3 ways to save money this EOFY

There's an updated version of this article: 5 ways Sharesight helps Australian investors at tax time.

With the Australian end of financial year (EOFY) fast approaching, now is the time to get your portfolio-related tax affairs in order. Getting organised before 30 June -- including knowing exactly where your portfolio stands from a profit and loss perspective -- has important tax implications for the current financial year.

If you’ve loaded your shares into Sharesight and kept your buys/sells up-to-date, then you’re off to a great start (and even if you haven’t, it’s easy to get caught-up). From there, you’ll want to take advantage of the following features that will save you money (not to mention admin-related headaches) this EOFY:

1. Offset your losses and gains

If you’ve taken some losses this year, Sharesight can help you work how to offset your gains. Available exclusively to upgraded Sharesight plan holders, the Unrealised Capital Gains Report calculates unrealised capital gains in your portfolio and the resulting taxable income that would arise if these shares were sold on the report date. This is a handy way to model the impact of unrealised capital gains in your portfolio and the resulting impact on your tax liability.

2. Run your own tax reports

While Sharesight’s performance reports provide valuable insights throughout the year, our tax reports are indispensable to DIY investors this time of year. You can save potentially thousands of dollars in accounting fees (including hundreds spent on CGT reports alone) by running your own tax reports at EOFY:

Taxable Income

With all your dividends automatically captured and in one place, Sharesight makes tax-time a breeze. The Taxable Income Report takes it a step further by breaking down all dividend and franking credits over any time period, organised by local/overseas income, as well as non-trust/trust income (such as ETFs):

Historical Cost

The Historical Cost Report shows opening and closing balances at cost price. The report also includes a ‘market value’ column to allow a quick comparison between cost price and market value at the end of the chosen period:

Capital Gains Tax

The Australian Capital Gains Tax Report calculates capital gains made on shares as per ATO rules. The report is based on the ‘discount method’ for shares that were held for more than one year and the ‘other method’ for shares held for less than one year. It breaks down short and long term capital gains and capital losses, and allows you to customise your discount rate and sale allocation method. It even lets you “carry forward” any losses from the previous reporting period:

3. Claim your Sharesight subscription fee

Another great way to save money at EOFY is by upgrading your Sharesight subscription. That’s because in most cases, Australian tax residents can claim next year’s subscription fee on this year’s tax return by upgrading to to a paid plan before 30 June¹. And as a bonus, when you pre-pay for an annual subscription, you get 1 month FREE!

For $25 per month I was given back about 15 hours of my life usually devoted to manually calculating CGT.
Stephen Colman, Sharesight customer

¹ If you derive income from the sharemarket, your Sharesight subscription may be tax deductible. Check with your accountant for details.

FURTHER READING

• Blog -- Save time & money by sharing your portfolio with your accountant
• Blog -- 7 reasons why Sharesight is better than a spreadsheet
• Blog -- A broken chain of investment providers: why investors pay the price