What's due after an employee-ownership sale
Selling your company to an employee ownership trust (EOT) sets off several filings, each with its own deadline. Tell us the price and the day the sale completed, and we'll list every job, its last day, what it costs and which comes first.
Your answer
Enter the price and the day the sale completed to see what's due and when.
About this calculator
For owners who have sold their company to an employee ownership trust, or are about to. The sale sets off filings with HMRC and Companies House, each with its own time limit. Missing one can mean a fine, or put the tax relief at risk.
You type the price, the dates and what's already done. We don't connect to HMRC or Companies House, so find the confirmation statement date on the company's Companies House page. We work out stamp duty on the price you type; if part of the price depends on future profits, check with your adviser how it's counted.
This lists the filings and their dates. It doesn't check whether the company, the trust or the sale meet the conditions for the tax relief: that's a question for your adviser. It covers sales completed from 26 November 2025, when the relief became 50%, to 5 April 2027.
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 start from the day the sale completed. The trustees, as the buyer, send the signed share transfer form to HMRC and pay the stamp duty within 30 days. The duty is 0.5% of the price, rounded up to the next £5, and nothing is due on £1,000 or less. Late, HMRC can fine up to £300 (or the duty, if less) in the first year.
The trust must be registered with HMRC within 90 days of being set up. The company tells Companies House who now controls it within 14 days, and each trustee who is a person gives Companies House their identity-check personal code within 14 days of being added. You report the sale and claim the relief in your tax return, due 31 January after the tax year of the sale. Only half your profit is tax-free, and the tax on the other half is due the same day.
For the example, a sale on 1 March 2027 for £2,000,000 means £10,000 of stamp duty, due by 31 March 2027. The first deadline is 15 March 2027, to tell Companies House. With a £1,500,000 profit, £750,000 is tax-free and the tax on the rest is at most £180,000, due 31 January 2028.
Worked example
Your next deadline is 15 March 2027: tell Companies House who now controls the company (its people with significant control).
sale completed 1 March 2027 · as at 20 October 2026 · stamp duty on the price typed, which includes later payments with a fixed top amount · trust set up 26 February 2027 · Companies House's 14 days counted from the sale · trustees who are people
| The day the sale completed | 1 March 2027 |
|---|---|
| The price agreed for the shares | £2,000,000 |
| Stamp duty: 0.5% of the price, rounded up to the next £5 | £10,000 |
| Last day to send the form to HMRC to be stamped (30 days) | 31 March 2027 |
| Last day to register the trust (90 days from the day it was set up) | 27 May 2027 |
| Last day to tell Companies House who now controls the company (14 days) | 15 March 2027 |
| Last day for a trustee who is a person to give their personal code (14 days after being added, at the latest) | 29 March 2027 |
| Your 2026/27 tax return, reporting the sale and claiming the relief, is due by | 31 January 2028 |
| Your profit on the shares | £1,500,000 |
| Less the half that's tax-free (50%) | − £750,000 |
| Taxed (the lower business-sale rate can't be used on it) | £750,000 |
| Most the tax on it could be, at the 24% rate | £180,000 |
| The company's next yearly confirmation statement is due | 15 June 2027 |
| Keep the trust and company meeting the relief rules until (the end of the 4th tax year after 2026/27) | 5 April 2031 |
Worked out from the day the sale completed, using the published time limits: the Stamp Act 1891 and Finance Act 1999 for stamp duty, HMRC's trust registration rules, Companies House's rules on people with significant control and identity checks, and the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, section 236H, for the relief. It lists the filings; it doesn't say whether the sale qualifies for the relief. Not legal or tax advice.
Questions people ask
Who pays the stamp duty?
The trust, as the buyer. The trustees send the signed share transfer form to HMRC and pay it. You, the seller, don't. A form that isn't stamped can't be used to prove the trust owns the shares.
What if I don't know when the trust deed was signed?
Leave it empty and we count the 90 days from the day the sale completed. If the deed was signed earlier, the real deadline is earlier too, so check the deed.
Does this tell me whether the sale qualifies for the relief?
No. It lists the filings and their dates. Whether the company, the trust and the sale meet the conditions for the relief is a question for your adviser.
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