If you’re an investor and you’ve started or continue investing through platforms like CommSec, SelfWealth, Sharesies, Nabtrade or any other platforms that make investing easy there’s a few things you need to be aware of at tax time.
Understanding What You’ve Invested In
With platforms making minor trades quick and simple for investors it pays to know exactly what you’re investing in.
Managed Funds or ETFs
Popular portfolios are operated by Colonial First State, Vanguard, Platinum Assets and BlackRock.
Whilst these are a simple way to gain access to a weighted portfolio, investors will often need to wait until later in the tax season to lodge returns.
This is because these types of investments pay distributions as income to you throughout the year, but the funds don’t tell you the tax components of that income until they issue their Annual Tax Statement, which can take until late September to be available. The Annual Tax Statement tells you how much of what you received during the year is dividends, foreign income, capital gains, tax free or tax credits.
It can be tempting to get your tax return lodged early, especially if you’re expecting a refund. But if you’re invested in managed investments, don’t hit “submit” until you’ve received all your tax statements.
Here’s why:
- The ATO pre-fills data from brokers, registries and managed funds later in the season (often mid to late August).
- If you lodge early without this information, your return might not match the ATO’s records.
- Mismatches can lead to amendments, refund delays, or ATO reviews — all easily avoided by waiting just a little longer.
Listed Shares
Listed shares pay dividends throughout the year. These are taxable based on when paid to you and usually, if you’ve told the registry your tax file number, the information on what has been paid is available to the ATO.
It’s still a good idea for investors to delay preparing tax returns until late August if you’re relying on the ATO to prefill your return with this information. Keep in mind that you’re still responsible for ensuring you report all income.
Have You Sold Shares or Units in Managed Investments?
The ATO also receives information about any investment disposals you make. These could be either listed shares or units in managed investments.
If you’ve sold units in managed investments, these are separate to any capital gains that are included in the tax statement issued by the fund. Although often fund managers will include details of unit sales as a separate report within the annual tax report they send to you.
If you have sold investments you need to keep track of the following key details to calculate your Capital Gains Tax (CGT) correctly, including:
- Purchase date and cost base: what you paid for the shares or units (including brokerage).
- Sale date and proceeds: what you sold them for (less selling costs).
- Corporate actions: such as dividends reinvested, stock splits, or company mergers that adjust your cost base.
For example, if you bought 100 Commonwealth Bank shares in 2018 for $70 each (plus $20 brokerage) and sold them in 2025 for $120 each (minus $20 brokerage), your capital gain isn’t simply the difference between $70 and $120 — it’s adjusted for those brokerage fees and any reinvested dividends or share splits along the way.
If you held the shares for more than 12 months, you might also be eligible for the 50% CGT discount, which can significantly reduce your taxable gain.
Common Mistakes Investors Make
At Lemonade Beach, we often see taxpayers trip up on share sales because of:
- Lodging too early, before their full statement from providers like Vanguard or Colonial First State arrives.
- Forgetting about Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRPs), which add to the cost base and holding balance.
- Missing brokerage costs, both at purchase and sale.
- Not accounting for capital losses, which can offset future gains.
- Generally, not keeping good records of what has been purchased when
These small details make a big difference to your final tax result.
How Lemonade Beach Can Help Investors
We help our clients navigate the sometimes murky waters of capital gains tax on shares. Whether you’ve sold a handful of shares or manage a large investment portfolio, we can:
- Reconcile your purchase and sale history.
- Calculate your capital gains or losses correctly.
- Ensure all ATO pre-fill data matches your records.
- Identify opportunities to use carried-forward losses or CGT discounts.
Our goal is to make sure your return is refreshingly accurate, so you stay compliant and confident that you’re not paying more tax than you should.
In short: if you invest in managed investment, wait until your fund tax statement arrives — before you lodge. If you’ve sold investments, make sure you have all your purchase and selling records. Once you’ve got all the information, we’ll help you get everything squared away.
Book a meeting with Lemonade Beach to get expert help with your share sales and capital gains this tax time.
One Last thing… keep in mind that every trade you do requires a tax obligation calculation, whilst small accessible trading platforms can be a great way to get started in investing, do consider the cost of managing your tax affairs. i.e. if you’re investing $20 weekly into 2 funds that’s 104 transactions that need tracking for the year.
