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Personal use assets

Last updated 3 March 2016

A personal use asset is:

  • a CGT asset, other than a collectable, that is used or kept mainly for the personal use or enjoyment of you or your associate(s)
  • an option or a right to acquire a personal use asset
  • a debt resulting from a CGT event involving a CGT asset kept mainly for your personal use and enjoyment, or
  • a debt resulting from your doing something other than gaining or producing your assessable income or carrying on a business.

Personal use assets include such items as boats, furniture, electrical goods and household items. Land and buildings are not personal use assets. Any capital loss you make from a personal use asset is disregarded.

If a CGT event happened to a personal use asset during or after the 1998–99 income year, any capital gain you make is disregarded if you acquired the asset for $10,000 or less. If you dispose of a number of personal use assets individually that would usually be sold as a set, you get the exemption only if you acquired the set for $10,000 or less.

Other assets

Assets that are not collectables or personal use assets include:

  • land
  • shares in a company
  • rights and options
  • leases
  • units in a unit trust
  • goodwill
  • licences
  • convertible notes
  • your home (see Exemptions)
  • contractual rights
  • foreign currency, and
  • any major capital improvement made to certain land or pre-CGT assets.

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