Overview of capital gains tax
What is capital gains tax?
Capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax you pay on any capital gain you make that you include in your annual income tax return.
There is no separate tax on capital gains – rather, it is a component of your income tax. You are taxed on your net capital gain at your marginal tax rate.
Your net capital gain is the difference between your total capital gains for the year and your total capital losses (from your business and other assets), less any relevant CGT discount or concessions. Any net capital gain you make for an income year must be included in your assessable income.
CGT events
A capital gain or capital loss is made when certain events or transactions (called CGT events) happen. Most CGT events involve a CGT asset.
Some CGT events, such as the disposal of a CGT asset, happen often and affect many different taxpayers. Other CGT events are rare and affect only a few taxpayers – for example, events concerned directly with capital receipts and not involving a CGT asset.
CGT assets
The most common CGT assets are land and buildings, shares in a company or units in a unit trust.
Less well-known CGT assets include contractual rights, options, foreign currency, leases, licences and goodwill.
Capital gains and losses
In general, you make a capital gain if you receive an amount from a CGT event (such as the sale of a CGT asset) that is more than your total costs associated with that event.
You make a capital loss if you receive an amount from a CGT event that is less than the total costs associated with that event.
In some cases, you are taken to have received the market value of the CGT asset even if you received a different amount or nothing at all. This may be the case, for example, when you give an asset away.
You can use a capital loss only to reduce a capital gain – not to reduce other income. You can generally carry forward any unused capital losses to a later income year and apply them against capital gains in that year.
Generally, you can disregard any capital gain or loss made on an asset you acquired before 20 September 1985.
Depreciating assets
There are special rules that apply to depreciating assets. A depreciating asset is an asset that has a limited effective life and can reasonably be expected to decline in value over the time it is used. Plant and equipment used in your business are examples of depreciating assets.
You make a capital gain or capital loss from a depreciating asset only to the extent you have used the depreciating asset for a non-taxable purpose (for example, for private purposes).