Capital Gains Tax calculator: how much will I pay?
For a home you've lived in, a buy-to-let or shares, with every step shown. Free, and nothing leaves your browser.
Example figures. Replace them with yours.
What did you sell?
Step 1 of 4Choose this if it was your only or main home at any point while you owned it, even if you let it out or left it empty later.
A home you never lived in as your main home. If you lived in it as your main home at any time, choose A home I lived in.
UK homes sold with tax to pay are reported and paid within 60 days of completion. Property outside the UK goes on a Self Assessment return instead.
Joint owners each pay tax on their own share of the gain. Enter the whole property's figures and we work out your part.
Each of these changes the rules in a way we haven't built. Ticking one shows why, and where GOV.UK explains it.
The date of the deal on your contract note, not the settlement date a few days later.
The day the money changed hands and the keys went to the buyer. The 60-day deadline runs from this date.
For an unconditional contract, use exchange. If it was conditional, use the day the condition was met. In Scotland, use the date missives were concluded. This sets the tax year.
Moving out in the last 9 months before completion still counts as yes. So does having a lodger.
When your purchase completed. From a spouse/civil partner while you were living together: use their first ownership date. Other inheritances: the date of death.
The day it became your only or main home. If you lived there from the start, use the date your purchase completed.
The day it stopped being your main home. If you lived there until the sale, use the completion date.
At disposal: you're disabled under the tax rules or in care for 3+ months (including an expected stay), with no other home rights. If it's your spouse/civil partner who qualifies, neither can have other home rights. Check the rules.
Enter the figures for the whole property. We work out your share.
Before any fees. If you gave it away, or sold it cheaply to help the buyer, use what it was worth on that date.
Estate agent, solicitor or conveyancer fees for the sale. For shares, the broker's dealing fee.
What you paid. Gifts usually use market value; from a spouse/civil partner, check their tax cost. Inheritance: probate value. Before April 1982: value on 31 March 1982. Assets received with Gift Hold-Over Relief stop this calculation.
Shares bought that day or in the 30 days after are matched to the sale first. If the 30 days haven't passed yet, a purchase before they end would count.
Then those shares are matched first, at what they cost, so the average below doesn't apply. Enter the cost yourself.
Shares of the same company and class, just before this sale. Fund units can have decimals.
What all of those shares cost, with dealing fees and stamp duty. If you've sold some before, use what's left of the total after those sales.
Look for the completion statement from your solicitor or conveyancer, a contract note or statement from your broker, or the probate value if you inherited it. HM Land Registry also records the price paid for most homes in England and Wales. Until there's a cost, we can't work out a gain.
Stamp Duty or its Scottish or Welsh equivalent, and solicitor and survey fees when you bought. For shares, dealing fees and stamp duty.
Work that added to the property and is still reflected in it when sold, such as an extension. Not decorating, repairs or upkeep.
Pay, pensions, self-employed profit, rental profit, interest and dividends for the year. Leave out ISA income and this gain. An estimate is fine.
Personal Allowance: £12,570, the standard amount.
Most people get £12,570. Yours may differ with Marriage Allowance or Blind Person's Allowance, or if your income is over £100,000.
Your income after your Personal Allowance and any income tax reliefs: the figure your tax is worked out on, before this gain.
Gains on anything else you sold in the same tax year, after any relief, before the allowance.
Losses on things you sold in the same tax year. They come off your gains before the £3,000 allowance.
Losses from earlier years that you reported to HMRC and haven't used. They come off only what's left after the allowance.
Your Capital Gains Tax estimate
Your estimate will show here
Answer a few questions about the sale, or try an example.
Your time in the home
How your gain sits on your income
When to report and pay
Worth raising with an accountant
Want someone to check what we've left out, or to file the return? Find an accountant or a tax preparation service near you.
Allowance, rates and band last checked 8 October 2026 (data version cgt-year-rules-2026-10-07).
This is an estimate from the figures you entered. It isn't tax advice, and it isn't a return.
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How the Capital Gains Tax calculator works
Selling something that's gone up in value can leave you with a tax bill you didn't plan for, and the rules behind it are spread across four GOV.UK guides. Here they are in the order we apply them, so you can check every figure by hand.
