The 2025-26 financial year ends on 30 June 2026. If you own ASX shares, ETFs, or managed funds, there are things you should be doing now to make sure tax time goes smoothly and you don't pay more than you need to.
This checklist covers everything from capital gains to dividends to record-keeping. Work through it between now and June, and you'll walk into July with your numbers sorted.
Timeline: What to Do and When
April 2026: Review and Plan
This is your planning month. No action required yet, but get the lay of the land.
- Review your realised capital gains for the year so far
- Identify any holdings currently sitting at a loss (potential tax loss harvesting candidates)
- Check which of your gains qualify for the 50% CGT discount
- Estimate your total taxable income for the year (salary + gains + dividends)
- Work out your expected marginal tax rate
May 2026: Prepare and Decide
Decision time. Lock in your strategy before June gets hectic.
- Decide whether to harvest any tax losses (see our tax loss harvesting guide)
- Review whether any planned share sales should happen before or after 30 June
- Download your broker's transaction history to date
- Check for any corporate actions you may have missed (demergers, capital returns, share splits)
June 2026: Execute
The final stretch. Act early in the month, not on the last day.
- Execute any tax loss harvesting sales by 30 June (remember: contract date counts, not settlement)
- Make any last-minute superannuation contributions to reduce your marginal rate
- Download your final transaction history for the full financial year
- Back up all your records
CGT Checklist
Capital gains tax is usually the biggest tax item for active investors. Get this right.
Review All Share Sales This Financial Year
Go through every sell transaction between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026. For each sale, you need:
- The date you originally bought the shares (acquisition date)
- The purchase price and brokerage
- The date you sold
- The sale price and brokerage
- Whether you held the shares for more than 12 months
If you bought shares in multiple parcels (e.g., bought BHP three times at different prices), you need to know which parcels were sold. Under the FIFO method, the oldest shares are sold first. See our CGT calculation guide for a detailed walkthrough.
Check Discount Eligibility
For each sale, did you hold the shares for at least 12 months and one day? If yes, you get the 50% CGT discount (individuals) or 33.33% (super funds). Companies don't get any discount.
Watch out for: Shares acquired through DRP or employee share schemes. These might have different acquisition dates than you think. DRP shares are acquired on the date the dividend was paid, not the date you first bought shares in the company.
Consider Tax Loss Harvesting
If your realised gains are significant, look at your unrealised losses. Selling losing positions before 30 June crystallises those losses, which offset your gains. But don't sell purely for tax reasons if you believe in the stock, and be aware of the wash sale risk if you plan to buy back in. Full details in our tax loss harvesting guide.
Think About Timing
If you're planning to sell a profitable holding in the next few weeks, ask yourself:
- Would it be better to sell before 30 June (tax on the gain this year) or after 1 July (tax deferred to next year)?
- Will your income be higher or lower next year? Selling in a lower-income year means a lower marginal rate.
- Is the stock close to the 12-month mark? If you bought shares in August 2025, waiting until September 2026 to sell means the 50% discount applies. That could halve your tax.
Dividend Checklist
Dividends are taxed in the year they're paid, regardless of when the ex-dividend date was.
Reconcile Dividends Received
Add up all dividends received between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026. Your broker and share registry should have records of every payment. Check:
- Cash dividends paid into your bank account or broker account
- DRP amounts (these count as income even though you didn't receive cash)
- Special dividends and returns of capital (which are treated differently for tax)
Track Franking Credits
For every franked dividend, record the franking credit amount. You'll need the total for your tax return. The franking credit reduces your tax payable, so missing it means you overpay.
A quick summary of how franking credits work:
| Dividend Type | What You Report | Tax Offset? |
|---|---|---|
| Fully franked | Dividend + franking credit as income | Yes, full credit |
| Partly franked | Dividend + partial franking credit | Yes, partial credit |
| Unfranked | Dividend only | No |
For the full rundown, see our franking credits guide.
DRP Adjustments
If you're enrolled in a Dividend Reinvestment Plan, each reinvestment creates a new parcel of shares with its own cost base and acquisition date. You need to:
- Record each DRP purchase as a separate parcel
- Note the DRP price (which is often at a small discount to market price)
- Include these parcels when calculating CGT if you later sell the shares
Many investors forget about DRP parcels. This causes headaches years later when they sell and can't account for all their shares.
ETF and Managed Fund Distributions
ETF and managed fund distributions are more involved than simple dividends. The distribution statement from the fund manager breaks the distribution into components:
- Franked dividends and franking credits
- Unfranked dividends
- Capital gains (both discounted and non-discounted)
- Foreign income and foreign tax credits
- Return of capital (which reduces your cost base rather than being taxable income)
- AMIT cost base adjustments (for Attribution Managed Investment Trusts)
You need the Annual Tax Statement (AMMA statement) from each fund manager. These are usually available by September or October. For your EOFY preparation, use the estimated figures from interim statements and update when the final numbers arrive.
