Investing with more than one broker

• Moving shares to another broker in your own name isn't a sale, so keep the original purchase dates and prices.
• Each broker's tax report only covers its own trades.
• Know whether each broker holds your shares on a HIN in your name or through a custodian.

Shares on the ASX are registered in one of three ways, and it matters when you move them:

• CHESS sponsored, on a HIN. Your broker sponsors your holding on the ASX's register, under a Holder Identification Number in your name. You get CHESS holding statements. Each sponsoring broker gives you its own HIN, so two brokers usually means two HINs.
• Issuer sponsored, with an SRN. The company's share registry holds the shares in your name under a Securityholder Reference Number, one for each holding. Common for shares from a float, an employee plan or an inheritance. To sell, you give a broker the SRN.
• Held by a custodian. Some platforms, especially for US shares and for buying fractions of a share, hold the shares for you in the custodian's name. You are still the owner, but the shares aren't on a register in your name.

Your broker's terms say which applies. It can differ between the ASX and overseas markets at the same broker.

You can usually move CHESS-sponsored shares to a new broker by giving it your HIN and asking it to take over the sponsorship, or by transferring the holding to the new broker's HIN. Shares held by a custodian can sometimes be moved out to a HIN, and sometimes only sold. Each broker's process and fees differ.

It isn't a sale. If the shares stay yours and in your name, nothing changed hands, so there is no capital gain or loss. In your records:

• keep each original purchase with its date, units, price and brokerage;
• don't record a sale at the old broker and a purchase at the new one, which would show a gain that didn't happen and restart the 12 months;
• keep the old broker's contract notes, because the new broker may not know what you paid.

A transfer to someone else, such as a spouse or a family trust, is different: it usually is a CGT event, at market value.

If you hold, say, VAS with two brokers and sell some at one of them, the units you sold are the ones held there, so the gain comes from those purchases. Records kept broker by broker make that easy to show. A single list that mixes both brokers' purchases can match the sale to the wrong ones.

• Each broker sends its own statements and tax report. None of them sees the others.
• Add up the gains and losses from every broker for the financial year, then apply losses and the discount once, to the total.
• Dividends are paid by the registries, not by brokers, so they come in separately whichever broker you used.
• Overseas shares need each trade in Australian dollars at that day's rate, whatever the broker reports.

Is it a problem to use several brokers?

No. Plenty of people use one broker for the ASX and another for US shares, or keep an old account open. It only adds record keeping.

Does a broker closing down affect my shares?

CHESS-sponsored shares are yours, not the broker's, and can be moved to a new sponsoring broker. Check your broker's terms for how custodian-held shares are protected.

Should family members share one set of records?

Keep each person's apart. Each person, trust and SMSF has its own tax return and its own capital gains.

In Portfoli.au, keep a portfolio for each broker or each person, and see them one at a time or all together. Each portfolio's purchases are matched to its own sales, and the tax-time pack puts all of a person's platforms in one statement. Plus has up to 3 portfolios and Pro as many as you need.

How to set up more than one portfolio, or start free.

• ASX, CHESS sponsored and issuer sponsored holdings (fact sheet)
• ATO, When CGT applies to shares and units (updated 22 June 2026)

Check with a registered tax agent before you act.

• How to track your share portfolio in Australia: The records to keep, a spreadsheet or a tracker, and the figures worth watching.
• How to measure your portfolio's return: Simple gain, total return, yearly returns that allow for money added, and a fair benchmark.
• Capital gains tax on shares in Australia: When you pay tax on selling shares or ETFs, how the gain is worked out, and what to do with a loss.
• How ETFs are taxed in Australia: Distributions, the annual tax statement, cost base changes, and selling units.
• All guides, and help with using Portfoli.au.
• Capital gains calculator: work out the gain on one sale, free.
• Dividend calculator: estimate dividend income with franking credits, free.