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Practical Checklist

CGT records for property investors: what to keep, and for how long

A working checklist of the records the ATO expects property investors to keep for capital gains tax — the documents behind each cost base element, the purchase, ownership and sale files, retention periods, and what happens when records are missing.

Published Updated Sources verified 9 min read

Applies to: Enacted CGT record-keeping rules current at 13 July 2026; FRCGW clearance certificate settings apply to disposals from 1 January 2025; the Act 49 of 2026 CGT changes apply to CGT events happening on or after 1 July 2027 · Australia

The direct answer

Keep every document that proves the five elements of the property’s CGT cost base — the purchase price, incidental costs of buying and selling (stamp duty, legal fees, agent’s commission, borrowing expenses), non-deductible costs of owning, capital improvement costs and costs of defending title — together with records showing whether each expense was claimed as a tax deduction. Keep them for at least 5 years after you dispose of the property (longer where capital losses are carried forward), because amounts you cannot substantiate generally cannot reduce the capital gain, and penalties can apply for failing to keep records.

Key points

  • Your records must prove all five elements of the cost base — acquisition cost, incidental costs of buying and selling, non-deductible costs of owning, capital improvements and title defence costs — per the ATO’s cost base guidance updated 29 June 2026.
  • The ATO’s property record list covers the purchase contract, stamp duty, legal fees, settlement statements, survey and valuation fees, the sale contract, sales commission, holding-cost receipts and capital improvement invoices.
  • Keep everything for at least 5 years after you dispose of the property — because the records start at purchase, a 10-year hold means roughly 15 years of records, and carried-forward capital losses extend the clock.
  • No double dipping: amounts you claimed (or could claim) as deductions stay out of the cost base — which makes depreciation schedules and past tax returns core CGT records, with capital works deductions subtracted in the ATO’s own rental-property example.
  • The CGT event happens on the contract date, not at settlement — and since 1 January 2025, Australian-resident vendors need an ATO clearance certificate at or before settlement or the purchaser must withhold up to 15% of the sale proceeds.
  • Missing records have real consequences: in the ATO’s words you may end up paying more tax than necessary, unsupported claims can be disallowed on review, and penalties can apply for failing to keep or retain records.
  • **Schedule 1 of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 makes records more important, not less. For CGT events on or after 1 July 2027, the discount percentage for resident individuals and non-superannuation trusts on ordinary assets becomes 0%, and cost-base indexation is available instead where the Division 114 requirements are met — but indexation runs only on expenditure incurred on or after 1 July 2027 (s 960-275(1B)), so the date** each cost was incurred now carries consequences of its own.

Why CGT records are different from your annual deduction records

Annual rental records support one tax return and are usually finished with once that return’s review period passes. Capital gains tax records are different: they accumulate across the entire ownership period, because the cost base that reduces your capital gain is assembled from documents that can span decades — the purchase contract, the stamp duty assessment, every improvement invoice, and the depreciation claims made along the way.

The organising principle is no double dipping. The cost base and reduced cost base exclude any amount you have claimed or could claim as a tax deduction, and recouped amounts (such as insurance payouts) are also excluded unless the recoupment was included in your assessable income. That is why the ATO expects records that establish whether an income tax deduction has been claimed for each item of expenditure — the same receipt sits on one side of the line or the other depending on how it was treated. Our property investor deductions guide covers the annual-deduction side.

Enacted, but not yet applying

The CGT measures from the 2026-27 Federal Budget are law — the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 (No. 49 of 2026) received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, and all four Parts of Schedule 1 commenced on 1 July 2026. But commencement is not application: the substantive changes are keyed to CGT events happening on or after 1 July 2027, and the ATO’s CGT pages confirm they do not apply to Tax Time 2026. The distinction between enacted and announced matters, and so does the distinction between commencement and application. The checklist below reflects the law applying to disposals made in the 2026-27 income year — with one addition, because Schedule 1 changes what your records have to prove.

The five elements of the cost base — and the documents that prove each

Cost base elements and the records behind them
ElementWhat it coversDocuments that prove it
1. Acquisition costMoney paid, or property given, for the assetPurchase contract and purchase settlement statement
2. Incidental costsCosts of acquiring the asset or that relate to the CGT event — stamp duty, conveyancing and legal fees, agent’s commission, advertising or marketing to find a buyer or seller, valuation and search fees, and borrowing expenses such as loan application and mortgage discharge feesDuty assessment, and invoices from the conveyancer, agent, valuer and lender
3. Costs of owningRates, land taxes, repairs, insurance premiums and non-deductible interest — countable only where they were not deductibleReceipts plus the tax returns that show whether each cost was deducted
4. Capital improvementsCapital costs to increase or preserve the asset’s value, or to install or move it — extensions, additions, renovationsBuilding contracts, invoices and payment records
5. Title costsCapital costs of preserving or defending ownership of, or rights to, the assetLegal invoices and related correspondence

Third-element costs carry strict limits: they count only where they were not deductible (for example, because the land was vacant), only for assets acquired on or after 21 August 1991, they cannot be indexed, and they cannot be used to create or increase a capital loss. For a property that was rented or genuinely available for rent, holding costs such as interest, rates, land tax and insurance are generally claimed as annual deductions — so they stay out of the cost base.

