Sold the business? The way you claim decides what you keep

They are four tax breaks for small business owners, set out in Division 152 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. The 15-year exemption disregards the whole gain. The 50% active asset reduction halves what is left. The retirement exemption exempts up to $500,000 over a lifetime. The small business rollover defers the rest for up to two years. They sit on top of the general 50% CGT discount, and more than one can be claimed on the same sale.

You qualify if you meet the basic conditions in section 152-10. First, either the business has an aggregated turnover under $2 million, or the net value of the CGT assets of you, your affiliates and your connected entities is $6 million or less. The asset then has to pass the active asset test: in active use in the business for at least half the ownership period, or for 7.5 years if you owned it for more than 15 years. Selling shares or units adds two further conditions. This calculator answers each test on your own figures and names the one that fails when one does.

Yes, and it is the part almost nobody prices. The 50% active asset reduction applies automatically unless you choose out of it under section 152-205, and choosing out of it puts more of the gain through the retirement exemption instead. That uses more of the $500,000 lifetime limit, but moves more of the proceeds into superannuation under the CGT cap rather than the ordinary contribution caps. Neither is better in the abstract. This calculator prices both, and every other combination, on your own figures.

Yes. Amounts exempted under the 15-year exemption and the retirement exemption can be contributed under the CGT cap, which is separate from the ordinary non-concessional contributions cap and is $1,935,000 over a lifetime (the 2026-27 figure, which is indexed). Under 55, a retirement exemption amount has to be paid into a complying superannuation fund, and the fund has to be told the contribution is being made under the CGT cap before or at the time it is made.

No. This is an information service: it applies the published rules to the figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks combinations on one stated arithmetic measure and does not recommend one. Whether a choice suits your wider position, and whether your records support the conditions being met, are not in that measure. Those are for a registered tax agent, who can advise on your own facts, or for the Australian Taxation Office through a private ruling.

Yes. It is 45% plus the 2% Medicare levy. A capital gain is part of taxable income, so the levy applies to it like anything else, and every figure in this calculator includes it. Nothing in Division 152 changes a rate: each of the four concessions works by changing how much of the gain is assessable, which is why your other income moves these figures as much as the concessions do.

The turnover limit is $2 million of aggregated turnover, not the $10 million figure used for other small business tax breaks. Aggregated means your turnover plus that of your affiliates and connected entities. The limit is written into the Act and is not indexed. If you fail it, you can still qualify through the $6 million net asset value test instead, because you only need to pass one of the two.

The 15-year exemption removes the whole capital gain from your tax return, with no dollar cap. To get it, you must have owned the asset for 15 years without a break. You must also be 55 or older on the day the contract is signed and sell in connection with retiring, or be permanently incapacitated at that time, at any age. It does not use any of the $500,000 retirement exemption limit, and it leaves your capital losses untouched.

No. Despite its name, the retirement exemption does not require you to retire or cut your hours. It exempts up to $500,000 of capital gains over your whole life, not per sale or per year. The one age rule is at 55: if you are under 55 when you make the choice, the exempt amount must be paid into a complying super fund. At 55 or over, you can take it as cash.

The 50% active asset reduction halves whatever is left of your capital gain after capital losses and the general 50% CGT discount. It applies automatically once you meet the basic conditions, with no form and no election. You can choose to switch it off under section 152-205, which puts more of the gain through the retirement exemption instead. On a $1,000,000 gain, the two halvings take it down to $250,000.

The whole deferred amount comes back as a capital gain. This is called CGT event J5, and it happens at the end of the replacement period, which runs from one year before the sale to two years after it. The general 50% discount cannot be used against that gain. The small business concessions can still be claimed against it, as long as the basic conditions are met at that time.

By the day you lodge the tax return for the income year the contract was signed in. That rule is in section 103-25. There is no form to send in: the choice shows in the way the return is prepared, so it cannot simply be added later. The retirement exemption choice must also be made in writing and state the amount you are exempting.