Business owners planning to sell their company to benefit from capital gains tax taper relief, which comes into full effect in April next year, should begin preparing the sale now.

Adrian Alexander, head of corporate finance at the Brighton office of chartered accountants Mazars Neville Russell, said: "In last year's Budget, the Chancellor effectively cut capital gains taxation to ten per cent on the sale of many businesses owned for four years or more.

"The first date the change takes full effect is April 6, 2002."

Many business owners, he said, mistakenly believed that to obtain the tax advantage, they must wait until that date before beginning the selling process.

Mr Alexander said: "It's important for vendors to understand that it takes an average of nine to 12 months to complete the sale of a business and you can't just conjure potential purchasers out of thin air.

"Even after the deal is done, there can be a handover period lasting from a few months to more than a year or longer. Now is the time to make sure the business is in good shape to sell and start setting the wheels in motion towards an eventual disposal."

Another danger, explained Mr Alexander, was that if a sale was driven primarily by tax considerations and the vendor delayed for that reason, he might miss out on realising the full value of the business because it was commercially the wrong time to sell.