The below article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a product recommendation, or taxation or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. Please check with your adviser or accountant to obtain the correct advice for your situation.
If you’re looking to calculate the capital gains tax (CGT) on your investment portfolio for the current tax year, then you’ve come to the right place. Sharesight’s award-winning investment portfolio tracker includes a powerful Australian Capital Gains Tax Report that functions as a CGT calculator. Built by self-directed investors, for self-directed investors, the report:
- Takes care of the maths so you don’t have to struggle with a complicated spreadsheet.
- Optimises your tax position by letting you experiment with different sale allocation methods.
- Is available to run at any time, over any time period. So not only will you have the information you need at tax time, but throughout the year. This means fewer surprises when the next tax season rolls around.
Calculate your portfolio CGT with Sharesight
Sharesight’s Capital Gains Tax Report is the perfect CGT calculator, determing capital gains made on sold shares as per Australian Tax Office (ATO) rules (for those of you in Canada, we also offer a Canadian CGT Report).
You may run the report over any period in order to see:
- The CGT position for all your holdings sold within the period.
- Your CGT gains broken-up into short and long term, as well as your losses.
- A summary of the short and long term gains and losses, as well as any capital gain or claimable loss.
Australian tax settings
The Capital Gains Tax Report uses the ‘discount method’ for shares that have been held for more than 1 year and the ‘other method’ for shares held for less than one year. The discount rate is based on the Australian tax settings you select when setting up your portfolio:
- Individuals / Trust – CGT discount of 50 %
- Self Managed Super Fund – CGT discount of 33⅓ %
- Company – CGT discount of nil
Sale allocation methods
The Capital Gains Tax Report also allows you to specify the sale allocation method at the overall portfolio and individual holding level to determine your optimum position, including:
- First In, First Out (FIFO) – Sharesight assumes that you sell your longest held shares first.
- Last In, First Out (LIFO) – Sharesight assumes that you sell your most recently purchased shares first.
- Minimise Gain – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares with the highest purchase price first.
- Maximise Gain – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares with the lowest purchase price first.
- Minimise CGT – Sharesight assumes that you sell shares that will result in the lowest capital gains tax first. This method is more sophisticated than the ‘Minimise capital gain’ method because it takes into account the Australian CGT discounting rules.
The sale allocation method can be changed for specific holdings or for the entire portfolio:
Notes on the Capital Gains Tax Report
- You may carry forward any losses from the previous reporting period.
- Once you’re happy with your report, you may choose to “lock” it. This allows you to alter the sale allocation methods in future reporting periods without invalidating the result for previous periods.
- For more information visit the Australian Capital Gains Tax Report help page.
Other helpful features
- Download your CGT Report – As with all of Sharesight’s reports, your entire Capital Gains Tax Report can be downloaded to Excel, PDF or Google Sheets.
- Share your portfolio with your accountant – With your capital gains and losses automatically sorted, you should save on accounting fees this tax season. Why not take it a step further by sharing secure portfolio access with your accountant? They’ll have everything they need at their fingertips – not just at tax-time but throughout the year.
Capital Gains Tax Report walkthrough
In this video, Sharesight CEO Doug Morris takes you through how he uses the Sharesight Australian Capital Gains Tax Report as a CGT calculator.
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/i1vwBEnJGpM
Simply the best portfolio tracker for Australian investors
Join thousands of Australian investors already using Sharesight to manage their investment portfolios. With Sharesight you can:
- Automatically track your dividend and distribution income from stocks, ETFs, LICs and Mutual/Managed Funds – including the value of franking credits
- Use the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRPs/DRIPs) feature to track the impact of DRP transactions on your performance (and tax)
- See the true picture of your investment performance, including the impact of brokerage fees, dividends, and capital gains with Sharesight’s annualised performance calculation methodology
- Run powerful tax reports to calculate your dividend income with the Taxable Income Report
- Plus calculate your CGT obligations with Sharesight’s Australian Capital Gains Tax Report and Unrealised Capital Gains Tax Report
To get started for FREE, simply sign-up, import your holdings and watch as dividends and prices are automatically updated. If you decide to upgrade, you’ll unlock advanced features and everything you need to run your tax reports and gain unparalleled insights into your portfolio performance throughout the year.
Plus, as an Australian tax resident, you can save even more by claiming your Sharesight subscription fees on your tax return1.
FURTHER READING
- 5 ways Sharesight helps Australian investors at tax time
- Tax loss selling for Australian investors
- Record-keeping requirements for Australian investors
1 If you derive income from the sharemarket, your Sharesight subscription may be tax deductible. Check with your accountant for details.
