Capital Gains Tax Calculator (Australia)

CGT calculator

This CGT calculator works out the capital gains tax on an asset you have sold: property, shares or crypto. Enter the purchase and sale prices, the dates and your other income, and it applies the 50% discount where you have held the asset for at least 12 months, then taxes the discounted gain at your marginal rate. It also models the 2027 indexation changes by date, so a sale before or after 1 July 2027 is costed correctly.

How CGT works in Australia

Australia has no separate capital gains tax rate. Instead, your net capital gain is added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate. The gain itself is the sale price (capital proceeds) minus your cost base, which is what you paid plus incidental costs like stamp duty, legal fees and brokerage, plus any capital improvements. If you have capital losses, you take those off beforeapplying any discount.

The 50% CGT discount

If you’re an individual and you owned the asset for at least 12 months before selling, you only pay tax on half the gain. Trusts get the same 50% discount, complying super funds get 33.3%, and companies get none. This is the single biggest lever most people have over their CGT, which is why the 12-month mark matters so much. Your main residence is generally exempt from CGT altogether.

Worked examples on a $90,000 salary

These use the 2026-27 resident rates, assume the asset was held over 12 months so the 50% discount applies, and add the discounted gain on top of a $90,000 salary. Your own figure depends on your income, so run your numbers in the calculator above.

Held under 12 months, there is no discount, so the full gain is added to your income and the tax is roughly double the figures above.

The 2027 CGT changes, and how to model them

From 1 July 2027 the 50% discount is replaced with cost-base indexation plus a 30% minimum tax on the gain that accrues from that date, under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026. The mechanism is a deemed disposal: every asset you hold at 30 June 2027 is treated as sold and immediately reacquired at its market value on 1 July 2027, with no tax at that moment. The Quick estimate mode keeps using the 50% discount, which remains in force for 2025-26 and 2026-27. Switch to By dates to model a sale across the change with your purchase date, sale date, an optional 1 July 2027 value and an expected inflation rate. For the full breakdown of what is changing, who is affected and the carve-outs, read the capital gains tax changes guide.

That 1 July 2027 value is the boundary. The gain up to it (the value less your cost base) keeps the 50% discount if you held the asset 12 months, and it is deferred until you sell. The gain after it (sale price less that value) is indexed for inflation, so you only pay tax on the real gain, with a 30% minimum tax. There is no permanent grandfathering, and even pre-CGT assets pick up a 1 July 2027 cost base. Because a future sale’s 1 July 2027 value cannot be known now, the tool uses the value you enter for the real split, or falls back to a clearly labelled time-based estimateby days held either side of 1 July 2027 if you leave it blank.

There is no CGT acquisition cutoff. The deemed disposal applies to every asset held at 30 June 2027, whatever date you bought it, so the pre-2027 slice keeps the discount and the post-2027 slice moves to the new regime. The only assets fully under the new rules are those bought on or after 1 July 2027, which never had a deemed disposal. The 12 May 2026 date some coverage mentions is the negative-gearing cutoff, not a CGT-discount cutoff, so it does not affect the discount. Eligible new residential dwellings can instead choose the 50% discount or the new method, whichever is lower, with the up-to-60% discount for affordable housing kept. A separate Innovative Business CGT Concession lets eligible start-up shareholders choose the discount, though its rules were still in consultation in mid-2026 and are not modelled here.

Capital gains tax on property

Capital gains tax on property follows the same rules as any other asset, with two differences that matter. Your main residence is generally exempt, and your cost base can include stamp duty, legal fees and capital improvements, which lowers the gain. Hold an investment property for over 12 months and the 50% discount halves the taxable gain before your marginal rate applies. Foreign residents face separate withholding, covered further down.

The main residence exemption and the 6 year rule

The home you live in is generally free of capital gains tax. If you move out and rent it, the 6 year rule lets you keep treating it as your main residence for up to 6 years, so it can stay exempt over that period, and indefinitely if it is not producing income. You can only nominate one property as your main residence at a time. Foreign residents lost access to the main residence exemption from 30 June 2020, so a non-resident at the time of sale generally cannot claim it at all.

How to reduce capital gains tax

The biggest lever is holding an asset for at least 12 months so the 50% discount applies. Beyond that, you can offset a gain with capital losses from other assets, time a sale into a year when your other income is lower, and use salary-sacrifice or personal super contributions to bring down your taxable income in the sale year, within the contribution caps. The main residence rules above remove CGT on your home entirely. This is general information, not advice, and the right mix depends on your situation.

Foreign resident CGT withholding on property

From 1 January 2025 the foreign resident capital gains withholding rate is 15% and the old $750,000 threshold has been removed. Because it now applies to every property sale, allAustralian-resident sellers need an ATO clearance certificate to hand to the buyer, or 15% of the sale price is withheld at settlement. It is a withholding mechanic rather than a change to your final CGT, but without the certificate you wait until your tax return to get the money back.

Frequently asked questions