CGT Reform 2027

2027 CGT reform: workpaper checklist for Australian accountants

Australia's capital gains tax rules are changing significantly from 1 July 2027.

For accounting firms, the immediate issue is not only how future CGT calculations will work. It is whether the client file contains enough historical information to apply the transitional rules properly when an asset is eventually sold.

That makes 30 June 2027 an important documentation and valuation reference point for many affected assets. The firms that start identifying weak CGT records now may be in a much stronger position than firms trying to reconstruct decades of information after a future disposal.

Published 27 August 2026. Last reviewed 27 August 2026. Technically reviewed by the Taxpartna tax team.

This guide approaches the reforms from that workpaper and review perspective.

Status of the reforms

Status checked: 27 August 2026

The core CGT reforms have been enacted through the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 and related rates legislation, which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026.

The core regime includes:

replacement of the existing 50% CGT discount with cost-base indexation for affected gains from 1 July 2027
a minimum 30% tax rate on relevant capital gains
transitional treatment for assets held across 30 June 2027
rules affecting pre-CGT assets continuing to be held after the transition

However, implementation is still developing. Treasury released exposure-draft material on 4 August 2026 for further CGT and negative-gearing rules, including more complex circumstances and a draft method for apportioning certain gains and losses.

Further tranches are expected to deal with additional interactions and special cases.

Before acting on this article, check the latest legislation, regulations, legislative instruments, Treasury material and ATO guidance. This article is general information, not tax or valuation advice.

What changes from 1 July 2027?

Under the enacted core reforms, the existing 50% CGT discount is being replaced for affected Australian-resident individuals and trusts with an indexation approach for gains accruing from 1 July 2027.

A minimum 30% tax rate will also apply to relevant real capital gains under the new regime.

There are specific exceptions and special rules. Accounting firms should not assume every asset, entity or taxpayer receives identical treatment.

The major practical change for workpaper preparation is that many assets held both before and after 1 July 2027 will require a way of distinguishing the economic gain attributable to the pre-reform and post-reform periods.

Why does 30 June 2027 matter?

For many affected assets held across the transition, the legislation contains deemed sale and reacquisition mechanisms around the end of 30 June 2027 and beginning of 1 July 2027.

Depending on the applicable rule, market value immediately before 1 July 2027 may become important, although legislation also contemplates an alternative apportioning methodology in relevant circumstances. The detailed apportioning mechanism is one area where implementation material was still developing as at August 2026.

That creates a practical record-keeping issue. A client may not sell an asset until 2034. But the accountant dealing with that sale may need reliable information relating to the asset and its value around 30 June 2027.

Trying to recreate that evidence seven years later could be considerably harder than preparing the file now.

Is 30 June 2027 a transaction deadline?

Not automatically.

It is misleading to treat 30 June 2027 as a universal deadline by which every investor needs to sell, transfer or restructure assets. Whether a transaction should occur before or after the reforms depends on:

the taxpayer
asset
expected gain
valuation
alternative investments
transaction costs
commercial objectives
other tax consequences
final legislation and guidance

For many accounting firms, 30 June 2027 is better viewed first as a major data, valuation and documentation date. Transaction advice requires consideration of the client's individual circumstances.

Which clients should firms start identifying?

A practical first step is to identify clients with significant CGT assets likely to be held across the transition. Depending on the final rules and taxpayer circumstances, this might include:

investment properties
listed shares
unlisted shares
units
interests in private businesses
trust interests
commercial property
land
significant collectables
historically acquired investments
inherited assets
assets acquired through rollover transactions
pre-CGT assets still held

Do not assume that every asset requires an immediate independent valuation. The first task is identifying where a future evidence requirement is likely.

Which records should firms locate now?

The most valuable pre-2027 exercise for some clients may simply be cleaning up their historical CGT records.

Acquisition documents

Locate:

purchase contracts
settlement statements
acquisition confirmations
share purchase documents
unit statements
probate or estate records where relevant
restructure documents

Acquisition dates

Do not rely solely on an asset-register description saying "Property - old investment." Establish the relevant acquisition history.

Original cost

Identify reliable evidence for:

purchase consideration
incidental acquisition costs
legal fees
stamp duty where relevant
brokerage
other relevant cost-base amounts

Improvements and capital expenditure

Long-held assets often have incomplete improvement histories. For property, this may include significant capital works or improvements. For businesses and other assets, the relevant expenditure will depend on the asset and CGT rules.

Ownership history

Document:

original owner
transfers
joint ownership changes
trust/company restructures
deceased-estate movements
relationship breakdown transfers
rollover events

Prior CGT concessions or elections

Identify previous events affecting the asset's tax history.

Existing valuations

Retain:

valuation reports
methodology
valuation date
purpose
assumptions

A valuation obtained for another purpose may not automatically be suitable for the 2027 transition. But it can still be valuable evidence.

2027 CGT workpaper checklist

Create a dedicated transition schedule for clients with material affected assets.

Section A - Asset identification

For each asset, record:

Asset description
Legal owner
Relevant entity
Acquisition date
Acquisition method
Original acquisition cost
Whether the asset was held on 30 June 2027
Whether pre-CGT status is relevant
Whether specific exception rules may apply
Expected future holding intention

Section B - Historical documents

Confirm whether the file contains:

Acquisition contract
Settlement statement
Brokerage or transaction confirmation
Legal-cost records
Stamp-duty records where relevant
Evidence of capital improvements
Rollover documentation
Estate documents
Prior valuations
Prior tax advice affecting cost base

Section C - Cost-base support

Document:

Cost-base schedule
Source of each material amount
Missing records
Reconstructed information
Assumptions
Supporting correspondence
Prior adjustments to cost base
Costs excluded from the calculation and why

Do not silently enter estimates without recording their basis.

