A capital gain – or capital loss – is the change in value between what and asset cost and the amount of money received upon sale. Any assets acquired or owned since capital gains came into effect (20th September 1985) are subject to Capital Gains Tax unless exclusively disqualified from such assessment.

Many assets are not assessed under this scheme for example an individual’s family home, private vehicle, and most personal assets, such as furniture. Therefore; when you acquire an asset excluding those described above you must keep records immediately because you may need to pay tax on such asset when it is sold in the future. The accuracy of your records will ensure you pay the minimum amount of CGT why pay any more than necessary. If an asset is owned jointly with another person, you’ll need to ascertain each person’s allocation to ensure the appropriate apportionment in value is attributed to each party.

Some examples of the types of assets subject to CGT include; vacant land, rental properties, holiday homes, rural country living hobby farms positioned on allotments greater than 2.5 hectares. As described previously your ‘main (family home) is normally exempt from CGT unless rented during a period of ownership.

It is critical a professional valuer ascertains the value of an asset under the following circumstances; inheritance, transferring of asset to or from self managed superannuation fund, vacating a family home and renting it for a period in time, moving into a rental property, undertaking major modifications and refurbishment. These are key factors which regularly cause major problems with the Australian Tax Office hence the importance of engaging a professional valuer to undertake such investigation.