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Refer to this information on Capital Gain Tax (CGT).

Last updated 27 June 2018

  • Details of the amount of any unapplied net capital losses from earlier years.
  • Documents showing the date you acquired any asset to which a CGT event happened, the date of the CGT event, and the date and amounts of any expenditure you incurred that form part of the cost base and reduced cost base of the asset or are taken into account in working out your capital gain or capital loss.
  • Year-end, annual or distribution statements from trusts with net capital gains from which you received or were entitled to receive  
    • distributions of income, or
    • distributions of non-assessable amounts.

You may also need one or more of the following publications to complete this section. They explain the three methods available to calculate a capital gain: the indexation method, the discount method and the 'other' method.

  • Capital gains tax explains what a capital gain is, how it applies, what assets are included and the exceptions and exemptions.
  • Guide to capital gains tax explains how CGT works and will help you to calculate your net capital gain or net capital loss. It covers CGT issues such as the sale of a rental property, vacant land, a holiday home, collectables (for example, jewellery), personal use assets (for example, a boat you use for recreation), and real estate, shares and units you inherited or got from the breakdown of your marriage or relationship.
  • Personal investors guide to capital gains tax is shorter and simpler than Guide to capital gains tax. It covers:  
    • the sale, gift or other disposal of shares and units
    • distribution of capital gains from managed funds
    • non-assessable payments from companies and managed funds.

It does not cover other CGT events, nor the CGT consequences for bonus shares, shares acquired under an employee share scheme, bonus units, rights and options, and shares and units where a takeover or demerger has occurred; for those see Guide to capital gains tax.

Small business CGT concessions explains what concessions are available to small businesses.

Keeping records from the start

You must keep records of every act, transaction, event or circumstance that may be relevant to working out your capital gain or capital loss, regardless of whether the CGT event has already happened, is about to happen or may happen in the future.

You must keep these records for five years from the time when no CGT event or further CGT event can happen. The records for these CGT events may be relevant to working out whether you have made a capital gain or capital loss from the event.

QC80367