The Australia Tax Office has issued a fact sheet providing taxpayers with a timely reminder in relation to the documentation that needs to be kept when a CGT event is triggered. Although its title refers to small business, the fact sheet is useful for a wide variety of taxpayers.
Documentation would need to be kept for the following:
- A purchase contract showing the date and cost of an acquisition made by a taxpayer.
- A sale contract showing the date of disposal and the proceeds they received on that disposal of a particular asset.
- Commissions they paid or legal expenses they incurred in relation to the acquisition or disposal of a CGT asset.
- Improvements made to a CGT asset, for example, their building costs.
Taxpayers must keep the above records for a period of 5 years after the sale of a CGT asset, unless they keep an asset register.
Where a taxpayer has utilised a net capital loss, they should keep records of the CGT event that triggered the capital loss for four years from the income year in which the net capital loss was fully utilised.
For more information and a copy of the fact sheet, click here.
