Tax reports for your investment portfolio

Capital gains tax is a tariff that investors pay on the profit made from selling an investment. Capital gains are included in investment income tax in Australia, and there are different levels of taxation depending on how long the investor holds the investment before selling. Specifically, long-term capital gains (for stocks held longer than a year) are taxed at a 50% discount, which means tax is only paid on half of the net capital gain. To learn more about the tax implications of capital gains, please refer to the ATO rules.

Investors can calculate the capital gains tax on shares and other investments they have sold by calculating the difference between the value of the purchase price (adjusted to include any transaction fees) and the current market value at the point of sale. However, this can be time-consuming and subject to error, especially for investors with a lot of trades.

Australian investors can automatically calculate the CGT on their investments with Sharesight’s Capital Gains Tax Report, which provides investors with a breakdown of their short-term and long-term capital gains, as well as capital losses. For investments that have been entirely sold out of the portfolio, Sharesight’s Sold Securities Report will also display the capital, dividend and currency gains associated with those investments, allowing investors to calculate their average cost base.

If you incur capital gains or losses on the sale of an investment, then you will need to report your capital gains/losses in your Australian income tax return. For specific advice on reporting capital gains, please refer to the ATO rules.

Yes. Dividends are considered taxable income in Australia and must be reported in your income tax return. The rate at which dividends are taxed, however, depends on a variety of factors such as whether the dividend-paying assets are held in the form of a company, trust or Self-Managed Super Fund (SMSF), and whether the dividends have any franking credits attached. For more detailed information on reporting dividend income in your tax return, please refer to the ATO rules.

Yes. ETF distribution income is considered taxable income in Australia and must be reported in your income tax return. ETF distributions can include various forms of investment income, such as dividends, franking credits, realised capital gains, interest and foreign income, which can create tax complexity. Taxation can also become more complex if the distributions have been paid out by an ETF that is structured as an Attribution Managed Investment Trust (AMIT), which handles the treatment of tax-deferred income differently than Managed Investment Trusts (MIT). Sharesight makes tax time easier for investors by automatically tracking dividends and distributions, including AMIT component breakdowns.

Done manually, calculating taxable income from dividends can be a tedious process, requiring investors to sort through a combination of paper statements and digital statements via multiple share registries. However, Sharesight automates this process by automatically tracking dividends and distributions. Sharesight also makes it easy for investors to calculate the taxable income on their dividends by using Sharesight’s Taxable Income Report. This report displays a portfolio's dividends and interest payments, along with the relevant totals investors need to complete their tax return.

Unrealised capital gains occur when the value of an investment in an investor’s portfolio has increased, however the investor has not sold the investment. This means the gains have not been “realised”. Unrealised capital gains are useful information for investors who want to use tax loss selling (or tax loss harvesting) to minimise their net capital gains during the financial year for tax purposes.

Australian investors who wish to see a summary of their unrealised capital gains (or losses) for tax loss harvesting purposes can use Sharesight’s Unrealised Capital Gains Tax Report . This report divides unrealised CGT into short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and capital losses, and allows investors to change their sale allocation method as needed.

Sharesight’s Taxable Income Report is designed for investors looking for a complete list of the dividends and interest they earned over the time period of their choice. It is a useful tool for investors who need to prepare their tax return, including investors who invest in foreign markets and need a breakdown of their local and foreign dividend income.