Record-Keeping Checklist
The ATO can audit you for up to four years (or longer if they suspect fraud). Good records are your defence.
Broker Statements
Download and save:
- Trade confirmations for every buy and sell this year
- Annual holding statements from each broker
- Annual tax statements (income and CGT reports)
- Monthly or quarterly broker statements
Corporate Actions
These are easy to miss and hard to reconstruct later:
- Demerger documents (e.g., cost base allocation percentages)
- Share consolidation or split notices
- Capital return statements
- Takeover or scheme of arrangement documents
- Bonus share issues
Dividend Statements
- Individual dividend statements from each company's share registry (Computershare, Link Market Services, etc.)
- Annual dividend summary statements
- DRP statements showing reinvestment price and quantity
- ETF/managed fund distribution statements (AMMA statements)
Cost Base Records
Your cost base records need to go back to when you first bought the shares, even if that was a decade ago. You need:
- Original contract notes for every purchase
- Records of any events that adjust the cost base (demergers, capital returns, bonus issues)
- DRP purchase records
Tip: If you've lost old contract notes, your broker may be able to provide historical records. CommSec, for instance, keeps transaction history accessible online for several years. For older trades, you may need to request records from the broker directly.
Deductions You Might Be Missing
Share investors can claim a few deductions that are often overlooked.
Interest on Margin Loans
If you borrowed to invest (through a margin loan or line of credit), the interest is tax-deductible against your investment income. Keep your loan statements showing interest charged for the year.
Financial Software and Subscriptions
Subscriptions to portfolio tracking tools, market data services, and stock screening platforms are deductible if you use them to manage your investments. This includes tools like SavvyPortfolio, as well as ASX market data fees and financial news subscriptions.
Internet and Phone (Partial)
If you actively manage your portfolio, you can claim a portion of your internet and phone costs related to investment activities. Be realistic about the proportion though. The ATO doesn't look kindly on people claiming 50% of their phone bill for checking stock prices.
Tax Agent Fees
If your accountant prepares your return and a portion of their fee relates to investment income reporting, that portion is deductible.
Things You Can't Claim
- Brokerage. It's not a separate deduction. Instead, it's included in your cost base (for purchases) or deducted from proceeds (for sales) as part of the CGT calculation.
- Travel to shareholder meetings. The ATO specifically disallows this.
- Financial advice fees for setting up a portfolio. These are capital costs, not deductible expenses.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Forgetting DRP parcels. Every DRP reinvestment is both taxable income (the dividend) and a new cost base parcel. Missing these means your CGT calculation will be wrong when you sell.
2. Using the wrong date. CGT events are triggered on the contract date (when you execute the trade), not the settlement date (T+2). This matters most around 30 June.
3. Not applying losses before the discount. The correct order is: total gains minus losses, then apply the 50% discount. Doing it the other way means you pay too much tax.
4. Forgetting carried-forward losses. If you had net capital losses from previous years, these must be applied against this year's gains before calculating your final CGT. Check last year's tax return.
5. Ignoring AMIT cost base adjustments. If you hold ETFs or managed funds structured as AMITs (most are these days), the annual AMMA statement may include cost base increases or decreases. Ignoring these means your cost base is wrong when you eventually sell.
6. Not reconciling with ATO pre-fill data. When you (or your tax agent) lodge your return, the ATO's pre-fill data should match your records. If it doesn't, investigate the discrepancy before lodging.
7. Leaving tax loss harvesting too late. Don't wait until 30 June to decide. Stocks can move against you, or your sell order might not fill if there's low liquidity. Plan in May, execute in early June.
Generate Your Tax Report with SavvyPortfolio
If all of this sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. Manually tracking parcels, cost bases, franking credits, and CGT across a multi-stock portfolio is time-consuming and error-prone.
SavvyPortfolio does it automatically. Import your broker CSV, and you get:
- A full CGT summary with realised gains and losses, broken down by discount and non-discount
- A holdings report showing unrealised gains and losses for tax loss harvesting decisions
- Dividend and franking credit totals for the financial year
- Per-stock breakdown of cost base, parcels, and holding period
One click to generate a report you can hand to your accountant or use to fill in your tax return. That's the whole point.
Recommended Reading
If you want to go deeper on any of the topics covered here:
- How to Calculate Capital Gains Tax on Shares in Australia - full CGT walkthrough with worked examples
- How to Export Your CommSec Transaction History - getting your data out of CommSec and into a tracker
- Franking Credits Explained - everything you need to know about dividend imputation
- Tax Loss Harvesting in Australia - how to turn losing positions into tax savings before EOFY
Start early, keep good records, and don't leave money on the table. Good luck with the 2025-26 financial year.
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