CGT Sell vs Hold Calculator

It depends entirely on when you bought it. If you contracted before 7:30pm AEST 12 May 2026, your property is grandfathered — the 50% CGT discount applies for the asset's life, whenever you sell, so there is no tax deadline forcing your hand. If you acquired after that cutoff, disposals from 1 July 2027 lose the 50% discount and instead use CPI cost-base indexation with a 30% minimum effective tax rate. For those owners this calculator quantifies the real trade-off: selling before the deadline keeps the old rules, but continued capital growth usually outruns the harsher tax treatment over a long enough hold.

Sales settled before 1 July 2027 still use the old rules (50% discount if held 12+ months). From 1 July 2027, individual disposals switch to the legislated new regime: the cost base is indexed by CPI to remove inflationary gains, and CGT is the higher of your marginal rate on the indexed gain or a 30% minimum effective rate. Super funds keep the 33.33% accumulation discount and companies were never eligible for the discount, so the change primarily affects individuals and trusts.

No. Assets held or contracted before 7:30pm AEST 12 May 2026 retain the 50% CGT discount (and their negative-gearing treatment) for the life of the asset. The grandfathering is not transferable, though — if you sell a grandfathered property and buy a replacement, the new purchase sits on the new regime. That makes established, grandfathered holdings structurally more valuable to keep.

After indexing the cost base by CPI, the taxable gain is taxed at the higher of your natural marginal rate or 30% of the indexed gain. In practice, higher-rate taxpayers (39-47%) pay their marginal rate on the indexed gain, while lower-rate taxpayers are pulled up to the 30% floor — the floor mostly bites investors with modest taxable incomes in the sale year, including retirees timing a disposal into a low-income year.

CGT is modelled at your flat marginal rate (including Medicare levy) on the taxable gain; the cost base is indexed at a constant CPI assumption from acquisition; selling costs are a flat percentage of the sale price; and proceeds are shown before any loan repayment. It deliberately excludes holding cash flows (rent, interest, negative gearing) — it isolates the CGT timing question. For the full cash-flow picture, pair it with the cash flow and negative gearing calculators.