How to track capital gains tax

CGT is not hard because the math is hard.

CGT is hard because people don't keep records when they're calm.

Then they sell something years later and realise they're missing the story.

The mini-story: the sale that turned into a research project

You sell shares you bought "some time ago".
You can't find the contract note.
You did DRP for years.
There was a corporate action in the middle.

Now your cost base is not a number.
It's a mystery.

The only rule you need

Every asset needs a timeline:
- acquisition date
- acquisition cost (including fees)
- adjustments over time
- disposal date
- disposal proceeds (minus fees)

If you can't reconstruct that, you can't calculate CGT cleanly.

Cost base adjustments: where people get burned

Most CGT errors come from:
- missing fees
- DRP parcels ignored
- return of capital events not tracked
- improvements to property not documented
- depreciation / capital works interacting with later calculations

You don't need to memorise the law.
You need to keep the source facts.

How Self Managed helps

Self Managed is built to capture the facts as they happen:
- transactions stored and categorised
- evidence attached when it matters
- cost base built over time, not guessed at sale time

Read:
- Capital gains