Tax-loss selling before 30 June, and wash sales

• Capital losses reduce capital gains, never your wages or other income.
• Losses come off your gains before the 50% discount, and anything left carries forward.
• The trade date decides the year, so a sale on 30 June that settles in July counts in the year ending that 30 June.

Your capital gains for the year are added up, then your capital losses for the year come off, then any losses carried forward from earlier years. The discount applies to what is left, on the gains that qualify for it. If losses are more than gains, the difference carries forward to later years, with no time limit.

Made-up example: in March you sold shares held eight months for a gain of $6,000. No discount applies, because you held them under 12 months. You also hold shares that are $4,000 below what you paid.

• Keep them: $6,000 is added to your taxable income.
• Sell them by 30 June: $6,000 less $4,000 leaves $2,000. At a 30% tax rate that is $1,200 less tax this year.

A loss is worth most against a gain that gets no discount. Against a discounted gain, half of it is used up by the discount anyway. See how losses are applied in the 50% CGT discount.

• Trade by 30 June. The date the sale is made counts, not the day it settles two business days later.
• Know your gains first. Add up the year's gains so far, and check your fund statements later: ETFs often pass on capital gains in their June distribution, which you only see on the annual statement after 30 June.
• Mind the 12 months. If a holding is in profit and nearly 12 months old, selling it a few days later can halve the gain. Selling a loser doesn't have that trade-off, since there is no gain to discount.
• Brokerage counts. It is part of the cost base on the purchase and comes off what you get on the sale, so it makes the loss a little bigger. See cost base of shares.

A wash sale is selling an investment and buying the same, or something substantially the same, back soon after, so you make a loss for tax without really changing what you own. The ATO treats it as tax avoidance under Part IVA of the tax law: the loss is cancelled, and penalties and interest can apply. It gets data from share registries and crypto exchanges and looks for this pattern around 30 June.

There is no set number of days that makes it safe. What matters is why you did it and whether your exposure changed. Selling because you no longer want to own the investment, and putting the money into something genuinely different, is ordinary investing. Selling on 29 June and buying the same shares back on 2 July is the pattern the ATO describes.

The 50% discount is being replaced by indexation for growth after 1 July 2027. Sales up to 30 June 2027 are unchanged. For what that means for shares you hold now, see capital gains tax changes from 1 July 2027.

Can I use a crypto loss against a share gain?

Yes. Capital losses from crypto and from shares go into the same calculation. See crypto tax in Australia.

Do I have to use carried-forward losses this year?

Yes. If you have a capital gain, losses from earlier years have to come off it. You can't keep them for a later year.

What about shares that became worthless?

A company in liquidation may let you claim the loss before the shares are cancelled, once the liquidator declares them worthless. Ask a registered tax agent.

Portfoli.au shows the gain not yet sold on each purchase you still hold, how long you have held it, and your capital gains so far this financial year, with losses applied before the discount. Before 30 June you can see which holdings are below what you paid and the gains you have already made that year.

How capital gains work in Portfoli.au, or start free.

• ATO, 18 Capital gains 2026
• ATO, Wash sales: The ATO is cleaning up dirty laundry (27 June 2022)
• ATO, Taxation Ruling TR 2008/1, on wash sales

This is general information, not advice to sell anything. Check with a registered tax agent before you act.

• 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.
• The 50% CGT discount and the 12-month rule: Who gets the discount, how to count the 12 months, and why losses come off first.
• Cost base of shares: brokerage and what to include: What goes into the cost of your shares, brokerage included, and which shares count as sold.
• Crypto tax in Australia: Which crypto transactions are taxed, staking rewards, airdrops and the 12-month discount.
• Capital gains tax changes from 1 July 2027: The 50% discount is replaced for growth after 1 July 2027. What that means for shares you own now.
• How ETFs are taxed in Australia: Distributions, the annual tax statement, cost base changes, and selling units.
• How to track your share portfolio in Australia: The records to keep, a spreadsheet or a tracker, and the figures worth watching.
• 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.