HMRC has reported £16.985?billion in Capital Gains Tax receipts for January 2026 — a staggering £7?billion more than the same month a year earlier.

Between February 2025 and January 2026, CGT revenues totalled £20.6?billion, up from £14.3?billion the year before, a leap of 44%.

Many believe the surge reflects a growing number of landlords quitting the rental market in response to tougher taxes and regulation.

A spokesman, managing director at a wealth management company states: ‘That is a big upswing in the CGT take for January 2026, which at nearly £17 billion is 69% higher than [a year earlier].

 “January 2026’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 firesafe of assets could be behind this spike.”

He points out that slashing the annual exemption to £3,000 by April 2024 left investors exposed to CGT on almost any sale.

That change, he says, will have supercharged the government’s receipts from 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.

“With taxes on capital gains, investors tend either to bring forward decisions ahead of anticipated changes or to defer crystallising gains afterwards, or both. 

“Many might now be waiting for a future government to bring the CGT burden back down, others might be put off by the higher tax environment from setting up or investing in businesses in the first place. 

“But all that will not be evident for some time. “