The findings come as businesses look ahead to the Autumn Budget on 28 October, amid speculation about possible Capital Gains Tax changes and further reforms to Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR).
The research suggests that known deadlines can prompt shareholders to bring forward decisions about closing solvent companies, though it cannot establish why individuals acted when they did.
Licensed insolvency practitioners Clarke Bell analysed 21,839 Members’ Voluntary Liquidation (MVL) resolutions recorded between January 2024 and September 2026. MVLs allow solvent companies to be wound up, with remaining funds distributed to shareholders.
The study found the three highest monthly totals occurred ahead of the 2024 Autumn Budget or BADR tax increases. In October 2024, there were 2,760 resolutions, including 1,092 in the five working days before the Budget.
In April 2025, as the BADR tax rate rose from 10% to 14%, activity in the final five working days reached 6.83 times the January daily average, with 604 resolutions recorded. A year later, ahead of a further increase from 14% to 18%, 673 resolutions were recorded in the final five working days. In each case, activity fell by 93–94% over the five working days immediately after the deadline.
Clarke Bell’s Senior Partner, John Bell, said the pattern was consistent ahead of all three events, with activity concentrated in the final few working days before falling sharply afterwards. He added that the figures could not explain individual shareholders’ motivations, but that the timing was difficult to ignore.
The researchers also compared the figures with other periods to test whether seasonality might explain the peaks. Activity before the 2024 Budget was 3.38 times its usual level, with no comparable increase in 2023. The April 2025 and 2026 spikes were also substantially higher than in April 2024, when BADR did not change.
Jason Piper, Head of Tax and Business Law – Policy and Insights at ACCA, told That's Businesses that tax reform timetables inevitably influence behaviour.
While the figures cannot prove people’s reasons, he said they suggest tax can be a factor in the timing of decisions.
The latest figures show solvent liquidation activity also rose through summer 2026, from 11.5 resolutions per working day in May to a provisional 22.0 in September.
With the Budget approaching, the previous peaks highlight how strongly activity has gathered around fiscal deadlines. Whether that pattern will be repeated remains to be seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment