"The agent wants an answer by Friday."
There is an offer on the table and the contract is being drawn up. The tax result is locked in the moment somebody signs, but nobody will work it out until your tax return is done next winter.
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Access and ordersSelling the home you used to live in? Check this before you sign.
Don't lose over $100,000. Check it free with our main residence exemption and 6-year rule calculator, to show you your choices before a bad decision costs you.
You lived in it. Then you moved out and rented it out. Now you are selling. A handful of dates decide whether you pay no tax at all or six figures, and nobody in the sale has to bring it up with you.
A registered tax agent charges $1,500 to $4,000 to work it out. It takes weeks, and it often starts after the contract is signed. This calculator does the maths in about three minutes. It counts your days, builds your cost base and lines up every legal way to report the sale, so you see the costly one before you sign.
- Free estimate. No card, no sign up
- Full report $19, paid once. A tax agent charges $1,500 or more
- Optional plain English assistant. It never sees your name
- Built on the 2026–27 income year tax rates
Free 30 second check
Three answers. A first look at your tax.
$
$
-
Your gain
$-
before the exemption
You could lose
$-
-
A rough guide only. It assumes you lived in it for four years before renting it out, and earn $110,000 of other income in the year you sell. The full calculator asks for your real figures.
Sound familiar?
Confused by CGT on your old home?
That is not your fault.
The rules sit in one small corner of one tax law, written for tax officials. The two rules that can save you the most have no form to fill in and no letter to remind you. Nobody in a property sale has to mention either one.
"What even is a cost base?"
Cost base, apportionment, the third element, the absence choice, the market value rule. Five real terms, each with money riding on it, and none of them in words anybody outside a tax office uses.
"My brother said six years, so I'm fine."
The six-year rule is real. But it is six years per absence, only while the place earns rent, and only if you actually make the choice on your tax return. That is four conditions, and the family version has none of them.
"Am I about to hand over a year's pay in tax?"
On a home bought fifteen years ago in a capital city, the taxable gain can run to six figures, and it lands on top of everything else you earn that year. The honest answer: it depends on four dates.
So we built the tool that was missing.
You enter your dates and two prices. We count the days, build the cost base piece by piece, apply every rule in play, and line up every legal way to report the same sale. No appointment, no engagement letter, nothing to sign.
The ATO won't flag it for you
It publishes the rules and will give a binding private ruling on facts you set out.
It will not look at your dates on its own and point out that a choice you have never
heard of was worth six figures.
Your agent and conveyancer can't tell you
One sells the house and one transfers the title. Neither is licensed to give tax
advice, neither sees your ownership history, and the contract date they pick for
convenience is the date that decides which tax year your gain lands in.
A tax agent will, for $1,500 to $4,000
For some people that is exactly the right call, because a tax agent can advise and we
cannot. Most of that fee goes on rebuilding your timeline and doing the maths, and it
usually happens after the contract is signed.
About three minutes, and you will know how much of your gain is taxed and how much rides on the way you report it. It costs nothing.
What guessing really costs
One house. Two tax returns.
$115,493 apart.
Dan and Priya bought a Marrickville terrace in 2011, lived in it for three years, moved to the Central Coast and rented it out. In November 2026 they sell it for $2,050,000. Here are two tax returns for that same sale, signed on the same day. The only difference is one choice on the return, and nobody has to tell them it exists.
Guessed
Return A: they guessed
- Reported the gain from the day they moved out, because that is what most people assume
- Never made the absence choice. There is no form, so nothing reminded them
- 100% of the gain assessable across the whole ownership period
- The whole $1,017,000 gain taxed: halved by the discount to $508,500, added to their income, mostly at the top rate
Capital gains tax
$236,995
Worked it out
Return B: they counted the days
- Made the six-year absence choice (section 118-145) on the same return
- 2,192 of the 4,536 days in the ownership period covered by it
- Cost base reset by the market value rule, to what it was worth the day it was first rented
- 51.7% of the gain assessable instead of all of it
Capital gains tax
$121,502
Same house, same price, same contract. One return paid this much more.
$115,493
All of it from one choice on one tax return. Neither return broke a rule. Their full
report also prices moving back in for six months first, which widens the gap between
their options to $120,232.
The report that shows you this gap on your own home costs $19.
Dan and Priya are made up, and so is their terrace. The maths is not: the rules come from Subdivision 118-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, the rates are the 2026–27 individual rates, and every figure above comes from the same engine the report runs on. Watch it produce them, or read their whole report.
Guess, pay, or check?
Three ways to find out what you owe.
Two of them usually come after you sign.
| Guess What most people do |
A tax agent Registered, and able to advise |
Main Residence CGT This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs you | Nothing now, sometimes six figures later |
$1,500 to $4,000 | $19 |
| Time to an answer | An afternoon of worrying | Usually weeks | About 3 minutes |
| Answer before you sign | Usually not | ||
| Every legal option priced | |||
| Day count shown for you to check | Usually not | ||
| Personal advice you can act on |
Dates that matter
3 dates that can change your tax bill
Somebody else set each of these dates: Parliament, the calendar, or the tenant who moved in. Miss one and the choice is made for you, at a price you did not pick. And a signed contract cannot be unsigned.
Which tax year your gain lands in
A capital gain belongs to the income year the contract is signed in, not the year it settles. Sign on 29 June and it counts this year, on this year's income. Sign on 2 July and it counts next year. These figures use the - rates. Contract date or settlement date: which one counts.
When your six-year window closes
While a former home earns rent, the choice in section 118-145 (the six-year rule) covers six years of each absence, counted from the day the first tenant moved in. After that, every extra day of renting is a taxable day, and waiting does not win it back. How the six-year rule really works.
When tax rates change again
The lowest tax rate falls again on that date under the cuts passed into law in 2025, and a gain is taxed at the rates of the year its contract is signed in. The top rate on a large gain today is - including the Medicare levy, and the discount that halves the gain first is -.
Free check vs full report
The Former Home Capital Gains Report
The free estimate shows roughly where you stand. The full report gives you the exact tax and puts every option in order, built on your own dates, with every step shown so you can check it or question it.
Free: find out if there is money on the table
- What share of your gain is taxable, as a percentage, and the day count behind it
- Whether the market value reset applies to you, and why
- Whether your six-year window is still open, used up, or not in play at all
- Every legal option named, with what each one means in plain English
- A rough range for what the decision is worth (a range, not the exact number)
Full report, $19: see what each option costs you
- The tax, to the dollar, under every treatment
- Every option ranked on what the sale leaves you after tax
- Your ownership stretch by stretch, so you can check every day of it
- If the market value reset applies: what it did to your cost base, up or down
- If it was rented: your six-year window in days, used, left, and the date it closes
- The cost base element by element, including the ownership costs most returns leave out
- The gain sliced across the brackets it lands on, this year and next
- What would change the answer: the tax against a range of sale prices and incomes
- What to ask a valuer, a conveyancer and a tax agent, and for which date
- The assistant, on your own figures, with no limit
- The whole thing as a PDF you can hand your accountant, charts included
Read a full sample report, free: Dan and Priya's whole report, exactly as a customer sees it, with the assistant live on it for two questions.
How it works
Check your old home in 3 steps
If you can find the dates on two contracts, you can do this. Simple mode is eight short screens. Advanced mode adds ownership costs, land size, a spouse, moving back in and past losses.
Enter your dates and prices
When you bought it, when you moved in, when you moved out, when it first earned money, and when you are signing. Plus what you paid and what you expect to get. We never ask for your tax file number, your Medicare number or a bank detail. There is nowhere on this site to put one.
See how much of your gain is taxed, free
The taxable share of your gain, the day count behind it, which rules are in play, and every legal option named in plain English. Not the tax itself in dollars: that is what the report is for.
Compare every option before you sign
$19 opens the full report: every option worked out and put in order, so the expensive one stands out before the contract is anywhere near a pen. PDF included, ready to hand to your accountant.
Based on the actual tax law
The main residence exemption rules in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, and the 2026–27 individual income tax rates. Every section number is on the report.
Every step shown, nothing hidden
Nothing is a black box. The day count is printed stretch by stretch and the cost base element by element, so you can check any figure against your own contracts.
Information, not tax advice
We are not registered to give tax advice. We give you the arithmetic, which is the part most people are missing. The report ranks options on one measure and never recommends.
Can't model your situation? Money back
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Included with every report
Stuck on a number?
Just ask the assistant.
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report: your dates, your day count and your options. It answers questions about it in plain English. It is not a search box or a help page. It knows what your report says because it has been given it.
Ask Agent
Why is 51.7% of my gain taxable when I lived there for three years?
Because the market value rule restarted the ownership period on 1 June 2014, the day the first tenant moved in. The three years you lived there sit before that date, so they are outside the fraction entirely. Inside it there are 4,536 days, of which the six-year absence choice covers 2,192, leaving 2,344 taxable days.
What does "third element of the cost base" mean?
Rates, land tax, insurance, interest and non-capital repairs, for the years the place earned nothing. They go into the cost base and reduce the gain. Your report has $0 in that line because you did not enter any. If you can find the rates notices for 2011 to 2014, they belong there.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures.
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It reads your report, not a script "Why is that day the one that counts?" "What would moving back in be worth?" "Which of these needs a valuer?" It answers from your own dates and quotes them back.
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Plain English for a confusing subject It is built for this one subject and told to explain rather than impress: no section number without the plain words beside it, short answers, and no lecture.
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Totally optional. Use it or ignore it. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask it something.
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It is never told who you are What it receives is the figures on your report: dates, amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a tax file number or bank detail, because we do not hold those. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given.
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Your conversation is not saved The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it. We record that a question was asked so we know the feature is used, never what it said. Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
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It explains. It does not advise. It will tell you what the rules say, what each treatment produces and where the figures come from, and it will not tell you what to do: the same line the report itself holds. Nothing here is tax advice.
One simple price
$19, once.
Against a tax bill that can run to six figures.
One payment. No expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It opens the whole report and lets you rerun the numbers as often as you like. That matters here, because the appraisal changes, the valuer comes back with a figure, and the contract date moves.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Prices in Australian dollars. Paid securely through PayPal, by card or PayPal balance, no account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
Quick answers
Main residence exemption and 6-year rule: your questions answered
The six-year rule lets you keep treating your old home as your main residence for up to six years of each absence while it earns rent. If it earns nothing, there is no time limit at all. Each time you move back in and genuinely make it your main residence again, a fresh six-year period starts.
The part people miss: you make the choice through the way you fill in your tax return, not by lodging a form. Nothing prompts it and nothing reminds you.
Section 118-192 treats you as having bought your home again, at its market value, on the day it first earned income. It applies if that day was after 20 August 1996 and you would have been fully exempt had you sold the day before. Every dollar of growth before that day leaves the sum, and so does every day before it, including the years you lived there.
It can cut either way, which is why it is worth working out rather than assuming. It also needs a valuation for that one day.
It depends on how many of your ownership days the home was not your main residence. Take the gain, tax only the share of days that were not main residence days, halve that if you owned it for more than 12 months, and add it to your income for the year. On the 2026–27 rates the top rate is 47% including the Medicare levy.
This calculator does the day count for you and shows every step, including the ones most returns leave out.
Generally, no. Since 1 July 2020, a foreign resident on the day the contract is signed gets no main residence exemption at all, however long they lived there. Not a smaller one: none. There is a narrow "life events" test for an absence of six years or less.
Tax residency is a question of fact, not citizenship or visa, and it is tested on the day of the contract. That makes it a date, which makes it something this calculator can price.
The main residence exemption is the rule in section 118-110 that takes capital gains tax off the sale of your home. You get all of it if the home was your main residence for the whole time you owned it, never earned income, and sits on 2 hectares or less of land. Miss any one of those and you get a partial exemption, worked out in days. There is no form: it applies on the facts.
The contract date counts. A capital gain belongs to the income year the sale contract is signed in, not the year it settles. Sign before 30 June and the gain goes on this year's return, on this year's income. Sign after and it moves to next year's return and next year's rates. Your ownership period also runs from contract to contract, not settlement to settlement.
Generally, no. Only one home at a time can be your main residence, and a couple can only have one between them. There is a six months overlap while you move from one main residence to the next, under section 118-140. If a couple choose different homes, section 118-170 splits the exemption, so each home gets half rather than both getting all of it.
Yes, moving back in starts a fresh six-year clock. Each absence gets its own six years, so genuinely living there again ends one absence, and the next one starts a new count. Every day back in the house is also an exempt day. It does not undo days already past the old window: those stay taxable. Whether you really moved back in is judged on facts such as your mail, the electoral roll and the utilities.