First, the tax year. For shares it's the date of the sale. For an unconditional property sale it's the day contracts became binding, usually exchange, because the law treats the sale as made when the contract is made. If the contract was conditional, use the day the condition was satisfied. A flat that exchanged on 20 March and completed on 10 April falls in the tax year that ended on 5 April, even though the money only arrived after it.
Then the gain: what you sold it for, less what it cost, less the costs of buying and selling and any improvements, such as an extension. If you owned it jointly, we take your share.
If it was once your home, Private Residence Relief takes off the part of the gain that matches the time it was your only or main home, plus the last 9 months you owned it, whatever you did with it then. We count that time in days, from the day your purchase completed to the day your sale completed, the dates HMRC's own manual uses for this relief. HMRC's worked examples count whole months instead, which can give a different answer.
The allowance belongs to the year, not to this one sale. So losses from the same tax year come off your gains first, then the £3,000 tax-free allowance. Losses from earlier years come off only what's left, which means they're never spent on gains the allowance would have covered anyway.
Last comes the rate, and this is where your income matters. Your taxable gain sits on top of your taxable income. Whatever fits inside the basic rate band of £37,700 is taxed at 18%, and the rest at 24%. That's why the same gain can cost two people very different amounts. It's the UK band for everyone: if you're a Scottish or Welsh taxpayer, your income tax bands don't come into it.
Every line is worked in pounds and pence and rounded to the nearest penny, so the working adds up exactly. For a UK home with tax to pay, we give the amount and the date of the 60-day payment: the 60th day after completion.
What we leave out: business reliefs, employee share schemes, non-residents, trustees and executors, homes partly let or used for business, and the rules that count some time away from a home as living there. When one of those applies, we say so and point you to GOV.UK. We'd rather stop than guess. Every step is built by hand from the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, the Income Tax Act 2007, the Finance Act 2019 and HMRC's published guidance.
Who this is for
You've sold a flat you used to live in, a buy-to-let or some shares, or you're about to, and you want to know what the tax will be and when it's due. If you owned it jointly, it works just as well for your own share.
Seller questions about Capital Gains Tax
How is Capital Gains Tax calculated in the UK?
Start with what you sold it for, less what it cost and the costs of buying, selling and improving it. That's the gain. Add any other gains from the same tax year, take off this year's losses, then the £3,000 allowance, then losses from earlier years. What's left sits on top of your taxable income: the part inside the £37,700 basic rate band is taxed at 18%, the rest at 24%.
Do I pay Capital Gains Tax on a house I used to live in?
Usually on part of the gain, not all of it. Private Residence Relief covers the share of your ownership when it was your only or main home, plus the last 9 months whatever you did then. Lived in a flat for 4 of the 10 years you owned it, then let it? Just under half the gain is relieved. Letting part of it while you lived there is a different sum, and one we don't attempt.
Is Capital Gains Tax worked out from exchange or completion?
Both dates count, for different things. For an unconditional contract, the tax year comes from the day it became binding, usually exchange. If it was conditional, use the day the condition was satisfied. The 60-day deadline for a UK home runs from completion. And HMRC's own manual measures Private Residence Relief from the completion of your purchase to the completion of your sale.
When do I pay Capital Gains Tax on a property?
For a UK home with tax to pay, the clock is 60 days: you report and pay through a Capital Gains Tax on UK property account by the 60th day after completion. If there's no payment on account due, there's no 60-day return. If you're registered for Self Assessment, include the UK sale there too. Property abroad goes on Self Assessment, with tax due by 31 January after the year ends. The real-time service is also available, but cannot claim foreign tax credit relief.
Does Capital Gains Tax push me into a higher income tax band?
No, it doesn't change your income tax. It works the other way round: your income sets the rate on your gain. The gain is stacked on top of your taxable income, and only the part that fits under the £37,700 basic rate band is taxed at 18%. If your income already fills the band, the whole taxable gain is at 24%.
Do Scottish taxpayers pay Capital Gains Tax differently?
No. The rates, the £3,000 allowance and the band are the same across the UK. The law is blunt about it: when it decides which rate applies, "it is to be assumed that the individual is not a Scottish or Welsh taxpayer". So a Scottish taxpayer's gain is measured against the UK basic rate band of £37,700, not against the Scottish income tax bands.
