Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 section 152

Roll-over relief

Section 152 allows traders to defer capital gains tax when they sell qualifying business assets and reinvest the proceeds in new qualifying business assets, enabling businesses to modernise, expand or relocate without facing an immediate tax charge.

• When a trader sells assets used solely for the trade and reinvests all the proceeds in new qualifying business assets (from the classes listed in section 155), the gain on the old assets can be rolled over by reducing the base cost of the new assets, effectively deferring the tax charge until the new assets are eventually sold.
• The new assets must be acquired (or an unconditional contract entered into) within a window beginning 12 months before and ending 3 years after the disposal of the old assets, although HMRC may extend these time limits.
• Where the old assets were not used exclusively for trade purposes throughout the ownership period, or where only part of a building was used for the trade, the relief is restricted to the business-use proportion, with consideration apportioned on a just and reasonable basis.
• The relief is not available if the new assets were acquired wholly or partly for the purpose of realising a gain on their disposal rather than for genuine trade use, and the period of ownership for these purposes cannot include any time before 31 March 1982.