Australian Stock Watch: Capital gains tax calculator for shares ... Best exchange Traded funds

A software for Capital gains TAx calculation & some tips

e-cgt Capital Gains Tax calculator

ANother calculator >> http://www.australianbiz.com.au/propertycgtcalculator.aspx

Another CGT calculator >>

What is e-cgt?

e-cgt is a free capital gains tax software package you download and install on your computer.

The software was designed for the Tax Office for use by individuals with capital gains and capital losses.

Non-individuals can use the program to calculate individual capital gains and capital losses but should not use the 'Application of choices' section.

The software:

helps you to identify and gather the information needed to calculate a capital gain or capital loss
provides you with a printout of the calculations and
provides you with a printout of the information you have entered in a form suitable for record keeping purposes.

If you are an individual, e-cgt also calculates your net capital gain or loss for the year, or where choices are required, suggests a solution.

Installation of the downloadable capital gains tax (CGT) calculator

Minimum system requirements

Hardware

Pentium 133 MHz (or equivalent) or greater, with 32 Mb RAM or greater.

Minimum of 10MB free hard disk space.

Operating systems

The CGT calculator requires either:

Windows 95 or higher
Windows NT4 or higher.

Display

Super VGA 256 colour monitor supporting 800x600 screen resolution or greater is recommended.

Downloadable version of the capital gains tax calculator

The downloadable version of the capital gains tax calculator is not suitable for Apple Macintosh or other non-Windows operating systems (such as Linux), unless you are using Windows emulator software with one of the required Microsoft Windows versions.

Download the Capital gains tax calculator.

Instructions for downloading and installing the software.

Instructions for downloading and installing e-cgt 2001

Downloading

Click h ere to start the download of the installation program called 'ecgt-2001.exe'.

In the download box, select a drive or folder to save the program to. Please note where the program is being stored.

Note: The program may take up to 10 minutes to download, depending on your modem speed.

Installing

Locate the 'ecgt-2001.exe' program.
If you cannot locate the program, go to your task bar and select 'Start', 'Find', 'Files or Folders' and type 'ecgt-2001.exe'. You may need to check the 'subfolders' box.
Once you have located 'ecgt-2001.exe', double click on it to run the installation program.
Follow the instructions provided by the installation program. The default path for installation is C:\ecgt2001.
The software will now create a set of installation files on your computer as well as an e-cgt shortcut on your desktop.
When the software has been installed you can access ecgt by double clicking the 'e-cgt 2001' shortcut on your desktop. Alternatively you can select 'Start', 'Programs', 'e-tax 2001', and 'e-cgt 2001'.

SOme links from www.ato.gov.au

What is capital gains tax?

What is capital gains tax and what rate of tax do you pay?

Capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax you pay on any capital gain you make and include on your annual income tax return. There is no separate tax on capital gains, it is merely a component of your income tax. You are taxed on your net capital gain at your marginal tax rate.

Your net capital gain is:

your total capital gains for the year

minus

your total capital losses (including any net capital losses from previous years)

minus

any CGT discount and CGT small business concessions to which you are entitled.

You make a capital gain or capital loss if a CGT event happens. You can also make a capital gain if a managed fund or other trust distributes a capital gain to you.

For most CGT events, your capital gain is the difference between your capital proceeds and the cost base of your CGT asset – for example, if you received more for an asset than you paid for it. You make a capital loss if your reduced cost base is greater than your capital proceeds.

If your total capital losses for the year are more than your total capital gains, the difference is your net capital loss for the year. It can be carried forward to later income years to be deducted from future capital gains. You cannot deduct capital losses or a net capital loss from your income. There is no time limit on how long you can carry forward a net capital loss. You apply your net capital losses in the order that you make them.

Generally, you can disregard any capital gain or capital loss you make on an asset you acquired before 20 September 1985 (pre-CGT). For details of some other exemptions, see CGT Exemptions and rollovers.

There are special rules that apply when working out gains and losses from depreciating assets. To the extent that a depreciating asset is used for a taxable purpose (for example, in a business) any gain is treated as ordinary income and losses as deductions. A capital gain or capital loss may arise only to the extent that a depreciating asset has been used for a non-taxable purpose (for example, used privately). For details on the CGT treatment of depreciating assets, see CGT and depreciating assets.

Do you need to pay CGT?

To work out whether you have to pay tax on your capital gains, you need to know:

whether a CGT event has happened
the time of the CGT event
how to calculate the capital gain or capital loss
whether there is any exemption or rollover that allows you to reduce or disregard the capital gain or capital loss
how to apply any capital losses
whether the CGT discount applies, and
whether you are entitled to any of the CGT concessions for small business.

What to read/do next

Capital gains tax

Demergers calculator

This calculator helps shareholders work out the capital gains tax consequences under a demerger, including the Aviva, BHP Billiton, CSR, Sonic Healthcare, Mincor, Virtualplus, WMC and Mayne Health demergers.

Property exemption tool

If you had sole or joint ownership of a property that you sold or are going to sell (or otherwise dispose of), this tool will help you work out what portion of your capital gain is exempt from capital gains tax

An Eg.

If you are not using a trust fund, then generally your not being effective (unless you having money pouring out your ears and it doesn't matter). These things are the best tax value shifters in the Australian tax system. If you have kids, you can give them about $700 a year with no tax, + any other income can be given to your family (provided you are the specified individual) 2 generations up and down. Got a brother/sister that is a bum - all of a sudden they are your tax shelter. Just make sure you get them to sign over their credit beneficiary account balances to you though.......... Plus, you know the old $5000.00 franking credit rule - if you have 3 beneficiaries you will get 3 lots of the 5k franking credit rule. With this, you can dividend strip to your hearts content... In addition, if the trust is discretionary, you can also section of capital gains to one beneficiary (useful is someone has large unused capital losses).

AN Eg. 2

The capital gain(s) that you make on your share transactions become assessable income and should be included in your tax return. i.e. There is no fixed tax rate as such. For example, if you earn $5,000 (as a student working part-time) AND make net capital gains on shares of $5,000, then your assessable income is $10,000 - providing shares have been held for less than 12 months. If you have made a capital gain of $5,000 on shares held for more than 12 months, then you only need to report/include $2,500 of the capital gain as assessable income. Capital losses may be offset against capital gains, however, be careful when applying the 50% discount for gains made on shares held for more than 12 months.... you must apply the 50%discount to the losses that are offset against your gains in this situation.
Essentially your tax rate is simply your marginal tax rate - which as a student will generally be relatively low. Certainly not 50%.
Don't forget to include dividend income also... if these are fully franked you will find that this income works out to be tax free (or even better than tax free!) when applied against student marginal tax rates. i.e. The company has already paid tax at 30% which may be higher than your rate anyway! Hope this helps...

USeful links

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/36542.htm

Basic

Introduction to capital gains tax