Business Sale Tax Calculator

Sale Proceeds and Capital Gain

A business sale capital gain starts with sale consideration less the asset's tax cost base and eligible selling costs. Enter whole asset amounts. The calculator applies your ownership percentage to each amount once.

Separate each asset's consideration in the sale agreement. Include selling costs only once: remove them from the cost base if you enter them in the selling-cost field. For a capital loss, use the reduced cost base. Its eligible costs can differ from those included for a gain.

Cash before tax is your share of consideration less selling costs. An asset's historical purchase cost reduces the capital gain, but does not become a new cash payment on sale. Non-cash consideration needs a separate cash-flow adjustment.

Entered Concessions and Tax Assumptions

The calculator applies selected 15-year exemptions before capital losses. It then offsets available losses, applies any selected general 50% discount and applies any selected 50% active asset reduction.

The ATO's 15-year exemption guidance explains its ownership and retirement conditions. Small business concessions also require their basic eligibility conditions. Sale price alone does not establish eligibility.

For this resident individual model, the selected general discount requires at least 12 months of ownership and separate eligibility. Companies cannot use that general discount. Read the ATO's capital gain calculation methods for the distinction.

Capital losses on either entered asset join your other available capital losses. The calculator allocates that shared pool to non-exempt gains in asset order. Different allocations can change the result when concession choices differ. Unused capital losses produce no negative tax or ordinary-income deduction here.

The retirement exemption is limited to your remaining $500,000 lifetime allowance and the gain left after earlier reductions. The selected rollover then defers part of the remaining gain. Both elections are shared totals across the two assets. The small business CGT legislation sets their conditions and limits.

Retirement exemption conditions can require a super contribution, including for an eligible individual under 55. This calculator's cash figure does not deduct that contribution. Rollover is deferral, so a later event can bring the gain back into tax.

The tax estimate multiplies the remaining capital gain by your entered rate. It does not calculate income tax brackets, Medicare levy or offsets. This model covers a resident individual selling CGT assets before 1 July 2027. It excludes companies, trusts, share sales and depreciating assets, as well as indexation and future CGT rules.

Using a Business Sale Scenario

In a hypothetical sale, consideration of $800,000 less a $300,000 cost base and $20,000 selling costs gives a $480,000 gain. At full ownership, $40,000 capital losses reduce it to $440,000.

With every concession left off, the starting 30% rate gives $132,000 indicative tax. Cash before that tax is $780,000, leaving $648,000 after it.

If you select an eligible general 50% discount and 50% active asset reduction, the gain falls to $110,000. An eligible $60,000 retirement exemption leaves $50,000. At the same 30% rate, indicative tax is $15,000 and cash after that tax is $765,000, before any required super contribution.

An actual trail-book sale needs its contract allocation and tax structure assessed. Use these figures to compare entered scenarios, then give the asset breakdown and concession assumptions to your tax adviser before agreeing sale terms.