OK, theres a lot of conflicting advice here, much of it incorrect, or at least more complex than suggested, Im afraid. This is on the basis that I am a UK tax advisor, although not a CGT specialist. I would strongly suggest taking specialist advice, as I have done on personal transactions, despite being qualified myself. Although big four companies are relatively expensive, you will need someone with advisors in both the UK and Switzerland to properly understand the implications. If you would like to PM me, I would be happy to provide you with contact details of someone who would be able to assist. P.S. I think its probably obvious I still work for an accounting firm, but I hope Im not breaking any rules as Im not mentionaing any names, just trying to be helpful and provide a contact! )

and in addition to that, someone who knows how this works out in a treaty situation, national advisors tend to be weak on that, even in the big 4.

Swiss exempt capital gains taxation under certain conditions. Selling your own company is not one of those. Otherwise it would be a loophole to avoid taxation on dividends and salaries.

The Swiss authorities might consider the sale proceeds as "transposition"
http://www.internationaltaxreview.co...660326&TYPE=20
and tax it as "deemed dividends". Better get very good tax advice!

Belgium it is then???

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. As mentioned, the company has not been sold yet so the structure on that remains to be determined.

As a side note, Belgium carries nowhere near the attraction to me that Switzerland does!

Hi. Would be interested to hear your views. I'm a UK tax consultant with a Big4 who is about to move to an in-house tax role in Switzerland! I must admit I loved, my yellow books. Even have a set on the bedside table for some light-reading!

Yes it is possible to do. In fact, a few years ago, one of my colleagues sent his client on a bit of a round the world jaunt such that when he sold his multi-million (billion?) pound business empire, he was not tax resident anywhere that was able to tax it.

Definitely get tax advice if the tax cost is going to be big. Just weight up the potential cost of the advice (probably around £10k tops on Big4 rates) with the tax you could save.

I've known major firms who decided to go cheap and try to implement tax planning on their own, instead of paying us only for them to completely screw up and cost their firm multiple millions in tax for what would have been a few £10ks of fees.