Sell the business, pass it on, or keep it?
Selling turns relieved shares into cash taxed at 40% when you die. Giving them away passes your gain to your children, while keeping them resets the gain at your death. We compare all three as if your family later sells.
Your answer
Enter what the company is worth, your situation and your age.
About this calculator
For the owner of shares in a UK trading company that isn't listed on a stock exchange, owned for at least 2 years. We compare three ways out using today's values and rates: selling now, giving the shares to your children now, and keeping them until you die.
We don't cover selling to your staff through an Employee Ownership Trust: our sister firm, Exit Better, specialises in that.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Selling: Capital Gains Tax with Business Asset Disposal Relief (18% on up to £1m of gains in your lifetime, then 24%), then the cash after tax counts in your estate for inheritance tax at 40%.
Giving: gift hold-over relief puts the Capital Gains Tax off, but your children take on your cost, so they pay it if they sell (18% and 24%, with Business Asset Disposal Relief only if they work in the business). The gift is free of inheritance tax if you live 7 years; if you die sooner, business relief still applies as long as they've kept the shares. Keeping: no Capital Gains Tax at death (your family's cost resets to the value then), and business relief takes 100% of the first £2.5m off and half above, with the tax payable over 10 years with no interest.
We rank the three on what your family would have if they later sold, at today's values and rates, with the gift ranked on you living 7 years. We show the figure if you die within 3 years beside it, and what each way leaves if the family keeps the shares.
Worked example
Keeping your shares until you die leaves your family the most if they later sell, about £2,900,000, against £2,280,760 if you give them now and live 7 years (£2,180,760 if you die within 3).
2026/27 rates · single · trading company · today's values at death · gift ranked on you living 7 years · ranked as if the family later sells · 1 child · incomes: yours £50,000, each child's £50,000
| What the whole company is worth | £3,000,000 |
|---|---|
| Your shares (100%) | £3,000,000 |
| Gain since you bought them | £2,999,900 |
| Sell now: Capital Gains Tax, with Business Asset Disposal Relief | £659,256 |
| Sell now: cash after tax, in your estate | £2,340,744 |
| Sell now: extra inheritance tax at 40% | £936,298 |
| Sell now: your family gets (cash, already taxed) | £1,404,446 |
| Give now: Capital Gains Tax put off by gift hold-over relief | £0 |
| Give now: gain your children take on | £2,999,900 |
| Give now: inheritance tax if you live 7 years | £0 |
| Give now: your family gets, if they keep the shares | £3,000,000 |
| Give now: your child's Capital Gains Tax on £2,999,900 if they sell | £719,240 |
| Give now, live 7 years: your family gets, if they sell | £2,280,760 |
| Give now, die within 3 years: inheritance tax, children kept the shares | £100,000 |
| Give now, die within 3 years: your family gets, if they sell | £2,180,760 |
| Keep: Capital Gains Tax (none at death) | £0 |
| Keep: business relief, all up to £2,500,000, 50% above | − £2,750,000 |
| Keep: extra inheritance tax at 40% | £100,000 |
| Keep: paid over 10 years, no interest | £10,000 a year |
| Keep: your family gets, kept or sold (their cost resets at your death) | £2,900,000 |
| Your other estate, the same each way: inheritance tax on it | £270,000 |
Worked out using HMRC's 2026/27 Capital Gains Tax rates and the inheritance tax and business relief rules from 6 April 2026. Not legal or investment advice.
Questions people ask
If giving the shares away is tax-free, why not always do it?
You lose the income and the control, you can't keep a benefit from them, and your children take on your gain: if they sell, they pay Capital Gains Tax on everything since you bought. Shares they inherit start again at their value at your death.
What if I die within 7 years of giving the shares?
The gift becomes taxable, but business relief still applies if your children still own the shares when you die. If they've sold them, the relief is lost and the gift is taxed in full, less taper after 3 years.
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