Usually, yes, if you are an individual and owned the home for more than 12 months. The 50% discount halves the taxable part of the gain, and it is applied after the main residence days are taken out and after any capital losses. If the market value rule applied, the twelve months run from the day the home first earned income. A foreign resident gets no discount for the period after 8 May 2012.
No. This is an information service: it applies the published rules to the dates and figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks options on one stated measure, what the sale leaves you after capital gains tax, and does not recommend one.
A registered tax agent typically charges $1,500 to $4,000 for this analysis, and that includes advice we are not registered to give. Bring this to them and the conversation starts at the question that actually needs a licensed answer.
You only sign this contract once. Check first.
After that, the dates are locked in. The tax year is fixed, the day count is fixed, and every rule is applied to facts nobody can change. Three minutes now are the cheapest three minutes in the whole sale, and the only ones while the answer can still move.
No card. No sign up. Your answer on the next screen.
A few dates and two prices. That is most of the answer, and it is free.
Free main residence exemption & 6-year rule CGT calculator
Most calculators work out a capital gain. This one works out how much of it the main residence exemption takes back: the days, the six-year rule and the market value reset. Then it prices every lawful option side by side.
Let's count your days. Eight short screens, then you will see how much of your gain is really taxed.
Step 1
Just started
Income tax rates as at -. The main residence rules themselves are not indexed and have not moved since 1 July 2020.
Your free estimate
Here is how much of your gain gets taxed
Which tax rules apply to your dates?
How much you could keep
Your options are $0 apart
That is the difference between the option that leaves you the most and the one that leaves you the least.
A registered tax agent
$1,500 to $4,000
Getting it wrong
-
This report, right now
$19
Unlock the full report before you sign
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And you can ask it questions. Your report comes with an assistant that has read it and explains any figure in plain English, if you want it. It is given the amounts on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes
wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Not deciding today?
Email this estimate to yourself, free
A link straight back to this estimate and the taxable share of your gain. Come back for the full report when the contract gets close.
One email now, then at most three short follow ups over the next week. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Before the contract is signed
See what your sale really costs, before the dates are locked in
Once the contract is signed, the dates are fixed and the tax follows from them. This report counts your days, builds your cost base, applies the six-year rule and the market value reset, and prices every legal way to report the same sale. You see what each choice costs you before anything is signed, not after.
If it cannot model your situation, you get your money back.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us
within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Read a sample report before you buy.
Pricing questions, answered
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a Medicare number, tax file number or bank detail, because we do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
No. You pay once and the access is yours. There is no subscription and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never see your card number.
That is the normal case, and it is why access never expires. Run it on the appraisal you have now. Run it again when the valuer comes back with a figure for the day it was first rented, and again if the contract date slips into another income year. Every re-run is free and there is nothing further to buy.
Main Residence CGT provides information, not financial product advice or tax advice. We are not licensed to give personal advice and we never tell you which option to pick. We apply the published rules to the figures you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your real position is set by the Australian Taxation Office on the return you lodge, and by the dates on the two contracts you sign. Any market value this calculation rests on has to come from a qualified valuer rather than from an estimate.
Unlock your full CGT report
Every option priced on your own dates. It opens the moment the payment clears, with everything you have already entered.
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Worked examples
CGT on a former home: 13 worked examples
Every one of them is selling a home they once lived in. The households, dates and prices are made up. The tax is not. Each card is worked out when this page loads, by the same engine the paid report runs on, against the 2026–27 rates. If a rate changes, this page changes with it.
3 things to know before you read the numbers
1
It is a fraction of days, not a rate
Taxable gain = the whole gain × (days it was not your main residence ÷ days in the ownership period). That is section 118-185 and there is nothing else to it. Every date on these cards is one of those days.
2
Six years, but only while it earns rent
Section 118-145 lets you keep treating a former home as your main residence while you are away: up to six years of each absence if it is let, and with no limit at all if it sits empty. The choice is made by the way the return is filled in, not by lodging a form.
3
One rule can rewrite the cost base
If the place first earned income after 20 August 1996 and you would have been fully exempt the day before, section 118-192 treats you as having bought it that day at market value. It is not optional, and it moves the answer in both directions.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for thirteen different households. Worked out on the current rates.
