Free Tool · Australia
Capital Gains Tax Calculator
Work out your CGT on an Australian property sale — with the 50% discount applied if held over 12 months, and tax at your marginal ATO rate.
Work out your CGT on an Australian property sale — with the 50% discount applied if held over 12 months, and tax at your marginal ATO rate.
Estimates only. CGT depends on your individual tax situation, main residence status, and the year of sale. This calculator applies current FY2026-27 law (50% discount); from 1 July 2027 legislated reforms replace the discount with cost-base indexation plus a 30% minimum tax rate on gains that accrue after that date. Always confirm with a registered tax agent.
Last reviewed 12 July 2026 · rates and thresholds verified against official FY2026-27 sources.
Capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax you pay on the profit you make when you sell an asset — including an investment property — for more than it cost you. In Australia, CGT is not a separate tax with its own rate. Instead, your net capital gain is added to your assessable income in the financial year a contract of sale is signed, and the whole lot is then taxed at your marginal income tax rate. That means the same gain can cost one person far more tax than another, depending on what else they earn that year.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) administers CGT under the income tax law. For property investors it is often the single largest tax event of the whole investment, so understanding how the gain is calculated — and the legitimate ways it is reduced — matters as much as the headline sale price. This calculator estimates the tax on a property sale by working out your gain, applying the 50% discount where it qualifies, and stacking the result on top of the income you tell it you already earn.
Because the gain is taxed at your marginal rate in the year you sell, the same property can produce very different tax outcomes from one year to the next. Selling in a year when you also earn a high salary pushes more of the gain into the top tax brackets. Selling in a low-income year — for example after retirement, during parental leave, or in a year of reduced trading — can keep more of the gain in lower brackets. CGT therefore sits at the intersection of tax planning and timing, not just price.
At its core, a capital gain on property is built up in a few clear steps. The arithmetic this calculator follows is:
That last step is the part people most often get wrong. Your CGT is the extra tax created by adding the discounted gain on top of your existing income — so the marginal rate that applies to the gain is the rate of the brackets the gain pushes you into, not your average rate. If a portion of the gain crosses into a higher bracket, only that portion is taxed at the higher rate. The Medicare levy generally applies on top of the income tax shown here.
The cost base is more than the price you paid. It includes incidental costs of buying and selling (stamp duty on purchase, conveyancing, agent's commission, advertising, legal fees), and the cost of capital improvements you made. It can also include certain ownership costs that were never claimed as a deduction. Keeping every receipt over the life of the investment is the simplest, most reliable way to cut a future CGT bill — improvements and costs you cannot substantiate generally cannot be added.
Assume an individual Australian resident sells an investment property with the following details:
The cost base is $600,000 + $45,000 = $645,000. The gross capital gain is $900,000 − $645,000 = $255,000. Because the property was held for more than 12 months by an individual, the 50% CGT discount halves the gain to a $127,500 discounted gain. That $127,500 is added to the $100,000 already earned, lifting taxable income for the year to $227,500. The CGT payable is the difference between the tax on $227,500 and the tax on $100,000 — roughly the gain taxed through the upper marginal brackets. The exact dollar figure depends on the marginal rates in force for that financial year, which is why this is an estimate rather than a lodged figure. The 50% discount in this example saves tax on $127,500 of gain that would otherwise have been assessable.
Your home — your principal place of residence — is generally exempt from CGT, which is why the calculator lets you flag a main residence. The exemption has conditions: broadly, the dwelling must have been your home, you must not have used it to produce income beyond limited circumstances, and it sits on land of two hectares or less. The "six-year rule" can extend the exemption: if you move out and rent the property, it can remain CGT-exempt for up to six years, provided you don't treat another property as your main residence at the same time. These rules are detailed and easy to get wrong, so confirm your specific situation with the ATO or a registered tax agent.
The capital gains tax reforms announced in the 2026-27 Federal Budget are now law (Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026) and apply from 1 July 2027. From that date, the 50% CGT discount for individuals, trusts and partnerships will be replaced by cost-base indexation plus a 30% minimum tax rate on gains that accrue after 1 July 2027. Gains accrued before that date keep the current treatment, so long-held assets are effectively split between the old and new rules at the transition.
This calculator applies current FY2026-27 law — the full 50% discount where the 12-month rule is met. If you are planning a sale around the transition, the accrual-based split makes professional advice especially valuable; see the ATO's new-legislation guidance for the detail of how pre- and post-1 July 2027 gains are apportioned.
This tool gives an estimate of CGT on a single property sale for an individual Australian resident. It applies the 50% discount when you indicate the property was held for more than 12 months, builds a simple cost base, and stacks the discounted gain on the income you enter to approximate the marginal-rate tax.
It does not model the Medicare levy or surcharge, capital losses carried forward from prior years, the partial exemption where a former home was rented out, depreciation and capital works (Division 43) adjustments that can reduce the cost base, ownership through a company, trust or self-managed super fund, or any first-home or small-business concessions. It also can't apply the main residence exemption rules to your facts — ticking the box simply signals the gain may be exempt. Treat the output as a starting point for a conversation with a professional, not a final tax figure.
It applies automatically if you qualify — you must be an individual (or trust) and have owned the asset for more than 12 months before the CGT event. You don't apply to anyone for it; you simply calculate your net gain with the discount included when you lodge your return. Companies do not receive it.
There is no separate CGT bill. The net gain is reported in your income tax return for the financial year the sale contract was signed, and it forms part of your overall tax assessment for that year. Many investors set aside an estimate of the tax at settlement so they aren't caught short when the return is lodged.
Generally no. The main residence exemption usually means there is no CGT on the sale of the home you live in, provided it has genuinely been your residence and meets the ATO's conditions. Complications arise if you rented it out, ran a business from it, or it sits on a large parcel of land.
Yes — the cost of genuine capital improvements is added to your cost base, which lowers the taxable gain. The key is documentation: keep invoices and receipts. Note that amounts already claimed as deductions (such as some capital works) may need to be adjusted out of the cost base, so the interaction with past deductions matters.
This page is general information, not personal financial or tax advice. Rates, thresholds and concessions change between financial years. For the current rules and your individual circumstances, consult the ATO at ato.gov.au or the Australian Government's Moneysmart service at moneysmart.gov.au, and speak with a registered tax agent.