What will you actually keep after CGT?

If the property was your main residence for the entire ownership period and you never rented any part of it, no — the main residence exemption (ITAA 1997 s118-110) applies in full. If you lived in it for part of the time and rented it for the rest, you get a proportional exemption based on the ratio of main-residence years to total ownership. The calculator above handles this partial exemption automatically once you tell it how many years it was your PPOR.

ITAA 1997 s118-145 lets you treat a property as your main residence for up to 6 years after you move out, even while it's rented, as long as you don't claim a different property as your main residence during that period. So if you lived in a home for 2 years, moved out, and rented it for 6 years before selling — the full 8 years can still be exempt. Move out for longer than 6 years and the exemption proportion drops. Toggle the 6-year rule above to see the impact.

Hold the asset for more than 12 months (from contract date, not settlement) as an individual, joint owner, or trust — s115-25 ITAA 1997. Companies never get the discount; their rate is 30% flat. The discount is applied after the cost base + capital losses calculation. Sell even one day shy of 12 months and you lose the entire 50% — the calculator flags this and shows the sell-now-vs-wait comparison when you're close to the boundary.

Every dollar of capital-works depreciation (Division 43) you claimed during ownership reduces your cost base at sale — which increases the capital gain. This is depreciation recapture. It feels punitive but it's mathematically neutral over the holding period (you deferred tax, you're paying it back), and at sale the recaptured amount still gets the 50% discount if you held 12+ months. The calculator adds recapture to the cost base line automatically — you can see exactly how much it lifts your assessable gain.

Yes, a lot. Joint ownership splits the capital gain 50/50 (or per ownership share) and each partner is taxed at their own marginal rate. A high-earner + low-earner split can cut total CGT by 30–40% compared to single-name ownership at the high-earner's rate. Toggle ownership above to 'joint' and set both marginal rates — the difference is usually four or five figures.

If you're within weeks of the 12-month boundary, waiting almost always wins — a 4.5%/year capital gain that loses 50% of its tax versus a full-rate gain is a difference of roughly 20 cents on every dollar of gain for a top-bracket taxpayer. The calculator shows this comparison directly when your hold period is under 12 months. The only reason to sell before the boundary is a specific market signal you can quantify — otherwise the discount is free money.

Five elements under ITAA 1997 s110-25: purchase price (element 1), acquisition costs — stamp duty, legals, building inspections (element 2), holding costs for investment properties only — interest, rates, insurance for post-1991 acquisitions (element 3), capital improvements — renovations, structural upgrades (element 4), and disposal costs — agent fees, conveyancing, marketing (element 5). Ongoing maintenance and repairs are not capital improvements; they're deductible in the year incurred. The calculator groups these into the five categories.

Yes. Capital losses offset capital gains before the 50% discount is applied — s102-5 ITAA 1997. A $50,000 loss on a share portfolio offset against a $120,000 property gain leaves $70,000, which then gets the 50% discount to $35,000 assessable. Losses carry forward indefinitely until you realise a gain. Enter any carried-forward losses in the field above.

For CGT, the date you signed the contract is the date of acquisition and disposal — not settlement. So a property you signed to sell on 15 March 2025 settles on 30 April 2025, but the CGT event is 15 March 2025 and the gain is reported in the 2024-25 financial year. This matters for the 12-month discount threshold (count from contract date, not settlement) and for choosing which financial year the gain lands in. The calculator uses the dates you enter as contract dates.

No. The net capital gain is added to your other taxable income in the financial year the CGT event occurred, and taxed at your marginal rate. If you sell in October 2025 (FY25-26), the gain appears in your FY25-26 tax return lodged after 1 July 2026. Set aside the estimated CGT from settlement proceeds so you have it when the tax bill arrives. The calculator shows the exact dollar amount to set aside as 'tax payable'.