Capital Gains Tax Calculator: How Much CGT Will You Pay?

CGT generally applies to assets you acquired on or after 20 September 1985, including:

• investment properties
• shares and managed fund units
• cryptocurrency
• business goodwill
• collectables and personal use assets worth more than $10,000

It does not apply to your main residence (in most cases), your car, or assets you acquired before 20 September 1985. See the asset table below for a fuller breakdown.

This calculator gives you an estimate to help with planning. It isn’t a substitute for advice from a registered tax agent or accountant, particularly once your situation involves multiple properties, trusts, or overlapping exemptions.

You’ll need six pieces of information:

• Purchase price, what you paid for the asset
• Cost of purchasing, stamp duty, legal fees, and other costs to acquire it
• Sold price, what you sold it for
• Cost of selling, agent commission, legal fees, marketing costs
• Ownership period, whether you held the asset for more or less than 12 months
• Current taxable income, your income from other sources, since your marginal rate depends on your total taxable income for the year

The calculator adds your buying costs to the purchase price and subtracts your selling costs from the sale price to arrive at your actual capital gain, then applies the CGT discount (if you qualify) and works out the extra tax payable at your marginal rate.

Say you bought $10,000 of shares and later sold them for $15,000, a capital gain of $5,000. Your other taxable income for the year is $95,000.

Held less than 12 months (no discount): The full $5,000 gain is added to your taxable income, taking it to $100,000. That extra $5,000 sits inside the $45,001–$135,000 bracket, taxed at 30c per dollar (see table below), so you pay an extra $1,500 in tax, plus 2% Medicare levy on the gain ($100), $1,600 in total.

Held 12 months or more (50% CGT discount applies): Only 50% of the gain, $2,500, is added to your taxable income, taking it to $97,500. Tax on that $2,500 at 30c per dollar is $750, plus Medicare levy of $50, $800 in total, half the tax of the short-term example, for an identical gain.

This is the single biggest lever available to most investors: hold a growth asset for at least 12 months and you halve the tax on the gain.

This is a simplified example for illustration. It doesn’t account for capital losses, other offsets, or your full tax position, talk to a tax professional before acting on it.

Because your capital gain is added to your other taxable income, the rate of tax on it depends on which bracket your total income falls into. These are the current resident tax rates, per the Australian Taxation Office:

There’s no separate “CGT rate” in Australia. The process is: capital proceeds (sale price less selling costs) minus cost base (purchase price plus buying costs, and any depreciation claimed, see below) gives your capital gain; apply the 50% discount if you qualify; add the result to your other taxable income; tax is then calculated on the total using the table above.

For shares specifically, this is usually simple, there’s rarely any depreciation or private-use apportionment to think about, so the cost base is just what you paid (including brokerage) and the proceeds are what you sold for (net of brokerage). One detail that trips people up: the 12-month clock starts on the contract date, not the settlement date.

Shares and property are both CGT assets, but property comes with extra rules that don’t apply to shares, and they matter more to SuburbsFinder’s audience than the general share-trading rules do.

The main residence exemption doesn’t apply to investment properties. If a property has never been your home, the full gain is assessable (subject to the 50% discount), there’s no partial main-residence relief to claim.

If you’ve ever lived in the property, the 6-year absence rule matters. If a property was your main residence at some point and you then moved out and rented it, you can generally continue treating it as your main residence, and therefore CGT-exempt, for up to six years while it’s rented, per the ATO. Move back in before the six years is up and, when you move out again, a fresh six-year period starts. Go past six years continuously rented and CGT applies on a proportional basis for the period beyond the exemption. If the property is never rented (left vacant, or used as a holiday home) the exemption can extend indefinitely, provided you’re not also treating another property as your main residence.

Depreciation you’ve claimed reduces your cost base, and increases your eventual capital gain. This is the part investors most often miss. Under ATO rules, capital works deductions (the depreciation you claim on the building’s structure, Division 43) reduce your property’s cost base for CGT purposes, per the ATO. In practice, every dollar of capital works deduction you’ve claimed against your rental income over the years comes back as a dollar added to your taxable capital gain when you sell. Plant and equipment depreciation (fixtures and fittings, Division 40) is generally treated separately rather than folded into the property’s cost base.

