Capital gains tax is changing. Here is whether it should change what you do.
For most people the answer is no, and there is no deadline to panic about. For a smaller group there is one decision worth getting right, and a couple of things worth doing before June 2027. This page is about working out which one you are.
Start here, because most people can stop reading
From 1 July 2027 the 50% capital gains tax discount is replaced by a different system. Before you worry about what that means, two things are worth saying plainly.
The growth you already have is protected. Gains that built up before 1 July 2027 keep the current treatment, including the 50% discount, even if you sell in 2035. You are not losing what you have already earned, and there is no cliff to sell before.
And if you sell anything between now and 30 June 2027, the current rules apply to the whole thing. Nothing has changed yet.
You can stop reading if
- You are not planning to sell anything, and would not be upset if you never did
- Whatever you might sell is held in a company or in super. Those settings are not changing
- You are on the Age Pension or another means tested income support payment. You are exempt from the part that does the damage
- Your income is normally in the top brackets and you expect it still will be when you sell. The change costs you the discount, but the rest of it does nothing to you
It is worth ten minutes if
- You were planning to sell something in a year when your income will be low. Retiring, taking time off, winding the business down
- You own a rental property, shares or a business personally, or through a trust or partnership, and expect to sell one day
- You own something hard to put a value on, such as a property, private company shares or a business
- You have lived overseas at any point while owning the asset
Step one: what a sale costs you today
If you have held something more than twelve months, half the gain is taxed, at your marginal rate. So the tax on the gain works out at about half your rate.
| If your marginal rate is | Tax on a $100,000 gain | Which is |
|---|---|---|
| 45% | $22,500 | 22.5% of the gain |
| 37% | $18,500 | 18.5% of the gain |
| 30% | $15,000 | 15% of the gain |
| 15% | $7,500 | 7.5% of the gain |
This is why selling in a quiet year has always been worth thinking about. Drop your income for a year and the tax on the gain drops with it.
Step two: what changes, and the one bit that matters
From 1 July 2027 two things replace the discount. Your cost base rises with inflation, so the part of your gain that was only inflation stops being taxed. And a 30% minimum tax applies to what is left.
The indexation part is reasonable and for long held assets it can be generous. The 30% minimum is the part to understand, because of who it is aimed at.
It exists to stop people selling in a low income year. That is not a side effect, it is the stated purpose. If your rate would have been under 30% in the year you sell, you now pay 30% anyway. If you are already on 30% or more, the floor does nothing to you.
So the people most affected by this change are not the wealthiest. They are the ones who were going to time a sale into a lean year: the person selling the investment property the year they retire, or the business owner who winds down, takes a low income, and sells the yard.
If that is your plan, it is worth a conversation now rather than in 2028.
What to actually do
Do not rush a sale
There is no deadline. Your existing growth keeps its discount whenever you sell. Selling an asset badly to beat a tax change costs more than the tax change.
Say something if an exit is coming
If you were planning to sell in a low income year, that plan needs a look. It may still be right, it may not, but it should be a decision rather than a surprise.
Sort out values before June 2027
If you hold something hard to value, a defensible value at that date gives you an option later. You cannot go back and get one in 2033.
Find your paperwork now
Your cost base is more than the purchase price, and the receipts that prove it are the ones people cannot find twenty years later.
The paperwork worth digging out
This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it has nothing to do with the new rules. It reduces your tax under any system, and it is always the part clients cannot produce.
- What you paid, and the contract date as well as the settlement date
- Stamp duty and the legal fees on the purchase
- Every capital improvement. The new kitchen, the shed, the concrete, the fencing. Not repairs, improvements
- Buying and selling costs, agent commission, advertising, conveyancing
- For a property that was ever rented or used in a business, the dates it changed use
Every dollar of that reduces the gain. A shoebox of receipts is worth more than any tax planning we can do afterwards.
If you want us to look at it
Bring us whatever you have. It does not need to be tidy, and you do not need to have decided anything.
What we will work out for you:
- Whether the change affects you at all, which for a lot of people it does not
- Whether selling before or after 1 July 2027 leaves you better off, on your actual numbers
- Whether a valuation at June 2027 is worth organising, or a waste of money in your case
- What is missing from your cost base, and what to go looking for while it can still be found
- Whether the small business concessions are open to you, because for a business sale they usually matter more than any of this
If the asset is your home and you have run a business from it, that has its own rules, and they are in running your business from home and what it does to your capital gains tax. The fuller technical write up of the change itself is in what the 2027 capital gains tax changes mean for you.
Not sure if this is you?
Ring us and describe what you own and what you were thinking of doing. If it does not affect you we will tell you that in five minutes and you can get on with your day.
Level 1, 561 Olive Street, Albury NSW 2640. Registered Tax Agent 20651000.
This is general information, not advice about your situation. The table is an illustration: it applies one marginal rate to a whole gain, when a real gain stacks on your other income and moves through the brackets, and it ignores capital losses, the small business concessions and the Medicare levy. Sources: Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, Act No. 49 of 2026, which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, the 2026-27 Federal Budget measures, and published professional analysis, reviewed 9 September 2026. Parts of this change are still bedding down and further guidance is expected, so please talk to us before acting on any of it.