None of these is you. Now check your own
Your figure depends on five dates (when you bought it, when you moved in, when you moved out, when it first earned a dollar, and when you sign the sale contract) and on two prices. Change any one of them and the answer changes, sometimes by more than the other six put together.
Your options, side by side
Every legal way to handle the sale of Dan and Priya's former home, and how much each one leaves them after capital gains tax. Same property, same $2,050,000 sale price. The only differences are which choices are made and when the contract is signed. Open Show Details on any option. Those panels are live on this page.
The short version
Four numbers for the sale as they entered it, with the contract signed on 1 November 2026. The rest of the report shows where they come from.
Taxable share of the gain
51.7%
2,344 of 4,536 days
Capital gains tax
$121,502
selling on the date they entered
The sale leaves them
$1,883,498
after selling costs and tax
Gap between their options
$120,232
most left vs least left, across 3 options
In plain words: 51.7% of their $1,017,000 gain is taxed. The rest is tax-free because the home counts as their main residence for 2,192 of the 4,536 days the tax law measures.
These four figures use the option "Make the six-year absence choice for the whole absence". The absence choice (section 118-145) lets your old home keep counting as your main residence while you are away. While it earns rent, it covers up to six years of each absence.
Your ownership, stretch by stretch
The exemption is worked out in days, so this table is the heart of it. It shows every stretch from the day they bought the home to the day the contract is signed, and how each one is treated. The days that count run from 1 June 2014 to 1 November 2026.
| What was happening | From | To | Days | How it is treated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living in it | 1 June 2011 | 1 June 2014 | 1,096 | Your main residence |
| Away and rented out, inside the six years | 1 June 2014 | 1 June 2020 | 2,192 | Covered by the section 118-145 choice |
| Away and rented out, past the six years | 1 June 2020 | 1 November 2026 | 2,344 | The six-year window is spent |
The formula, in one line (section 118-185). Taxed part of the gain = the whole gain × (days it was not their main residence ÷ days that count). On these dates that is $1,017,000 × 2,344 ÷ 4,536 = $525,540.
The three years they actually lived there are not in that fraction. They come before the days that count, because the market value rule (section 05 below) restarted the clock on the day the first tenant moved in. It is the most surprising thing on this page.
How the gain is worked out
The gain is the sale price less the cost base. The cost base is what the home cost: the price, the costs of buying and selling it, and improvements. Here is theirs, line by line.
| Part of the cost base | Amount |
|---|---|
| Market value when it was first rented | $950,000 |
| Capital improvements since then | $38,000 |
| Selling costs | $45,000 |
| Ownership costs (third element) | $0 |
| Less capital works deductions claimed | $0 |
| Cost base | $1,033,000 |
| Sale price | $2,050,000 |
| The gain | $1,017,000 |
Holding costs are the part most people never claim. Council rates, land tax, insurance, loan interest and repairs can go into the cost base (section 110-25(4), the "third element") for a home bought after 20 August 1991, but only for the years they could not be claimed as a deduction, which means the years the home earned nothing. Dan and Priya recorded none, so that line is $0.
The market value rule, and what it does to their figures
Section 118-192. The home was their main residence right up to the day it first earned income, so the tax law treats them as having bought it on 1 June 2014 for what it was worth that day. This is not a choice. When the conditions are met, the rule applies whether or not anyone works it out.
Taxed part of the gain with the rule
$525,540
51.7% of $1,017,000
Taxed part without it
$548,543
41.6% of $1,318,000
The rule saves them
$5,406
of tax, on the six-year absence choice
It can help or hurt. It removes all the growth before 1 June 2014 from the gain ($301,000 of it here). But it also removes all the days before then, including the three years they lived there, from the day count. The days that count drop from 5,632 to 4,536, so the taxed share rises from 41.6% to 51.7%. On these figures the rule still lowers the tax, by $5,406. On a home that grew fastest after it was rented, it would not.
It depends on a valuation of one day: 1 June 2014. Not a nearby sale and not an agent's appraisal. A written valuation from a qualified valuer is what proves the figure. The $950,000 used here is the estimate they entered.
The six-year rule, in days
Section 118-145. While an old home earns rent, the absence choice can keep it counting as a main residence for up to six years each time you are away. Theirs started earning rent on 1 June 2014, so the six years ended on 1 June 2020.
