Capital Gains Tax Calculator 2026–27

When you sell an investment property, shares, or another CGT asset, the profit is added to your assessable income and taxed — but how much you actually pay depends on who owns the asset, how long you held it, and whether the 50% CGT discount applies. This capital gains tax calculator estimates your CGT for the 2026–27 financial year across individuals, trusts, companies, and self-managed super funds, applying the correct discount automatically.

Whether you are planning the sale of a property investment or reviewing a share portfolio, the tool below shows your estimated capital gain, the discount applied, and the tax payable in seconds. For advice on legally reducing the CGT on a specific asset sale, book a tax planning review or speak with our team.

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How This Capital Gains Tax Calculator Works

Your capital gain is the difference between what you receive when you sell an asset (the capital proceeds) and its cost base — the original purchase price plus buying and selling costs and any capital improvements. This calculator subtracts the cost base from the proceeds, applies any capital losses you enter, and then applies the correct CGT discount based on who owns the asset and how long it was held.

The 50% CGT discount is available to individuals and trusts on assets held for more than 12 months. Complying super funds (including SMSFs) receive a 33.33% discount. Companies receive no CGT discount at all — a key reason the entity that holds an appreciating asset matters so much. The discounted (taxable) gain is then taxed at your marginal rate as an individual, the company tax rate (25% or 30%), or 15% for a super fund in accumulation phase.

What to Do With Your Results

The estimated CGT figure is a guide to the tax payable on the gain if you sold today. Because a capital gain is added to your assessable income, a large gain can push you into a higher marginal bracket for the year — so the timing of a sale, and which financial year it falls in, can materially change the result. Bringing forward deductible expenses, realising an offsetting capital loss, or making a concessional super contribution in the same year are all legitimate ways to reduce the net tax.

This calculator does not account for main-residence exemptions, the small business CGT concessions, partial exemptions, deceased-estate rules, foreign-resident rules, or assets acquired before 20 September 1985. These can significantly change your actual liability. For a specific asset sale, speak with a registered tax agent before you exchange contracts — the best CGT outcomes are planned before the sale, not after.

In practice, the decision that moves this number most is made years before the sale: which entity holds the asset. A growth asset sitting in the wrong structure can cost more in CGT than a decade of compliance fees, which is why we treat entity selection as part of business advisory in Melbourne rather than something to revisit at sale time. If you are within twelve months of selling, a tax planning review is the point at which the small business CGT concessions, loss timing and super contributions can still be shaped, and a proactive business accountant in Melbourne should be raising it with you well before the contract is drafted.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is capital gains tax calculated in Australia?

CGT is not a separate tax — your net capital gain is added to your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate. The gain is your capital proceeds less the asset’s cost base. If you have held the asset for more than 12 months and you are an individual or trust, you can reduce the gain by the 50% CGT discount before it is taxed. Capital losses are applied against gains first, and any unused losses carry forward to future years.

What is the 50% CGT discount and who qualifies?

The 50% CGT discount halves the taxable capital gain on assets held for more than 12 months. It is available to individuals and trusts. Complying super funds receive a one-third (33.33%) discount instead, and companies receive no discount. Because the entity that owns the asset determines the discount, structuring who holds an appreciating asset — before it grows in value — is one of the most important CGT planning decisions a business owner or investor makes.

Do companies pay capital gains tax?

Yes. Companies pay tax on capital gains at the company tax rate (25% for a base rate entity or 30% otherwise), and critically, they do not get the 50% CGT discount. This means a company can pay substantially more tax on the same gain than an individual or trust would. It is a common and expensive trap to hold a growth asset — such as an investment property expected to appreciate — inside a trading company. We regularly review client structures specifically to avoid this.

Can I reduce or avoid capital gains tax legally?

There are many legitimate ways to reduce CGT: holding an asset for more than 12 months to access the discount, timing the sale into a year of lower income, realising capital losses to offset the gain, making concessional super contributions, using the main-residence exemption, and — for eligible business owners — the small business CGT concessions, which can reduce or even eliminate the gain on the sale of a business. Each has strict conditions. The key is planning before the sale, which is where advice pays for itself many times over.

When do I have to pay capital gains tax?

A CGT event usually happens on the date you enter into the contract to sell (for example, the date you sign a contract of sale for a property), not settlement. The gain is reported in your tax return for the financial year in which the contract date falls, and the tax is payable with that year’s income tax assessment. This is why the contract date — and which side of 30 June it lands on — can be one of the most important numbers in a large asset sale.

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