HM Revenue & Customs data shows that Capital Gains Tax receipts for January 2026 were £16.985 billion – an amazing seven billion more than the same month a year earlier.
Total CGT receipts for the year February 2025 to January 2026 inclusive were £20.6 billion, up from £14.3 billion in the previous 12-month period – a rise of 44%.
It’s thought that landlords leaving the private rental sector because of increased tax and regulation may be a key factor in the rising revenue for government.
Jason Hollands, managing director at wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, comments: ‘That is a big upswing in the CGT take for January 2026, which at nearly £17 billion is 69% higher than [a year earlier].
“January 2026’s figure includes the payment of self-assessment bills for the 2024/25 tax year so it could reflect investors – from April 2024 – disposing of assets ahead of an expected rise in CGT rates that duly arrived at the October 2024 Budget.
“Don’t forget that many thought CGT rates were going up more than they did, with some Labour MPs arguing for an equalisation with income tax rates, so a summer of ’24 firesale of assets could be behind this spike.”
Hollands says that as the annual exemption had been slashed by the previous government – to just £3,000 by April 2024 – there is now little protection against CGT for investors selling assets.
This will have turbo-charged the revenues from any pre-Budget disposals, he suggests.
“We will only know next year if this was a one-off boost from pre-October 2024 disposals, or whether investors continued afterwards to sell assets at the higher CGT rates, which took effect immediately.
“With taxes on capital gains, investors tend either to bring forward decisions ahead of anticipated changes or to defer crystallising gains afterwards, or both.
“Many might now be waiting for a future government to bring the CGT burden back down, others might be put off by the higher tax environment from setting up or investing in businesses in the first place.
“But all that will not be evident for some time. “
