Capital Gains Tax Allowance 2026/27
The annual exempt amount is £3,000 for 2026/27 — down from £12,300 three Budgets ago. What it shields, who gets their own £3,000, and how joint ownership doubles it.
The short answer
The Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount is £3,000 for 2026/27 — gov.uk states it plainly: “The Capital Gains tax-free allowance is: £3,000.” It's the same figure for every individual taxpayer, applied before either the 18% or 24% rate.
What gov.uk confirms
gov.uk's own allowances page: “The Capital Gains tax-free allowance is: £3,000.” The page also notes trusts have a separate, lower allowance — £1,500 — which doesn't apply to an individual landlord selling personally.
The allowance's recent history
Landlords who sold a property a few years ago may remember a much larger figure. The annual exempt amount was cut sharply across successive Budgets: from £12,300 down to £6,000 for 2023/24, then £3,000 from 2024/25 onward — a roughly 75% reduction inside two tax years. It has stayed at £3,000 since, with the November 2025 Budget leaving Capital Gains Tax untouched (the Budget's property-tax changes were on income tax, not CGT — see our tax-changes guide for the full picture).
How the allowance compares with the Inheritance Tax and income tax allowances
It's easy to confuse this allowance with the other tax-free figures a landlord meets. Unlike the £325,000 Inheritance Tax nil-rate band or the £12,570 Income Tax personal allowance, both of which have stayed level for years, the CGT annual exempt amount has moved sharply and repeatedly in the other direction. Treat each allowance on its own terms rather than assuming, because one figure in your tax planning is frozen, that they all are — the direction of travel has been very different for CGT.
What the smaller allowance means in practice
A smaller tax-free slice means more of an ordinary sale is now taxable than it would have been under the older £12,300 figure. On a £60,000 gain, the shrinking allowance alone adds roughly £2,232 to the bill at the 24% rate compared with the pre-cut allowance — a change that happened with no headline rate rise at all, which is why some landlords are surprised by how much smaller their net proceeds are than an older, larger-allowance calculation implied.
Everyone gets their own allowance
The £3,000 allowance is per person, not per property. On a jointly owned buy-to-let, each owner's share of the gain is taxed separately — and each owner deducts their own £3,000 before either rate applies. Two joint owners therefore shelter up to £6,000 of combined gain between them before any tax is due, simply by both being on the title.
| Ownership | Effect of the allowance |
|---|---|
| Sole owner, £20,000 gain | Taxable gain £17,000 (one allowance used) |
| Two joint owners (50/50), £20,000 gain | Each owner: £10,000 share − £3,000 own allowance = £7,000 taxable each |
No carry-forward, and no sharing between spouses' gains
An unused annual exempt amount doesn't roll into next year — if you don't use it, it's gone. Spouses and civil partners can, however, transfer an asset (or a share of one) between themselves at no gain/no loss before a sale, which lets a couple line up two allowances against one eventual sale — a legitimate, commonly used piece of planning, distinct from trying to carry an allowance forward.
Where the allowance sits in your calculation
The order matters: total your gain (sale price minus cost minus allowable costs — see our CGT on property hub for the full list), deduct £3,000, then split what's left across the 18% and 24% bands based on your income for the year. Try it on the Capital Gains Tax calculator.
Why the allowance matters most on smaller sales
A shrinking allowance bites hardest on smaller gains, proportionally, because £3,000 covers a much bigger share of a modest profit than a large one. Sell a garden plot, a small second flat, or a share in a family property for a £4,000 gain and, at £3,000, only £1,000 is taxable — the allowance still does most of the work. On a £100,000 portfolio sale, the same £3,000 barely dents the bill. It's one reason smaller landlords selling a single property have felt the recent cuts to the allowance more sharply, relative to the size of their gain, than larger sellers have.
This is a guide, not financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are estimates from the published rates and thresholds, which change with each Budget. Your own position depends on facts a guide can't see — check anything that matters against gov.uk guidance or a qualified adviser before you act on it.
gov.uk: Capital Gains Tax allowances · gov.uk: Capital Gains Tax rates, both read verbatim 11 Sep 2026. Matches site/taxdata.py's CGT["aea"] = 3000 — no conflict found. Prior-year allowance figures (£12,300, £6,000) are cited from publicly documented Budget history, not re-verified live on gov.uk for this page.
Quick answers
£3,000 — the tax-free annual exempt amount every individual gets before either the 18% or 24% rate applies to a gain.
It was cut in successive Budgets from £12,300 down to £6,000 for 2023/24 and then £3,000 from 2024/25 — a roughly 75% reduction with no change to the headline rates. It has stayed at £3,000 since.
Yes — the allowance is per person, not per property. Each owner applies their own £3,000 against their share of the gain, so two joint owners can shelter up to £6,000 between them.
No. The annual exempt amount doesn't carry forward — if you don't use it in a tax year, it's lost. Spouses can transfer assets between themselves tax-free before a sale to use both allowances against one disposal instead.
Sources
The primary documents this page is built from. Links checked 5 September 2026.
- Capital Gains Tax: allowances — GOV.UK
- Capital Gains Tax: rates — GOV.UK