How CGT is calculated
The sequence matters: gain → subtract capital losses → apply the 50% discount → add to income. Losses come off before the discount, which is the right order for you — a $10,000 loss cancels $10,000 of full gain, not $10,000 of discounted gain. The taxable remainder then stacks on top of your salary and is taxed at whatever brackets it lands in.
Because the gain stacks on top, a big gain can push you through several brackets in one year. A $250,000 discounted gain on a $95,000 salary is taxed partly at 30%, partly at 37%, partly at 45% — this calculator walks the brackets precisely rather than applying one flat rate.
The 12-month discount is the whole game
Hold an asset 12 months and one day, and half the gain vanishes from your tax return. Selling at 11 months versus 13 months on a $100,000 gain costs a top-bracket taxpayer about $23,500. The clock runs from contract date to contract date (not settlement), and inherited assets inherit the deceased's acquisition date — often making them instantly discount-eligible.
What's exempt, what's caught
- Exempt: your main residence (with a powerful 6-year absence rule if you move out and rent it), cars, assets bought before 20 September 1985, and personal items under $10,000.
- Caught: investment property, shares, ETFs, managed fund distributions, and crypto — including swapping one coin for another, which is a disposal event even if no dollars touched your bank account.
Losses: use them, don't waste them
Capital losses only offset capital gains — never salary — but carry forward indefinitely. Harvesting a losing position in the same year you realise a big gain is standard practice; just beware "wash sales" (selling and immediately re-buying the same asset for the tax benefit), which the ATO actively targets.