Share trading tax return
Tax planning and structures for
share traders & share investors
Your tax income or loss for share trading is included as part of your annual tax return. When you lodge your individual tax return, you’ll need to report any profits or loss you have made on share trading throughout the financial year. Any dividends you earn will also need to be added to your taxable income.
The tax treatment of your shares depends on whether you hold shares as an investor or carry on a business as a share trader.
If you hold shares as an investor
Your shares are assets and are subject to capital gains tax when you sell them
Your costs are taken into account at the time you sell your shares
If you have a capital loss you can use it to offset capital gains but not to offset income from other sources
Income is earned from dividends and similar receipts.
If you are a share trader
Your shares are treated like trading stock in a business
Your gains are treated as ordinary income
Your losses and costs are treated as deductible expenses in the year they are incurred
Share trader or share investor?
Determining if you are a share trader is the same as determining whether your activities are considered to be carrying on a business for tax purposes.
Under tax law, a business includes ‘any profession, trade, employment, vocation or calling, but does not include occupation as an employee’.
To determine whether you are a share trader or a business of trading shares, the following factors have been taken into account in court cases:
the nature and purpose of your activities
the repetition, volume and regularity of your activities
whether your activities are organised in a business-like way
the amount of capital invested.
Meet RA Advisory Business Accountants, Your Share Trading Tax Experts
There are lots of conditions you need to consider when you lodge your tax return. Different tax treatments and different tax calculations would give you different results and finally affect your tax position. RA Advisory has helped our clients preparing share-trading tax returns over the years. We are the expert you can trust and can help you with your tax return. Please contact us if you require further information on whether you are a share investor or share trader.
Why choose RA Advisory
- Access to a tax & financial specialist
- Get practical advice and personal attention
- Expertise in all the right areas
- Cloud-based technology
- Flexible service options
Customized tax, accounting, and financial strategies
Tax treatments for share traders and share investors:
Share Trader
The shares you have bought should be considered as trading stock.
Gain from sales of shares is regarded as assessable income.
Dividend is regarded as assessable income.
Loss from trading can be deemed as tax deduction.
Cost incurred for selling or buying of shares are same as the cost of running a business operation and hence can be claimed as a tax deduction.
Cost of supplies which are essential for record keeping for the share trading business, for example computers and calculators, can be claimed as tax deduction.
Share Investor
Gain from share investment is considered as CGT (capital gains tax).
Cost incurred with purchasing of shares cannot be claimed as tax deduction.
Loss from selling the shares should be deducted from CGT.
You would have an option to choose from 3 available methods to declare your CGT Share trading income.
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Share trading frequently asked questions
Yes, you need to pay tax on any profits that you’ve made from share trading during the year – this is called capital gains tax (CGT). Any profits that you make are added to your total taxable income for the year. So, if you’re paid a salary of $49,0000 and you make $1,000 from trading shares – your total taxable income is $50,000.
Any profits you make from share trading is added to your total taxable income. The tax you pay on your shares will depend on what tax bracket you fit into based on this total income.
If you’re a casual investor, your profits are calculated as total profits minus total losses. So, if you bought 100 Afterpay (APT) shares at $10 per share and sold them all at $20, your taxable profit is $1000. But say a month later you bought 100 APT at $40 and sold them at $30, your total taxable profit (if you made no other trades) would be $0.
Your tax return for shares is included as part of your regular tax return after June 30.
You have a share trading plan if you can answer yes to the following:
- You carry out analyses of future investments.
- You look at the market to identify areas of potential gain.
- You make a decision to buy or hold shares based on future value.
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