your company’s share options | Through an Enterprise Management Incentive Plan (EMI) | Normal rate (on the difference between the exercise price and what you sold them for) |
If you’re selling shares belonging to the estate of someone who’s died, you’ll need to include this information when reporting the estate to HMRC.
But if the person giving you the shares was your husband, wife or civil partner, then you don’t need to pay any Capital Gains Tax.
If you made a capital loss when selling shares, you have two options. If your total taxable gain is still above the tax-free allowance, you can:
On the other hand, if they reduce your gain to the tax-free allowance, you can:
It can be a lot to wrap your head around at once. Seeking professional advice is always a good option! And our accredited accounts can provide just that – find out more here.
Or see our Guides, Calculators or Taxopedia
