What rate of Business Asset Disposal Relief applies now?

18% on qualifying gains up to a £1m lifetime limit, from 6 April 2026. The previous rates were 10% until 5 April 2025 and 14% in the year that followed, and the completion date governs which applies to any given disposal rather than the date terms were agreed.

Is it still worth claiming the relief at 18%?

Yes, where you qualify. The saving against the 24% main rate reaches £60,000 on a full £1m of qualifying gains, and the qualifying conditions take two years to satisfy so they cannot be arranged at the point of sale. Check your shareholding and officer status with your accountant well before you go to market rather than during diligence.

What is the business property relief change?

From 6 April 2026, 100% relief applies to the first £2.5m of combined business and agricultural assets and 50% above that, which is an effective inheritance tax rate of 20% on the excess. The allowance is transferable between spouses and civil partners, and HMRC estimate around 1,100 estates a year will be affected.

Should I bring my sale forward because of the rate?

Rarely. The process runs six to nine months, so the rate that applies is mostly decided by when you started rather than by when you decide. Compressing it nearly always costs more in price than the rate difference saves. The evidence that lifts a valuation here accumulates over a renewal year and cannot be manufactured in a quarter. Treat the rate as a known input rather than as a deadline.

The New Rate and What It Means for Pest Control Owners

Today's RateWhat changed this morning and what it costs

Business Asset Disposal Relief is 18% from today on qualifying gains up to a £1m lifetime limit. It was 10% until 5 April 2025 and 14% until yesterday, a two-step rise announced at the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 and legislated since. The main higher rate of capital gains tax remains 24%.

In cash the relief is still worth having. On a full £1m of qualifying gains the difference between 18% and the main rate is £60,000, which is not a rounding error on a business of the size most owner-managed pest control companies reach. The direction of travel has been one way for two years, and it would be optimistic to assume it has finished.

The mechanics have not changed at all. The completion date governs which rate applies, the two-year qualifying conditions on shareholding and officer or employee status still bite, and anti-forestalling rules introduced in October 2024 still apply to contracts entered into before completion. Your own accountant is the person to confirm your position, and a half-hour conversation this month is worth more than any article.

£60,000

Maximum BADR saving on a full £1m qualifying gain at 18% against the 24% main rate

The Other ChangeThe other change that landed today

From today, 100% business property relief applies only to the first £2.5m of combined business and agricultural assets, with 50% relief above that, which works out at an effective 20% inheritance tax rate on the excess. The allowance was announced at £1m and raised to £2.5m on 23 December 2025. It is transferable between spouses and civil partners, so a couple can hold up to £5m between them, and HMRC estimate around 1,100 estates a year will pay more as a result.

For a pest control owner this changes a calculation that used to be simple. Holding the business until death was, for many, the tax-efficient default. Above the new allowance it now carries a cost, and that cost has to be weighed against the reasons for holding on, which are often perfectly good ones about people and continuity rather than about tax.

It is worth saying that this is a conversation for a tax adviser who can see your whole position, including pensions, property and anything held jointly. The point of raising it here is only that the default has changed, and defaults that change quietly are the ones that catch people out.

Holding the business until death used to be the tax-efficient default. Above the new allowance it carries a cost.

The JudgementWhy preparation still outweighs timing

None of this changes what a buyer will pay for your round. Tax affects what you keep, not what the contract book is worth to an acquirer, and the gap between a well-prepared business and an unprepared one in this trade is routinely larger than the gap between any two of these rates.

The things that move the price are the same as they were in March. Contracted recurring income with clean renewal evidence. Route density in a defined patch. Client concentration low enough that no single procurement decision damages the earnings. A certified, retained technician team. A business that runs when the owner is away.

There is one genuinely time-sensitive item in all of this, and it is not the rate. The qualifying conditions for the relief look back two years, so a shareholding restructured last autumn, a directorship resigned to tidy up the paperwork, or a holding company inserted without anybody thinking about the eventual disposal can each cost more than the rate change ever will. That is worth checking this month whether or not a sale is anywhere on the horizon.

So the useful response to a rate change is not to accelerate a sale, it is to check your qualifying position and then get back to the work that raises the number being taxed. Owners who sell to beat a date tend to accept the first credible offer, and a first credible offer is almost never the best one available.

Know the Number First

The tax position is a conversation for your accountant, and a better one with a number already in front of you. That number takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

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