PRESS RELEASE
- Separate lang cat data shows tax planning has climbed the agenda, cited as a priority by 39% of advice firms and their clients
- HMRC data shows CGT receipts hit record levels in 2025/26 reaching £24.3bn
New research from tax software provider Financial Software Ltd (FSL), published today, shows that the vast majority of advisers (94.1%) want platforms to include capital gains tax (CGT) reports as part of their tax packs, in the same way they currently do for income received from dividend and interest distributions.
The findings come as research from the lang cat’s latest State of the Advice Nation report shows tax planning is climbing the agenda, with 39% of advice firms now citing it as a priority. The same proportion of advisers also reported a sharp rise in clients seeking reassurance around tax and legislative uncertainty. For many firms, the volume of concerned clients has been overwhelming, stretching already pressured workloads.
Separate data from FSL shows that CGT calculators are the fourth most-selected “must-have” feature in advisers’ platform due diligence, up two places year-on-year and sitting just behind the SIPP and whole-of-market fund range features.
Despite this rise in demand, around one in six advisers say they’re not confident that the platforms they use accurately reflect their clients’ CGT positions. This is likely to become a bigger issue given that the latest HMRC data shows CGT receipts hit record levels in 2025/26.
Receipts hit £24.3bn in 2025/26,4 far surpassing the previous year’s £13.7 billion. Reflecting this, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent forecast projects CGT receipts rising to £34.9bn by 2030/31.
Michael Edwards, Managing Director of FSL, said: “With more individuals drawn into scope for CGT, tax planning has moved centre stage – it’s no longer a peripheral issue affecting only high net worth clients. Advice firms have been contacting us directly for help because they are clearly frustrated with CGT reporting across platforms, viewing it as either lacking or inconsistent.
“With shrinking allowances, and frozen income tax thresholds, advisers are reworking financial plans to try and make greater use of tax-efficient structures for their clients. This demands accurate data and robust modelling tools from the platforms they use. Given the direction of travel for UK tax policy, this problem is only going to intensify. Platforms that have the capability to provide this data and reporting properly, and those that do it well are the ones advisers will choose to work with.”
Greg Moss, Chartered Financial Planner and Founder of Eleven.2 Financial Planning, said: “Tax has become one of the biggest sources of client queries we deal with, and CGT is right at the centre of it as more of our clients are pulled into scope. The information we need to report accurately already sits with the platforms – it shouldn’t take hours of manual reconciliation on our side to piece it together. Giving advisers CGT data in the same straightforward way we already get dividend and interest information would save real time and let us spend more of it on the advice our clients actually come to us for.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
For more information contact
Nicola Cannings
PR Director, the lang cat
M: 0771 366 9899
About FSL
Financial Software Ltd (FSL) provides market-leading solutions and services that simplify the process of tax management, analysis and reporting in the UK, US and Ireland.
Its award-winning tax software, CGiX, is trusted by leading members of the wealth and investment community to accurately calculate their clients’ taxable wealth.
CGiX provides automated calculations and comprehensive reports for capital gains tax, income tax and corporation tax for a wide range of investors, including private individuals, trusts and corporates. It also supports the creation of customisable tax packs, ‘What If’ tax modelling and model portfolio rebalancing.
In addition to CGiX, FSL offers an end-to-end tax administration outsourcing service. This bespoke service helps businesses improve operational efficiency, reduce overhead costs and minimise reporting risks by taking the challenge of tax management off their hands.
FSL also provides a comprehensive database of corporate actions to support the calculation and reporting of excess reportable income (ERI) as well as tax consultancy and training.
FSL is part of Industrial Thought Ltd Group, a group of businesses specialising in investment taxation, financial data and technology, and related consultancy services.