Guernsey capital gains tax: none on private gains
Guernsey has no personal capital gains tax, so the tax on your investment gain is zero. Shares, crypto and property alike, a private sale of a capital asset carries no capital-gains charge. What matters instead are the charges around the asset: document duty of 2.25% to 5.5% when you buy Guernsey property, the anti-speculation Dwellings Profits Tax suspended since 2009, Tax on Real Property while you own it, and the flat 20% income tax on the profits of a trade.
Sources: the States of Guernsey Revenue Service and PwC's Guernsey tax summaries.
Current rules
Taxes on selling shares, crypto and property in Guernsey
What you pay when you sell
| Asset | Tax on the gain |
|---|---|
| Shares (personal investment) | Nothing. There is no tax on capital gains in Guernsey, wherever the shares are listed |
| Crypto | Nothing on the gain |
| Property (personal investment) | Nothing on the gain |
| Buying Guernsey property | Document duty, 2.25% to 5.5% of the transaction value, paid by the purchaser, plus 2% where the home is not the purchaser's principal private residence; a replacement principal residence pays 0% on the first £400,000 until the end of 2026 |
| Reselling a dwelling quickly | Dwellings Profits Tax is the anti-speculation statute, and it has been suspended since 2009, so no charge arises |
| Owning property | Tax on Real Property is charged annually: £2.25 per TRP unit for a home under 100 assessable units in 2026, and the owner on 1 January owes the year |
| Selling as a trade | Profits of a trade of buying and selling are business profits, taxed at the flat 20% income-tax rate |
Figures are the source records as of 2026-09-30.
Questions
Guernsey capital gains tax questions
Does Guernsey have a capital gains tax?
No. PwC's Guernsey tax summary states it plainly: there is no tax on capital gains in Guernsey, and the Revenue Service's published framework contains no statute charging a general personal capital-gains tax. Whether you sell shares after a week or a building after twenty years, the gain itself is not taxed.
So what does selling property cost?
Document duty, charged on the transaction rather than the gain. A purchaser of Guernsey real property pays a graduated 2.25% to 5.5% of the transaction value, plus an extra 2% where the home is not the purchaser's (or a family member's) principal private residence; transfers of shares in property-owning companies can carry duty too. It is owed whether the seller made a gain or a loss.
Is crypto taxed in Guernsey?
Not as a capital gain. There is no tax on capital gains, and crypto is a capital asset like any other for a private, non-business sale. The charges that do exist around disposals, document duty on property transactions and Tax on Real Property on ownership, do not tax an investor's net gain.
When would tax touch my sale?
The line the Revenue Service draws is trading. The self-employed are charged income tax on the profits the business makes, at the flat 20%, so someone whose trade is habitually buying and selling property or shares has business profits, not capital gains. One-off private disposals sit outside that door entirely.
What exactly is the no-capital-gains position based on?
There is no tax on capital gains in Guernsey. PwC's Guernsey individual income-determination summary (last reviewed 21 September 2026) states it in those words, and the Revenue Service's published framework contains no statute charging a general personal capital-gains tax. Source: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/guernsey/individual/income-determination
Can a share or property sale ever be taxed as income?
The line the Revenue Service draws is business use: the self-employed are charged income tax on the profits the business makes, and a business whose trade is the buying and selling of goods accounts for it through stock adjustments, while a private, non-business disposal of a capital asset carries no capital-gains charge. Source: https://gov.gg/startingabusiness
What is document duty and who pays it?
Document duty is charged on the transaction, not the gain: a graduated charge of 2.25% to 5.5% of the transaction value on chargeable transactions of Guernsey real property, payable by the purchaser, with an extra 2% where residential property is not the purchaser's (or a family member's) principal private residence; duty may also apply to transfers of shares in companies whose underlying assets include Guernsey real property, and a 2024 downsizing incentive charges 0% on the first GBP 400,000 of a replacement principal residence, agreed to continue until the end of 2026 and be re-evaluated in the 2027 budget. Source: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/guernsey/corporate/other-taxes
What happened to the Dwellings Profits Tax?
Dwellings Profits Tax is the statute that once taxed speculation: the Revenue Service's Statements of Practice page states Dwellings Profits Tax (DPT) is an anti-speculation tax on property purchases in Guernsey and Alderney, and that DPT was suspended in Guernsey with effect from 2009 (in Alderney from 2008), so no DPT charge arises on a disposal today. Source: https://www.gov.gg/taxationstatementsofpractice
What is Tax on Real Property (TRP)?
Tax on Real Property (TRP) is an annual charge on ownership, not on a disposal: the Cadastre's 2026 tariff schedule carries 2.25 per TRP unit for a domestic local-market or open-market property with a plan area under 100 assessable units, rising by band to 5.98 per unit at 500 units and over; one square metre of built property or 50 square metres of land is one TRP unit, and the owner as at 1 January owes the year. Source: https://www.gov.gg/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=196847&p=0