Section D - 30 June 2027 transition

Where relevant, record:

Whether the enacted deemed-transition provisions apply
Whether market-value evidence may be required
Whether an apportioning method may be relevant
Status of the applicable legislative instrument
Valuation date
Valuer or methodology
Information supplied to the valuer
Assumptions
Supporting report
Practitioner review

Section E - Entity interests

For private-company shares, units or interests in trusts, consider whether the file contains enough information concerning:

ownership percentage
acquisition history
underlying business/assets
shareholder/unit-holder records
historical restructures
prior valuation work
rights attaching to the interest
significant liabilities
relevant related-party arrangements

Professional valuation advice may be needed.

Section F - Reviewer notes

The workpaper should identify:

unresolved document requests
uncertain acquisition dates
assumptions requiring confirmation
missing cost-base evidence
valuation matters
technical questions
external advice obtained
practitioner conclusions
follow-up date

Why pre-CGT assets need attention

The enacted reforms contain transition rules for assets that were pre-CGT assets on 30 June 2027 and continue to be held afterwards. Those rules can reset the asset's position from 1 July 2027 for future CGT purposes while preserving the pre-transition treatment under the statutory mechanism.

That makes identification particularly important. A future accountant should not need to guess whether an asset was acquired before 20 September 1985.

For relevant clients, consider locating evidence now. Examples might include:

historical contracts
company records
probate documents
archived title information
trust records
old financial statements
contemporaneous correspondence

The older the asset, the greater the risk that evidence has been lost.

Common CGT workpaper gaps to identify before 2027

Missing acquisition date

The client's current schedule contains cost but no reliable acquisition date.

Cost base consists of one unexplained number

There is no breakdown showing what the amount includes.

Capital improvements were never added

The client has held property for decades and significant improvements are not reflected in the schedule.

Rollover history is undocumented

The current owner acquired the asset through an earlier restructure but the file contains no rollover analysis.

Pre-CGT status is assumed

The workpaper says "pre-CGT" because it has said so for 15 years, but no supporting evidence is retained.

Private-company interests have no valuation information

The client's shareholding is significant but historic value information is weak.

Trust interests are poorly documented

The file does not clearly show how or when the relevant interest arose.

Asset registers do not agree with tax records

The accounting asset register and tax CGT schedule contain different acquisition costs or dates.

Valuation evidence cannot be found

A workpaper refers to a valuation that is not actually in the client file.

These are worth identifying before the transition date becomes urgent.

What should accounting firms do during 2026-27?

A staged approach may be more manageable than waiting until June 2027.

Stage 1 - Identify exposed clients

Create a report or workflow to identify clients with:

major investments
long-held property
private-company interests
trust interests
pre-CGT assets
historic CGT record problems

Stage 2 - Review existing CGT schedules

Ask:

Is the asset list complete?
Are acquisition dates reliable?
Does each material amount have support?
Are prior restructures documented?

Stage 3 - Request missing records early

Clients may need time to locate:

old contracts
solicitor files
historic statements
probate documents
valuation material

June 2027 is not the ideal time to start that process.

Stage 4 - Identify valuation candidates

Determine which assets may require valuation advice under the final rules. Do not commission unnecessary valuations solely because the reform exists. Apply professional judgement and monitor further guidance.

Stage 5 - Create a transition workpaper

For significant clients, consider maintaining a dedicated schedule containing:

asset
ownership
acquisition history
evidence status
valuation status
outstanding actions
reviewer
review date

Stage 6 - Monitor legislative development

The core law is enacted, but later-tranche implementation continues. Assign responsibility within the firm for monitoring:

Treasury legislation
legislative instruments
ATO guidance
professional-body technical updates

Stage 7 - Update templates before 2027

If your current CGT workpaper has no field for transition-date evidence, consider updating it before peak compliance season.

Stage 8 - Review before the transition

For high-risk files, perform a final review of missing information well before 30 June 2027.

Valuation is not merely a number

Where a valuation becomes relevant, a future reviewer may need more than "Market value: $2,500,000". A stronger file may identify:

valuation date
valuer
method
report
assumptions
information supplied
limitations
ownership interest valued

The appropriate evidence depends on the asset and circumstances. Tax practitioners should obtain specialist valuation advice where required.

The long-term issue is future reviewability

Consider an investment property purchased in 2004 and sold in 2032. The accountant dealing with the 2032 disposal may need to understand:

original acquisition information
expenditure before transition
transition treatment
30 June 2027 evidence
post-transition expenditure
eventual sale

If those records are not organised during 2026-27, the 2032 practitioner may be trying to reconstruct them years after the people involved have changed.

That is why the CGT reform is partly a workpaper-design problem today, not merely a calculation problem in the future.

Where Taxpartna fits

Taxpartna's relevance to the 2027 CGT reforms is currently at the broader completed-file review level. Good CGT outcomes depend on:

complete workpapers
source evidence
consistent values
visible assumptions
clear review points

Taxpartna can help reviewers examine the documents submitted to the review and surface inconsistencies or missing information within the supported workflow.

Taxpartna should not be described as automatically applying or validating the new 2027 CGT regime unless dedicated functionality has been implemented and tested for that purpose.

The registered tax practitioner remains responsible for the CGT calculation, interpretation of the transitional rules, valuation considerations and final conclusion.

Explore Taxpartna's completed-file review workflow See how source hints work

Related resources

Primary sources

Important information. This article is general information only and is not tax, legal or valuation advice. Time-sensitive legislative statements should be checked against current primary sources. It does not replace the underlying legislation, Treasury material, ATO guidance or the registered tax practitioner's judgement. Taxpartna does not calculate CGT, apply the transitional rules or provide tax advice.