Days covered
2,192
rented days inside the six years
Days left
0
still unused on the date they sign
Days past the six years
2,344
rented days the choice cannot cover
Only rented days use up the six years. Time when the home sits empty does not count, and if it earns nothing at all there is no time limit. This is the part people most often get wrong.
Moving back in starts it again. If you move back in and really make it your home again, the next time you are away gets a fresh six years. Whether you really moved back is judged on the facts: where your mail goes, your address on the electoral roll, whose furniture is there, and for how long.
Every option, ranked
Ranked on one thing only: how much the sale leaves them after capital gains tax. The top row leaves them the most.
| # | Option | Taxed share | Tax | Leaves them | Less than the top row |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Move back in for six months, then sell | 49.7% | $116,763 | $1,888,237 | - |
| 2 | Make the six-year absence choice for the whole absence | 51.7% | $121,502 | $1,883,498 | −$4,739 |
| 3 | Sell now and make no absence choice | 100% | $236,995 | $1,768,005 | −$120,232 |
The last row is what a tax return produces when nobody makes the absence choice. The choice is made by the way the gain is reported, not on a form, so a return prepared without thinking about it simply leaves it out. On Dan and Priya's figures, that row leaves them $120,232 less than the top one.
Three options, not seven. Four more legal options exist on these dates (moving back in for twelve months, moving back in and renting it again, holding it two more years, and signing in the next tax year). Every one of them puts the contract on or after 1 July 2027, when the 50% discount is replaced by inflation indexing and a 30% minimum rate. Nobody can price a contract after that date yet, so those options are not ranked against these. The full report still shows their exact day counts in its section on the 1 July 2027 deadline.
5 more sections and their charts, in the full report
- 08The tax on what is left
- 09What would change the answer
- 10The deadline on every one of these options
- 11Business use, land, and the parts people forget
- 12What to ask before you sign anything
Everything above is real arithmetic on a made up household. Run yours free, and the full report opens this half on your own dates.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the amounts on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
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Main residence exemption guides: CGT on your old home, in plain English
Written for somebody who owns one house they used to live in, not for a tax practice. Plain English, the 2026–27 rates, every section number named so you can go and check it, and the arithmetic written out rather than described.
Reading helps. Knowing what your own sale will cost you helps more.
The exemption
Partial main residence exemption: how the days are counted
Most former homes get one. It means part of the gain is exempt and part of it is assessed, in exact proportion to the days - and "partial" does not mean "small". On a long absence past the six-year window the taxable share is routinely more than half.
How is a partial exemption worked out?
Taxable gain = total capital gain × (days in your ownership period when the dwelling was not your main residence ÷ total days in your ownership period)
Section 118-185 applies whenever a dwelling was your main residence for only part of your ownership period. It is deliberately mechanical: there is no discretion in it, no reasonableness test, and no rounding rule. Two dates in, one fraction out.
Which days count as main residence days?
| Stretch | Main residence day? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement to moving in, where you moved in as soon as practicable | Yes | Section 118-135 |
| Settlement to moving in, where a tenant was already there on a lease you inherited | Usually yes | Section 118-135 - the ATO accepts an existing lease as a reason |
| Settlement to moving in, where you let it out yourself first | No | It was never your main residence in that stretch |
| Living in it | Yes | The ordinary case |
| Away, rented, inside the six years, choice made | Yes | Section 118-145 |
| Away, rented, past the six years | No | Section 118-145(2) caps it |
| Away, empty, choice made | Yes | Section 118-145(1) - no time limit |
| Away, and the choice not made | No | Nothing makes it automatically |
| Away, but another dwelling is your main residence for those days | No | Only one at a time |
Why "partial" does not mean "small"
The word makes it sound like a discount on the tax. It is not - it is a proportion of the gain, and the proportion follows the calendar rather than anybody's sense of fairness. A house lived in for three years and let for twelve, with the absence choice made, is around half taxable. Without the choice it is all of it.
The one thing that does soften it is that the fraction applies to the gain, not the price. A complete cost base - with the stamp duty, the commission, the improvements and the third element all in it - reduces the gain before the fraction ever touches it. See what goes in the cost base.
