When is the Autumn Budget 2026?

Wednesday 28 October 2026. It is Chancellor John Healey's first Budget, and by convention any capital gains tax change announced in it can take effect from Budget day itself, as happened on 30 October 2024.

Will capital gains tax go up in the 2026 Budget?

Nobody outside the Treasury knows. Commentary in September 2026 runs both ways: talk of aligning CGT with income tax has cooled, a small symbolic rate rise is considered plausible, and Treasury modelling reportedly warns that large rises lose revenue because people stop selling.

Could a CGT rise apply from Budget day itself?

Yes, and recently it did. On 30 October 2024 the main CGT rates moved from 10 and 20 percent to 18 and 24 percent for disposals made on or after that same day. Waiting to hear the announcement and then selling may not beat a change.

If I sell crypto before the Budget, when is the tax due?

A disposal in the 2026 to 2027 tax year is reported on the return due 31 January 2028, with the tax payable by the same date. Selling now fixes the rate that applies to the gain, it does not bring the payment date forward.

Can I sell before the Budget and buy back after it?

You can, but the 30-day rule may undo the point of it. Buying the same coin back within 30 days matches the repurchase to your disposal, which reprices the gain you thought you had crystallised. A rebuy on day 31 or later keeps the disposal clean.

Does the £3,000 CGT allowance change the calculation?

It is the first £3,000 of your gains each tax year at stake, per person. Spouses each have one, and transfers between spouses carry no gain and no loss, so a couple can realise up to £6,000 of gains allowance-free in 2026 to 2027 regardless of what the Budget does.

Is selling before the Budget a good idea?

Selling to beat a rise that never comes means paying tax now that patience might have deferred for years. Selling and being right saves the rate difference on your gain. The honest framing is a decision under uncertainty, and the arithmetic on your actual numbers beats anyone's prediction.

What happened to crypto tax rumours specifically?

The speculation reported through September 2026 is about capital gains tax generally, not crypto-specific measures. Crypto disposals simply ride whatever CGT does, which is exactly why the general rumours matter to holders.

Autumn Budget 2026 and crypto, sell before 28 October?

On this page

What is confirmed
What is rumoured, with sources and dates
The precedent that matters, 30 October 2024
The mechanics of selling first, coldly
A frame instead of a forecast

The Autumn Budget falls on Wednesday 28 October 2026, John Healey’s first as Chancellor, and the question arriving in crypto holders’ heads is the same one that arrives before every fiscal event now: sell before Budget day, or not? The honest answer up front: nobody outside the Treasury knows what the Budget holds, a rate change announced on the day could apply from the day, as one did in 2024, and the useful preparation is knowing your own numbers rather than believing anyone’s forecast. This page separates the confirmed, the rumoured and the mechanical, and we will update it as 28 October approaches.

What is confirmed

The date, Wednesday 28 October 2026, and the Chancellor delivering it. The rates in force today: 18 and 24 percent for individuals above a £3,000 annual exempt amount. Everything else below is speculation and labelled as such.

What is rumoured, with sources and dates

Which?, 21 September 2026, reports the First Secretary of State, Louise Haigh, has argued for moving CGT closer to income tax rates, and for ending the uplift at death, the rule that resets accumulated gains to zero on inherited assets, worth an estimated £1.5 to £2 billion a year. Advocacy from inside government is a signal, not a policy, and the same article stresses nothing is confirmed until Budget day.

BDO’s Budget predictions, updated 8 September 2026, read the other way: full alignment talk has “seemingly quieted”, in their phrase, while a small rate rise stays plausible as political signalling. They also carry the detail that cuts against drama, Treasury analysis reportedly finds significant CGT rises reduce revenue, because owners respond by not selling.

Read together: a modest rise is a live possibility, a structural overhaul is talked about but faces the Treasury’s own arithmetic, and no rumour so far is crypto-specific. Crypto simply rides whatever CGT does.

The precedent that matters, 30 October 2024

The last time a Budget touched CGT rates, the change took effect the same day. HMRC’s own rates table shows it plainly: 10 and 20 percent for disposals up to 29 October 2024, then 18 and 24 percent from 30 October 2024 onward. Anyone whose plan that week was “listen to the speech, then decide” discovered the decision had already been made for them by mid-afternoon.

That precedent is the strongest fact in this whole area. It does not predict a rise. It says that if one comes, the window to act on it may close as the Chancellor sits down.

The mechanics of selling first, coldly

A disposal before Budget day is taxed under today’s rules, whatever happens on 28 October. The gain lands on your 2026 to 2027 return, tax due 31 January 2028. Selling does not accelerate payment, it fixes the rate.

Three mechanical points decide whether acting early actually achieves anything:

The 30-day trap. Sell to bank today’s rate, buy back inside 30 days, and the bed and breakfast rule matches your repurchase to the disposal, repricing the gain you meant to crystallise. The 30-day window counter does the date arithmetic. A rebuy on day 31 or later keeps the disposal clean, at the price of a month out of the market.
Allowances are per person, per year. £3,000 of gains is exempt for 2026 to 2027, and spouse transfers carry no gain and no loss, so a couple can stage up to £6,000 of gains tax-free regardless of what the Budget says.
Selling has a cost even when you are right. Crystallising a gain now means paying tax on it in 2028 that continued holding might have deferred for years, or left inside the allowance in slices. How much tax a disposal actually produces depends on your income band, your pooled cost and your losses, not on the headline rate alone, and the sell now or after April planner puts the timing question side by side in numbers.

A frame instead of a forecast

The people who come out of pre-Budget weeks well are not the ones who guessed the announcement, they are the ones who knew their numbers before it. Compute your position across every year, see which gains sit inside the allowance, which losses are unclaimed, and what a two-point or six-point rate change would actually cost you in pounds. Then the rumour becomes a priced decision instead of a mood. gains.tax runs the whole computation in your browser, every disposal cited to its rule, free under 1,000 transactions, and nothing you import leaves your machine.

HMRC’s first crypto statistics are a reminder of the backdrop: the reporting net is tightening on its own schedule, Budget or no Budget, and if 2025 to 2026 was your first reportable year, registration closes 5 October, three weeks before the Chancellor stands up.

General information, not tax advice, and emphatically not a prediction. Decisions involving serious sums deserve a professional, and the directory lists independent ones.