How to Calculate ASX Capital Gains Tax for CommSec customers

Calculating your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) can be a daunting task, especially with multiple trades throughout the year. If you're trading on the ASX using platforms like CommSec, you know how complex the record-keeping can get.

In this guide, we'll show you how to automate this process using MyASX.

Why CGT record-keeping is hard

Most Australian brokers provide simple transaction lists, but they don't always match your "Sells" to specific "Buys". This is critical because:

1. You need to know the Cost Basis of the specific shares you sold.
2. If you held shares for more than 12 months, you might be eligible for a 50% CGT discount.

Step 1: Export your CSV from CommSec

From your CommSec account, navigate to the Manage Orders section.

In the Manage Orders section,

1. Click on the Confirmations tab.
2. Select a big date range to cover all your transactions.
3. Click on the Search button.
4. Click on the Download CSV link to download your transaction history.

Step 2: Upload the CSV file to MyASX to calculate your CGT

1. After downloading your CSV file, navigate to our CGT Calculator and upload your file.

2. After the CSV is selected, the system will display all the trades in a table for review. You can then click on the Add Trades button to add more trades to the calculator or delete any trades added by mistake. Once the review is complete, click on the Calculate CGT button to calculate your CGT.

3. Our system will automatically:

• Parse your trades.
• Match Sell orders with the appropriate Buy orders using the FIFO (First-In, First-Out) method.
• Calculate the gain or loss for each trade.
• Group the trades by Financial Year.
• Calculate the total gain or loss for each financial year.
• You can also review your current holdings which list all trades older than 12 months (having tax benefits), and trades less than 12 months (not having tax benefits).
• At any time, you can click on the Edit Trades & Recalculate CGT button to edit the trades and regenerate the CGT report.

Summary

Using a tool like MyASX takes the manual work out of tax season, ensuring your reporting is accurate and optimized for discounts.