What is the Capital Gains Tax allowance for 2026/27?
It's £3,000 for an individual, the same as in 2025 to 2026. It belongs to the tax year, not to each sale, so it covers the total of your gains after this year's losses. Whatever you don't use is gone: it can't be carried forward. Most trusts get £1,500.
Do I pay Capital Gains Tax on shares in an ISA?
No. Gains on shares and funds held in an ISA or a PEP are free of Capital Gains Tax. Outside an ISA, shares bought at different times are usually costed at the average price of your whole holding. Shares of the same company bought on the day you sell, or in the 30 days after, come first: they're matched to the sale before the average is used.
Can I carry forward capital losses?
Yes, once you've reported them to HMRC, which you can do up to 4 years after the end of the tax year of the loss. Losses from earlier years come off only the gains above the £3,000 allowance, so the allowance isn't wasted, and whatever's left carries on to the next year. This year's losses are different: they come off your gains in full, before the allowance.
Do I need to report a gain under the allowance?
Usually not, if you're a UK resident and your gains are within the £3,000 allowance. One exception: if you're registered for Self Assessment and your chargeable disposals in the tax year came to more than £50,000, the gains go on your return even with no tax to pay. Fully exempt sales, such as a home covered by full Private Residence Relief, don't count. A loss is different again: report it if you want to use it later.
Capital Gains Tax rates and allowance for 2026 to 2027
These are the figures behind every estimate above, for both tax years we cover, side by side.
| 2025 to 2026 | 2026 to 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-free allowance (annual exempt amount) | £3,000 | £3,000 |
| Rate on gains inside the basic rate band | 18% | 18% |
| Rate on gains above it | 24% | 24% |
| Basic rate band | £37,700 | £37,700 |
| Standard Personal Allowance | £12,570 | £12,570 |
| UK home with tax to pay: report and pay | by the 60th day after completion | by the 60th day after completion |
| Former home: last months always counted | 9 (36 if the disability or care-home conditions apply) | 9 (36 if the disability or care-home conditions apply) |
| Self Assessment: report online and pay | by 31 January 2027 | by 31 January 2028 |
The same figures apply in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Executors and trustees pay at 24%. Executors and administrators of an estate get the same £3,000 allowance, but only for the tax year of the death and the next 2 tax years. Trustees for disabled people get £3,000 too; most other trustees get £1,500.
Sources and last checked
- Allowance, rates and band: Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, sections 1H to 1K; Income Tax Act 2007, sections 10 and 35; GOV.UK Capital Gains Tax rates and allowances. Last checked 8 October 2026. Data version cgt-year-rules-2026-10-07.
- Private Residence Relief: Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, sections 222 and 223; HMRC Capital Gains Manual, CG64920 to CG64990; helpsheet HS283 (2026). Last checked 7 October 2026.
- The tax year, shares and short leases: Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, sections 28 and 104 to 106A, and Schedule 8. Last checked 7 October 2026.
- The 60-day return: Finance Act 2019, Schedule 2; GOV.UK Report and pay your Capital Gains Tax. Last checked 7 October 2026.
- Guidance read alongside: GOV.UK Capital Gains Tax: what you pay it on, rates and allowances, Tax when you sell your home, Tax when you sell property and Tax when you sell shares, read 7 October 2026.
Two spots in the sums need a word of warning. The first is where the last 9 months begin when the sale completes on a date with no match 9 months earlier, such as 30 November. We start on the last day of that month, 28 February. Section 223 of the 1992 Act, HMRC's manual and helpsheet HS283 don't say which day to use; we looked again on 8 October 2026. In one sale we ran, starting on 1 March instead added £4.97.
The second is the 60-day payment once you add other gains or losses for the year. We leave your other gains and this year's other losses out of it, and take off losses from earlier years. Schedule 2 of the Finance Act 2019 counts a loss only if that sale was made by the day your home sale completed, and gains on other UK homes sold earlier in the year can count too. We don't ask when your other sales happened or what they were, so if you've entered other gains or losses, have an accountant check the payment before you make it. We read Schedule 2 again on 8 October 2026.
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