Two things that shrink your exempt days further
Business or income use of part of the dwelling. Section 118-190 reduces the exemption by a reasonable amount having regard to the extent of the use and how long it lasted. Floor area over time is the usual measure. It applies to days that would otherwise be exempt, so it stacks with the apportionment rather than replacing it - see working from home.
Land over 2 hectares. Section 118-120 covers the dwelling and up to two hectares of adjacent land used mainly for private purposes. Beyond that the land is outside the exemption altogether, and the proceeds and cost base have to be apportioned between the exempt part and the balance on a reasonable basis. See the two hectare limit.
The rule that changes the total day count
Where section 118-192 applies, the ownership period does not run from settlement at all - it runs from the day the dwelling first produced income. That shortens the denominator and removes the years you were living there from the numerator's exempt side, at the same time as it removes the pre-letting growth from the gain. The two effects pull in opposite directions and either can win. See the market value reset.
A worked example, day by day
Bought 1 June 2011, lived in it to 1 June 2014, let from then, sold 1 November 2026. The market value rule applies, so the ownership period runs 1 June 2014 to 1 November 2026 - 4,536 days. The absence choice covers six calendar years of that, to 1 June 2020, which is 2,192 days.
4,536 − 2,192 = 2,344 taxable days → 2,344 ÷ 4,536 = 51.7%
On a gain of $1,017,000 that is $525,540 assessable, halved by the discount to $262,770, and taxed at whatever margin it lands on. Without the absence choice the fraction is 4,536 ÷ 4,536 and the whole gain is assessable.
When the day fraction does not apply
Two situations run outside section 118-185 entirely. A dwelling acquired before 20 September 1985 is a pre-CGT asset and there is no capital gain to apportion. And a foreign resident at the time of the contract gets no exemption at all, so there is no fraction - the whole gain is assessable however the days fall. See selling while you live overseas.
Owned two homes? Each gets its own fraction
Where you have owned two dwellings over overlapping years, each of them gets its own fraction and the two are connected: days claimed on one are days not claimed on the other. So the arithmetic is really two fractions and one budget of days between them.
That is why the answer is rarely "claim everything on the old one". What matters is which property grew faster over the overlapping period, because the exemption is worth whatever gain it covers.
Value of a day of exemption ≈ the property's gain ÷ its own ownership days × 50% × your marginal rate
Run that on both and the days go where they are worth more. On a unit that doubled and a house that rose thirty per cent, the answer is frequently the opposite of what the owner assumed from the sale prices alone. Owning two homes at once works through the mechanics, including how spouses are treated when they disagree.
What is your taxable fraction?
The calculator lists every stretch of your ownership with what the rules do to it, then shows the taxable share and the arithmetic that produced it.
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About us
Why we built a main residence CGT calculator
A great many Australians have done exactly this: bought a home, lived in it, moved for work or family, rented it out, and years later put it on the market. Somewhere in those dates is the difference between owing nothing and owing six figures. And it is decided by facts that were settled years ago: the day the first tenant moved in, whether the place sat empty or earned rent, and which of two homes was nominated for which years. By the time a return is prepared, none of it can be changed. The one thing that still can be is the date on the sale contract, and that is usually agreed by an agent for reasons that have nothing to do with tax.
None of this is secret. It is in Subdivision 118-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997: section 118-110 for the full exemption, 118-185 for the day count, 118-145 for the six-year absence rule, 118-192 for the market value reset, 118-190 for business use and 118-120 for the two hectare limit. The tax itself comes from the individual rate schedule for the year the contract is signed. Anybody can read all of it. Almost nobody does, because it is written for administrators, the rules that matter most have no form to lodge and no letter to trigger them, and the arithmetic is a day count over fifteen years that nobody is going to do on the back of an envelope.
Main Residence CGT does one thing: it applies those published rules to your dates and shows you, in full, what they produce. Every stretch of your ownership listed with what the rules do to it, the cost base built line by line, every legal way to report the same sale priced and put in order on one stated measure, and the tax tested against a range of sale prices and incomes, so every assumption can be argued with rather than taken on trust. You can check it, disagree with it, or hand it to somebody who can act on it.
We do not tell you what to do. We are not registered tax agents, we are not licensed to give personal advice, and the report ranks options without recommending one. The arithmetic is the part people are missing, not the opinion. Your assessment is made by the Australian Taxation Office on the return you lodge. Here is what the advice costs and what it adds if you decide you want that as well.
