Property Depreciation Excel Template – Free (2026)
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Capital Gains Tax Property Excel - Free Template
Track property CGT records, calculate cost base, capital gain and 50% discount, and summarise results for tax time.
This capital gains tax property Excel template helps you record purchase, ownership and sale details for each property, then calculate cost base, capital proceeds, capital gain or loss, and the 50% CGT discount in one workbook. It includes a Property CGT Register, CGT Summary, _PieData and Instructions sheets.
Use it when you sell an investment property, land or another CGT asset and need a clean record for your accountant or your own tax return. The layout is built for Australian tax work, with fields for dates, costs, ABN / TFN reference and ownership period in days.
The register is practical for sole investors, couples and small property holders who want the numbers sorted before the ATO asks questions. It keeps the working out visible, which makes reconciliation and later review much easier.
The key benefits of this Excel template
- Tracks each property disposal from purchase through to sale in one place.
- Separates purchase price, stamp duty, improvements and incidental costs so your cost base is clear.
- Calculates ownership period in days so you can check the 12-month CGT discount test quickly.
- Shows capital proceeds, capital gain or loss, and the discounted gain for easier tax reporting.
- Gives you a summary view instead of hunting through old contracts, settlement statements and invoices.
- Helps you keep tidy records for the ATO for the 5-year record-keeping period.
- Makes it easier to compare multiple properties, with one line per disposal and totals on the summary sheet.
Step-by-step guide
- Open the Property CGT Register and enter one disposal per row. Fill in the property name, owner, dates, and reference numbers first so each record is easy to trace later.
- Add the purchase side costs. Include purchase price, acquisition costs, stamp duty, improvement costs and incidental purchase costs so the cost base works out properly.
- Enter the sale details and selling costs. The sheet then calculates capital proceeds, capital gain or loss, and whether the holding period passes the 12-month rule.
- Check the discount fields. If the asset was held for more than 12 months, the workbook flags whether the 50% CGT discount is available.
- Review the CGT Summary sheet. Use it to see the net result across all properties before you complete your return or pass the numbers to your tax agent.
- Use _PieData for the chart data and read the Instructions sheet if you want the workbook setup explained before you start entering figures.
What is included
Property CGT Register with one disposal per row for neat record-keeping.
Columns for purchase price, acquisition costs, stamp duty, improvements and incidental purchase costs.
Fields for sale date, sale price and selling costs to calculate the net result.
Ownership period in days, plus held over 12 months and discount eligible checks.
Automatic capital gain / loss and net capital gain / loss calculations.
CGT Summary sheet for a quick view of totals across all property disposals.
_PieData sheet to support the chart data used in the workbook.
How property investors and sole owners use this Excel register
If you sold an investment unit, vacant land or a rental house in Australia, this register gives you the working papers in one place. A sole trader, a couple holding property jointly, or a small Pty Ltd with a real estate disposal can all use the same structure to sort the figures before tax time.
Image 1, the Property CGT Register, is set up like a working ledger rather than a sales brochure. You enter the purchase date, settlement date, sale date, purchase price, sale price and all the costs that sit around the deal, then the sheet works out the ownership period and the gain or loss.
Where the numbers matter
Say you bought a townhouse for $620,000, paid $24,800 in stamp duty and $6,200 in legal and agent costs, then sold it later for $780,000 with $18,000 in selling costs. That is the sort of clean, line-by-line record that lets you see whether the gross gain is really a taxable gain after costs and the 50% discount.
Who benefits from the summary view
A landlord with two rentals and a block of land sold in the same year can compare each disposal on the CGT Summary sheet instead of juggling paper contracts. If you have several assets, that matters at year end because the result may be a capital gain on one property and a capital loss on another, and you want the offsets shown clearly.
Why it helps before tax time
The workbook is also useful for the person who has not lodged yet but wants the figures ready for the ATO or their accountant. With the dates and costs already laid out, you are not trying to reconstruct a deal from memory and a pile of settlement emails.
What the ATO expects when you work out a property capital gain
The ATO expects you to keep enough records to show how you calculated the capital gain or loss, and to keep those records for 5 years. For property, that usually means the contract, settlement statement, duty notice, improvement invoices and sale costs, not just the final number in your return.
The 12-month CGT discount is the big rule this workbook helps you test. If the property was held for more than 12 months, an individual or trust may be able to claim the 50% CGT discount; if it was held for 365 days or less, the discount does not apply.
What goes into the cost base
The register separates purchase price, acquisition costs, stamp duty, improvements and incidental purchase costs because they are not all the same thing. For example, a $540,000 purchase with $22,000 of duty and $9,500 of solicitor and title costs has a very different cost base from the contract price alone.
Why the dates are not cosmetic
Settlement date and sale date are not there just for neatness. If you bought on 14/03/2020 and sold on 16/03/2021, you have a different CGT outcome from a property sold on 12/03/2021, even though the difference is only a few days.
Technical choice that saves time
For property CGT work, a spreadsheet is usually the right place to calculate the gain first and then roll the total into your return. That is cleaner than trying to do the whole calculation from memory, and it gives you a trail you can check line by line if the numbers are queried later.
That same trail becomes even more useful when you need a BAS statement record to reconcile the figures before lodging the return.
Where property CGT records usually go wrong
The most common problem is mixing up what belongs in the cost base and what does not. If you put ongoing repairs in with capital improvements, or leave out stamp duty, your gain can be overstated by thousands of dollars and you may pay tax you did not need to pay.
Another frequent error is forgetting selling costs. A $15,000 agent fee and conveyancing bill on a $700,000 sale is not small change; miss it and your capital gain is $15,000 too high before you even get to the discount test.
Bad dates create bad outcomes
People also get caught by the 12-month rule when they record the wrong dates. If a property was held for 364 days and the 50% discount is claimed anyway, that mistake can ripple through the tax return and lead to interest and penalties if the return is amended later.
Why paper files fall apart
In real life, the paperwork gets scattered between the conveyancer, the bank, the old email account and the box in the garage. When a client comes in with three properties sold over 2 years and no proper register, it can take hours just to rebuild the numbers from settlement statements and invoices.
The cost of poor records
A missing invoice for $8,400 of kitchen upgrades or $3,200 of title and legal fees can change the result enough to matter. Good records are not about being neat; they are about proving the calculation if the ATO checks it and making sure you are not paying extra tax on a guess.
How to make the property CGT sheet part of your year-end routine
The easiest way to keep this workbook alive is to use it when the paperwork lands, not months later. If you bought, improved or sold property this year, update the register on the same day you file the contract, settlement statement or invoice.
Simple habits that stick
- Save one copy of the workbook for each financial year and copy the structure forward on 1 July.
- Enter new property costs as they happen, rather than trying to reconstruct a whole sale at once.
- Use the summary sheet at the same time you do your annual tax file review, so the CGT numbers are checked alongside your profit and loss and bank statements.
Use the spreadsheet before it gets messy
If you hold one or two properties, a spreadsheet is usually enough and stays fast to update. Once you are managing multiple entities, more than a handful of disposals, or complicated trusts and company structures, that is when proper software or a more formal tax workpaper set starts to make sense.
Keep the format clean
Drop in the numbers, keep the notes short, and avoid changing the column structure each time. That way the workbook stays ready for the next sale, the next refinance, or the next conversation with your accountant when the return comes due.
That same tidy structure also suits a GST invoice format when the return comes due.
Frequently asked questions about this template
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File format
Excel (.xlsx)
Compatible software
Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice
Price
Free