Could your employee-ownership tax relief be taken back?
After you sell to an employee ownership trust (EOT), your tax relief only stays if seven rules keep being met. We show how much tax could be taken back and the date you're safe from.
Your answer
Enter the date of your sale and your profit to see how much tax could be taken back, and until when.
About this calculator
For owners who have already sold their company to an employee ownership trust (EOT). The tax relief on the sale (Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, section 236H) only stays if seven rules keep being met until the end of the fourth tax year after the year of the sale. If one breaks before then, the relief is taken back and the profit it left untaxed is taxed on you.
You type in the figures: the sale, the trust's share, the staff and the trustees. We don't look anything up or read your accounts or trust papers. Each rule is checked exactly on your answers. Not sure? Choose Not sure, or leave a number empty: that rule shows as not checked, and we say what to find out. We never guess that a rule is met.
This covers sales from 30 October 2024. For a sale from 26 November 2025, half the profit was left untaxed; before that, all of it. For an older sale, the time in which the relief could be taken back from you has already ended, so book a call instead.
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
We take your profit on the sale and the share of it the relief left untaxed. If a rule stops being met on or before 5 April at the end of the fourth tax year after the year of your sale, tax on that part comes back at your rate when you sold: 24%, or 18% at the lower rate. It counts as due from 31 January after the tax year of the sale, so interest can run from then.
We check seven rules: the trust owns more than half of the company; the company still mainly trades; all staff share on the same terms; every trustee lives in the UK for tax; owners and their close family are no more than two fifths of the staff; trustees linked to the sellers are fewer than half and can't control the trust; and the trustees have kept to the trust's rules.
After your period ends, nothing can be taken back from you. A first rule broken after that is taxed on the trust instead, at 24% on the rise in value of its shares above what they cost it. In the example, £1.8m of profit on a sale in December 2025 left £900,000 untaxed, so £216,000 could be taken back until 5 April 2030.
Worked example
Your relief looks safe today: if a rule breaks on or before 5 April 2030, £216,000 of tax could be taken back from you.
your answers taken as true · the higher rate · no £3,000 allowance · as at 20 October 2026
| Your sale on 15 December 2025: the profit you made | £1,800,000 |
|---|---|
| Share of it left untaxed by the relief (50%) | 50% |
| Profit left untaxed (the tax relief) | £900,000 |
| The rules must keep being met to the end of the 4th tax year after the year of the sale | to 5 April 2030 |
| The trust owns more than half of the company | Met |
| The company still mainly trades | Met |
| All staff still share in the trust on the same terms | Met |
| Every trustee lives in the UK for tax | Met |
| Owners and their close family are no more than two fifths of the staff | Met |
| Trustees linked to the sellers are fewer than half, and don't control the trust | Met |
| The trustees have kept to the trust's rules | Met |
| Worked on 20 October 2026, today: inside your period | Inside |
| Your Capital Gains Tax rate on it (higher rate, 24%) | 24% |
| Tax that could be taken back from you | £216,000 |
Checked against the rules that keep the tax relief on a sale to an employee ownership trust (Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, sections 236H to 236P), with 50% of the profit left untaxed for a sale on 15 December 2025, your rate at the sale date and the trust's 24%. The 31 January date the tax counts as due from is our reading: the law says the claim is undone as if never made. A first check on your answers, not legal or tax advice.
Questions people ask
Is a broken rule always the end of the relief?
Not always. If a trustee stops living in the UK, or too many trustees are linked to the sellers, only because a trustee died, it doesn't count if it's put right within 6 months of the death. If too many staff are owners or their family for reasons outside the trustees' control, it doesn't count if it lasts no more than 6 months. Speak to an accountant at once.
Is the trust's tax bill the same as mine?
No. If a rule stops being met inside your period, the tax falls on you. If it first stops being met after your period, the tax falls on the trust, and that never runs out. It's worked out on the rise in value of the shares since the sale. Enter what the trust paid and what the shares are worth now to see it.
Does the big figure mean I owe that tax?
Not unless a rule breaks. When every rule is met, it's the tax that depends on the rules being kept until the date shown, so you can see what's at stake.
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