Privacy Policy
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
1. About this policy
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
2. What we never collect
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file numbers, bank account numbers or any government identifier, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act - health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
3. What we collect, and why
Information you give us
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Information collected automatically
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4. Where the calculation happens
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
- If you ask us to email your free estimate, the headline figure that estimate produced is stored with your email address so the estimate we send you is the one you saw.
- If you use the optional report assistant, the figures in the report you have open are sent to us and on to the service that answers it. That is the only part of this site that sends anything to a third party, and section 5 sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
5. The report assistant
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
- A plain-text summary of the figures in the report you have open - the amounts, categories and comparisons the report already shows you on screen.
- The question you typed, and the questions and answers already in that conversation, so a follow-up makes sense.
What is not sent
- Your name. The name field on the calculator is optional and is used only on your own report cover. It is not part of what the assistant is given.
- Your email address, your account, your phone number or your street address. The assistant is not told who you are, and is given no way to find out.
- Your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file numbers, bank account numbers or any government identifier, bank account or card details - we never hold these in the first place. See section 2.
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia - see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
- The summary of your figures is held in our server's memory for one hour so a conversation does not have to re-send it with every question, and is then discarded. It is never written to our database.
- The conversation itself is stored in your own browser tab and is gone when you close that tab. We do not keep a copy.
- We record that a question was asked, and how long it was, so we know whether the feature is used. We do not record what it said.
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
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You can clear or block these through your browser at any time. Clearing them will sign you out and reset your preferences; the site will otherwise work normally.
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We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and - when you complete a purchase - the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, the Australian Taxation Office, tax agents, accountants or lenders, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on, and you can adjust personalised advertising in your Google account settings.
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9. Who we disclose information to
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- Google, as described in sections 5 and 7.
- Professional advisers - our accountants and lawyers, under obligations of confidence.
- A purchaser of our business, if it is ever sold, on terms that require them to honour this policy.
- Law enforcement, courts or regulators, where we are required or authorised by law.
10. Overseas disclosure
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
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The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
12. How long we keep it
- Account and saved reports - until you delete them or ask us to.
- Order and payment records - seven years, as required by Australian tax law. We cannot delete these earlier, even on request.
- Activity data - up to twenty‑six months, then deleted or aggregated so it no longer identifies anyone.
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13. Direct marketing
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email - receipts, access details and password resets - because those are not marketing.
14. Accessing, correcting and deleting your information
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
- give you access to the personal information we hold about you, or explain why we cannot;
- correct anything inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading;
- delete your account and every scenario attached to it, subject to the retention periods in section 12.
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
15. Complaints
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
16. Children
The site is intended for anyone selling a home they once lived in. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
17. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
18. Contact
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Terms of Service
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most - please read it before you rely on anything here.
1. Agreement
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and the main residence exemption rules in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
3. What this service is
Main Residence CGT is an information and calculation service. It applies the main residence exemption rules in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
4. What it is not
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or taxation advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
- We do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and are not authorised representatives of any licensee.
- We do not know your full circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs, and nothing produced by the site takes them into account.
- Where the report ranks options it does so on a single arithmetic measure that deliberately ignores everything a number cannot capture - health, family circumstances, tax position, estate planning, the dates, the valuations and the records behind your own property, and what actually matters to you.
- We receive no commission and have no relationship with any the Australian Taxation Office, your tax agent, your conveyancer, your valuer or your lender.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
5. Accuracy and estimates
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
- All output is an estimate based on the figures you entered. If those figures are wrong, incomplete or out of date, the output will be too.
- Your actual assessment is made by the Australian Taxation Office on the return you lodge, and any market value this calculation rests on has to come from a qualified valuer rather than from an estimate. Those prevail over anything the site produces.
- Rates, thresholds and caps change by legislation and indexation, and legislation can change without notice or retrospectively.
- Projections rely on assumptions about the future - investment returns, indexation, home values, length of stay - which are inherently uncertain and will not be accurate.
Always confirm before you act.
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You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
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Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
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You must not:
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All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
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We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
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The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
15. Australian Consumer Law
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
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Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
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Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
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These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
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22. Contact
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au