You’ll hear “fairness”, “housing”, “budget repair”, and other comforting words that usually translate to “someone’s tax bill is about to get interesting”.
If you own an investment property, shares, crypto, or you’re planning to sell your business one day, this matters. Not because anything is locked in yet, but because the minute something becomes real, the timeline gets tight and people do silly things.
Let’s keep you out of the silly things.
If you are an individual (or a trust) and you sell an asset you’ve held for at least 12 months, you generally only pay tax on half the capital gain.
Example: you make a $100k gain, only $50k gets added to your taxable income. You then pay tax at your marginal tax rate.
That discount is one of the better deals in the tax system, which is exactly why it keeps popping up in “things we could change” lists.
Nothing is law yet. No one has put a neat bow on it.
But the options being thrown around tend to look like one of these:
👉 Reduce the discount
Think 50% becoming 25% (or something along those lines).
👉 Different rules for property
There’s chatter about tightening it for existing homes, while still encouraging new builds. The logic is “build more houses, stop bidding wars”, which is a nice thought.
👉 Replace the discount with inflation indexation
Old-school style. Only tax the gain above inflation. Sounds sensible, gets messy quickly, and would create winners and losers depending on the asset and the holding period.
Watch this space. That’s it. That’s the plan. 😎
This exact topic gets dragged out every few years like the same dusty board game at Christmas. Everyone argues, someone flips the table, and then we all go back to eating pavlova.
If the government does move on the CGT discount, there’ll be a stampede of people trying to “sell before it changes”.
A stampede sounds exciting, but financially it’s usually more “trampled by your own urgency”. 🤦
When lots of people rush to sell at once, supply spikes. Buyers know it. Prices soften.
It’s basic supply and demand.
So you can easily end up...
You might save some tax and lose more money on the sale price.
Congratulations, you played yourself. 😬
✅ Don’t make moves based on speculation.
✅ Don’t rush a sale just to lock in a concession that might not change, or might come with transitional rules anyway.
✅ If you were already planning to sell soon, then yes, it may be worth considering doing some numbers and understanding timing.
✅ If you weren’t planning to sell, don’t let Canberra set your strategy for you. They have enough hobbies.
This is the bit that pays for itself.
Your best decision depends on your situation, the asset, the likely timing, and what other tax levers you have available. A quick chat now beats a long, painful chat after you have signed something.
If you’re thinking about selling anything significant, get advice early. That’s how you keep your options open and avoid regret.
– The team at PAL (making accounting slightly less boring since way back when)
Disclaimer: This article is here to give you general info only, not professional advice specific to your unique situation. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, the content may change over time. We can’t take responsibility for any decisions based on the contents of this article, so be sure to chat with your accountant or advisor first!
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