By Gary Ashworth
Tax planning is an integral factor for entrepreneurs looking to build wealth. Here, Gary Ashworth, author of Double Up Money Mastery, outlines six high-impact strategies founders should review in 2026, from optimising spousal allowances to leveraging reliefs, pensions and ISAs, ensuring more wealth is preserved, rather than lost to unnecessary tax.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth. Efficient tax planning isn’t merely a “nice to have” that will boost your returns – it’s a critical area of your business that can either make, or cripple, long-term wealth creation.
Just as returns compound for positive growth, so do taxes – only in the wrong direction. Every unnecessary pound paid to the taxman is a pound that never gets the chance to be reinvested, multiplied, or put to work building future wealth.
For example, if £100,000 is doubled ten times over a 30-year period using a tax-efficient structure, the end result is around £102 million. Apply a 24% capital gains tax to every gain along the way, however, and that figure collapses to roughly £37 million. That’s £65 million lost purely due to poor structuring from day one. The work, the risk and the execution are identical – yet the outcome is barely a third of what it could have been.
With the above in mind, let’s take a look at six key strategies founders can review and implement immediately in 2026.
Utilise the Marriage Tax Benefit to Leverage the Power of Two Allowances
One of the simplest tax wins is also one of the most commonly ignored: making full use of both spouses’ allowances. Each individual currently has a £3,000 annual capital gains tax allowance (as of 2024–25 following recent cuts), giving couples £6,000 per year between them.
On its own, this might sound inconsequential. Over time, however, particularly across multiple investment cycles, these allowances can materially reduce the tax you pay. Assets held jointly allow both partners to repeatedly deploy their allowances year after year.
The same logic applies to dividend allowances (now £500 each) and income tax bands. By allocating income and gains sensibly between spouses, you can prevent excess amounts being pushed into higher tax brackets unnecessarily.
Year-end focus: Revisit who owns what. Strategic transfers between spouses can ensure both of you fully use your allowances this year and position yourselves more efficiently for the future.
Why Business Asset Disposal Relief is a Hidden Goldmine
Formerly known as Entrepreneurs’ Relief, Business Asset Disposal Relief offers those who qualify the chance to pay just 10% capital gains tax on the first £1 million of qualifying gains – making it one of the most valuable tax breaks available to UK founders.
Following on from the tip on Marriage Tax Benefits mentioned above, what makes Business Asset Disposal Relief even more powerful is that your spouse or partner can also claim this relief on their own £1 million if they hold qualifying assets – potentially offering £2 million of gains taxed at just 10%.
The relief applies to disposal of all or part of a business, assets used in a business you’re closing down, or shares in a trading company where you hold at least 5% and work for the company.
For many founders, this equates to a tax saving of up to £180,000 on a £1 million gain. Yet time and again, entrepreneurs miss out — often because shareholdings weren’t set up correctly early on, or because activity and ownership conditions weren’t met due to lack of forward planning.
Year-end focus: Take a close look at your ownership structure now. If an exit could be on the horizon within the next one to two years, make sure both you and your spouse hold qualifying shares and satisfy the working requirements.
Beware The Exit Tax Trap
Can catch entrepreneurs off-guard. If you’re considering relocating to a lower-tax jurisdiction like Dubai or Portugal, the UK has exit tax rules that can trigger immediate charges.
The “temporary non-residence” rules mean if you leave the UK for less than five complete tax years and then return, you may still be liable for CGT on gains made while non-resident. In some cases, you may be deemed to have disposed of assets immediately before leaving, triggering an immediate tax charge on unrealised gains.
Why Pension Contributions Offer Powerful Instant Returns
If you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, pension contributions offer one of the best immediate returns available anywhere. You get tax relief at your marginal rate – 40% or 45% for higher earners – and the pension grows tax-free thereafter.
Most individuals can contribute up to £60,000 per year, although this tapers for very high earners. Crucially, unused allowances from the previous three tax years can often be carried forward, enabling much larger contributions in profitable years.
For founders generating substantial profits from exits or business growth, maximising pension contributions provides immediate tax relief and long-term tax-efficient growth. If you’re extracting profits from your business, running them through pension contributions can dramatically reduce your tax bill.
ISA Wrappers: Low Annual limits – Large Long-term Impact
A £20,000 annual ISA allowance can feel trivial relative to the wealth successful entrepreneurs generate. But the real power of ISAs lies in disciplined, repeated use.
When both spouses consistently invest their full allowance over decades – for example, over 30 years – the resulting tax-free growth becomes significant. For those coming off a strong year or post-exit, ISAs provide a flexible, zero-tax wrapper for part of that capital.
Stocks and Shares ISAs work particularly well for financial market investments. Unlike pensions, you can access the money at any time without penalties, and there’s no tax on withdrawals.
Why Professional Advice is an Invaluable Long-term Investment
This lesson tends to be learned the hard – and expensive – way. Trying to save money by avoiding specialist tax advice often backfires. The rules are intricate, frequently updated, and unforgiving when applied incorrectly.
The right tax advisor, such as one who specialises in entrepreneurial structures, not just basic compliance, will typically save you ten times their fee through strategic planning you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.
As year-end approaches, what matters most isn’t just optimising this tax year, but designing a framework that works over the next five, ten, or even twenty years of wealth-building.
Thoughts before the year end
- Schedule a tax planning meeting with a specialist advisor before the end of December.
- Review your shareholding structure for Business Asset Disposal Relief qualification.
- Calculate any unused pension allowances from the past three years
- Maximise your ISA contributions for both spouses before 5 April
- Plan capital disposals to utilise both spouses’ CGT allowances
- If considering relocation, get specialist international tax advice immediately
The gap between average and exceptional wealth outcomes rarely comes from finding smarter investments. More often, it comes from keeping more of the money you make. Tax planning may not be glamorous – but it frequently determines whether you achieve true financial freedom, or continue to quietly give millions away.
Gary Ashworth
