The government received £16.985bn in Capital Gains Taxes in January 2026, a 69% increase from the take of £10.033bn in January last year.
Jason Hollands, managing director at wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, said: “January’s figure includes the payment of self-assessment bills for the 2024/25 tax year so it could reflect investors – from April 2024 – disposing of assets ahead of an expected rise in CGT rates that duly arrived at the October 2024 Budget.
“Don’t forget that many thought CGT rates were going up more than they did, with some Labour MPs arguing for an equalisation with income tax rates, so a summer of ’24 firesale of assets could be behind this spike.
‘As the annual exemption had been slashed by the previous government to a meagre £3,000 by April 2024 there was – and remains – little protection against CGT for investors selling assets, which will have turbo-charged the revenues from any pre-Budget disposals.
“We will only know next year if this was a one-off boost from pre-October 2024 disposals, or whether investors continued afterwards to sell assets at the higher CGT rates, which took effect immediately.”
Inheritance Tax receipts for April 2025 to February 2026 were £7.7bn, which is £0.1bn higher than the same period last year,
Ian Dyall, head of estate planning at wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, said: “The expansion of IHT is not a result of sudden shifts in wealth, but rather years of fiscal drag.
“Nil rate bands have been frozen for many years while asset values, particularly property, have continued to inflate.
“Rising asset prices benefit the holders of investments and properties but the danger is that these households are sitting on an unexpectedly large, and rising, tax bill for their beneficiaries at death.
“From a planning perspective, more estates that would once have been considered comfortably below the IHT threshold are now creeping into taxable territory.’