1. Purchase price: $500,000
2. Buying costs (stamp duty, legal fees): $20,000
3. Capital works deductions claimed over the ownership period: $15,000
4. Sold price: $650,000
5. Selling costs (agent, legal): $15,000

Cost base = $500,000 + $20,000 − $15,000 (capital works claimed) = $505,000 Capital proceeds = $650,000 − $15,000 = $635,000 Capital gain = $635,000 − $505,000 = $130,000 With the 50% discount (held over 12 months): taxable gain = $65,000

None of this is a reason to avoid claiming depreciation, the deductions reduce your tax now, at your full marginal rate, while the cost-base adjustment only affects tax on the (discounted) gain later, and only if you sell. But it does mean your accountant needs an accurate depreciation history to get your cost base right at sale time. Our Investment Property Tax Depreciation Calculator can help you estimate what you’ve likely claimed to date.

1. The main residence exemption. If the property was genuinely your home before you rented it out, some or all of the gain may be exempt, get this assessed properly, since partial exemptions apply if it was only sometimes your main residence.
2. The 6-year absence rule. Covered above, a genuine planning tool if you’re likely to move back into a property, or sell within six years of moving out.
3. Holding the asset 12 months or more. The 50% discount, shown in the worked example above, is the most reliable and widely used CGT reduction available to individual investors.
4. Timing your sale. Because the gain is added to your income for the year you sell, selling in a lower-income year (for example, a year with reduced work income) can mean a lower marginal rate applies to the gain. If you’re weighing selling against continuing to hold and rent, our Investment Property Cash Flow Calculator can help you compare the two paths.
5. The affordable housing discount. Individuals who provide affordable housing through a registered community housing provider for at least three years (1,095 days) may qualify for an additional discount of up to 10% on top of the standard 50% discount, up to 60% combined, per the ATO. This is a narrow concession with specific conditions and won’t apply to most standard rental properties.

Do I pay CGT if I sell my main home? Generally no, your main residence is exempt from CGT in most circumstances, provided it’s been your home for the whole ownership period (or you’ve used the 6-year rule correctly if you rented it out for a period).

Is CGT a separate tax from income tax? No. Your capital gain is added to your taxable income and taxed at your normal marginal rate, there’s no separate CGT rate in Australia.

How long do I need to hold an asset to get the 50% discount? At least 12 months, measured from the contract date you acquired the asset to the contract date you disposed of it (not settlement dates).

Does depreciation I’ve claimed affect my capital gain when I sell? Yes. Capital works (building) depreciation claimed over your ownership period reduces your cost base, which increases your taxable capital gain at sale. This doesn’t make claiming depreciation a bad idea, it just means your accountant needs your full depreciation history when you sell.

Can I claim CGT losses against gains? Yes. Capital losses offset capital gains in the same year, and any unused losses carry forward to future years, but they can’t be offset against other income like salary or rental income.

Do foreign residents get the CGT discount? Generally no. Foreign residents are not entitled to the 50% CGT discount on gains accrued after 8 May 2012, and different withholding rules apply on property sales. If this applies to you, get specific advice.

Do I pay CGT if I sell my main home? Generally no, your main residence is exempt from CGT in most circumstances, provided it’s been your home for the whole ownership period (or you’ve used the 6-year rule correctly if you rented it out for a period).

Is CGT a separate tax from income tax? No. Your capital gain is added to your taxable income and taxed at your normal marginal rate, there’s no separate CGT rate in Australia.

How long do I need to hold an asset to get the 50% discount? At least 12 months, measured from the contract date you acquired the asset to the contract date you disposed of it (not settlement dates).

Does depreciation I’ve claimed affect my capital gain when I sell? Yes. Capital works (building) depreciation claimed over your ownership period reduces your cost base, which increases your taxable capital gain at sale. This doesn’t make claiming depreciation a bad idea, it just means your accountant needs your full depreciation history when you sell.

Can I claim CGT losses against gains? Yes. Capital losses offset capital gains in the same year, and any unused losses carry forward to future years, but they can’t be offset against other income like salary or rental income.

Do foreign residents get the CGT discount? Generally no. Foreign residents are not entitled to the 50% CGT discount on gains accrued after 8 May 2012, and different withholding rules apply on property sales. If this applies to you, get specific advice.

• Investment Property Tax Depreciation Calculator
• Investment Property Cash Flow Calculator
• Stamp Duty Calculator
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