Records you should keep
You need to keep any records relating to your investments or investment assets that show how much you paid for them, what you received if you disposed of them, what income you received from them and the expenses you incurred in owning and maintaining them, This is the written evidence you need if we ask you how you worked out your tax position.
Payments you receive
For income from interest, dividends or managed funds, written evidence can include:
- statements, passbooks or other documents from your financial institution showing the amount of interest you receive
- statements from the company, trust or partnership that pays you dividends or makes distributions to you - these statements should show the amount of franked and unfranked dividends you receive, the amount of franking credits and any tax file number (TFN) amounts withheld from unfranked dividends
- statements or other documents from a managed fund showing the amount of any distribution - they should specify the amount of any primary production or non-primary production income, any capital gains or capital losses, any foreign income and any credits, such as franking credits
Expenses
Expense records can include documents such as bank statements showing the interest charged on money you borrowed for share investment.
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You can't claim general deductions for expenses that are private or capital in nature.
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CGT assets
Most investment assets, including shares, are capital gains tax (CGT) assets. This means that any profit (capital gain) you make from selling them becomes part of your income for tax purposes.
A 'CGT event' must occur for a capital gain (or capital loss) to arise. The most common CGT event occurs when you dispose of a CGT asset - by selling it, giving it away or transferring it to someone else.
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Your home is generally exempt from tax. However, in some circumstances this may change. For example, if you rent out part of your home, use it for work, or it's on more than 2 hectares of land. For more information, refer to Guide to property.
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You should keep the following records for any CGT asset:
- documents showing the date you acquired the asset and the date the CGT event occurred - for example, contracts for the purchase or sale of shares and dividend reinvestment statements from your unit trust or managed investment fund
- documents showing the amount and date of any expenses you incurred in relation to the asset - if you are not entitled to claim these expenses in your annual tax return, you may be able to include it in the cost base of your asset, which you use to work out your capital gain or capital loss
- amounts of any net capital losses made in previous years, because in the future you may be able to offset capital gains against these losses.
You can also set up an asset register. It's easy to do and once you've entered your information into your register you may be able to throw away some of the old records you've been keeping.
Sections within Keeping good records
Last Modified: Tuesday, 27 November 2012