From 1 July 2027: why the date of every cost now matters

Schedule 1 of Act 49 of 2026 pushes in the opposite direction to the way it is usually reported: it makes CGT records more important, not less. For CGT events happening on or after 1 July 2027, the rewritten section 115-100 gives a resident individual — and a trust that is not a complying superannuation entity — a CGT discount percentage of 0% on an ordinary asset. The discount is not abolished: complying superannuation entities keep 33⅓%, qualifying new residential dwellings keep 50% (s 115-102 — though what will qualify is left to a legislative instrument that had not been made at 13 July 2026, so nobody can yet say what falls inside it), eligible affordable housing keeps up to 60% (s 115-125), companies are unchanged, and the 50% discount continues to apply to CGT events happening before 1 July 2027.

What takes its place for individuals and non-super trusts is cost-base indexation under new section 110-36(1A), available where the CGT event happens on or after 1 July 2027 and the requirements of Division 114 are met — including the 12-month rule and, for individuals, new section 114-25 (neither a foreign nor a temporary resident at any time in the relevant period). Indexation may reduce a capital gain, but it cannot create or increase a capital loss.

Indexation attaches to dated expenditure

New section 960-275(1B) indexes only expenditure incurred on or after 1 July 2027. And because Subdivision 112-E deems a sale and reacquisition just before that date, an asset you already hold on 30 June 2027 has its reacquisition cost treated as expenditure incurred on 1 July 2027 — so indexation runs from 1 July 2027, not from the day you bought the property. The consequence for this checklist is direct: the date on which each cost-base amount was incurred now has tax consequences of its own. A file that proves an amount but not when it was incurred is no longer enough.

What to capture from here on — with the date attached

  • The date each cost-base amount was incurred, not merely the amount — invoices, contracts and payment records that fix the date on their face, across every element from acquisition costs to capital improvements.
  • A clean line either side of 1 July 2027 — keep expenditure incurred before that date filed separately from expenditure incurred on or after it, so the split is not reconstructed from memory years later.
  • Your position in the property at 30 June 2027 — ownership interests, the property’s history and the deductions claimed to that point, so the deemed reacquisition can be worked through on a complete file.
  • Residency evidence across the ownership period — Division 114 conditions indexation for individuals on not having been a foreign or a temporary resident at any time in the relevant period, so residency records now bear on the calculation, not only on exemptions.
  • Everything already on this checklist — the five cost base elements, the deduction status of each amount and the depreciation schedule all still apply. Schedule 1 removes no record you already had to keep; it adds a dimension to them.

No worked calculation for a post-1 July 2027 CGT event appears here, deliberately. The interaction between Subdivision 112-E, Division 114 and Division 119 is genuinely complex, and the ATO had published no guidance on Schedule 1 at 13 July 2026. The record-keeping consequence, though, is clear on the face of the Act — dates now matter as much as amounts, and they are far easier to capture as you go than to reconstruct at sale. The measure itself is set out in our companion resource on the CGT discount changes from 1 July 2027.

The purchase and ownership file

Start the file the week contracts are exchanged. The ATO’s rental-property guidance confirms the capital expenses that may form part of the cost base include conveyancing costs, title search fees, valuation fees (including a private valuation arranged through your solicitor), stamp duty on the transfer, and initial repairs incurred to make the property suitable to rent.

Capture at purchase

  • Purchase contract and settlement statement — the first element of the cost base and the acquisition date.
  • Stamp duty assessment — duty on the transfer is a second-element cost.
  • Conveyancing and legal invoices, plus title search, survey and valuation fees.
  • Borrowing expense records — loan application fees now, and mortgage discharge fees later, are incidental costs; keep the loan documents that itemise them.
  • Initial repair invoices — work needed to make the property suitable to rent is capital in nature and may form part of the cost base rather than an annual repair deduction.

Maintain while you own

  • Capital improvement records — building contracts and invoices for extensions, additions and renovations (fourth element).
  • Your depreciation schedule and past tax returns — capital works deductions you can claim cannot also sit in the cost base; in the ATO’s rental-property example, capital works and decline-in-value deductions claimed over the ownership period are subtracted when the cost base is worked out.
  • **Decline-in-value records for depreciating assets** — noting the ATO’s reminder that for properties purchased after 9 May 2017 there are no deductions for the decline in value of second-hand depreciating assets.
  • Holding-cost receipts with their deduction status — interest, rates, land taxes, insurance and repairs, kept together with the returns showing whether each was claimed.
  • Vacant land holding costs — for most individual investors, deductions for holding costs of vacant land incurred on or after 1 July 2019 are denied, and the ATO confirms those non-deductible costs (interest, rates and similar) may instead be included in the cost base when a CGT event happens — but only if the receipts survive to substantiate them.

The sale file: contract date, selling costs and the clearance certificate

For a property sold under contract, the time of the CGT event is the date you enter into the contract — not settlement — so keep both the sale contract and the settlement statement, because the dates and the figures each matter. Where the property is co-owned, each owner makes a capital gain or loss according to their ownership interest (equally for joint tenants; per each owner’s legal interest for tenants in common), so the title records showing those interests belong in the file too.

The sale file

  • Sale contract — fixes the timing of the CGT event.
  • Sale settlement statement — proceeds and adjustments.
  • Agent’s commission and legal fee invoices — second-element costs of the disposal, along with any advertising or marketing costs of finding a buyer.
  • Mortgage discharge and exit fee records — borrowing and termination costs that relate to the end of ownership.
  • Your ATO clearance certificate — since 1 January 2025, Australian-resident vendors of Australian real property must give the purchaser an ATO clearance certificate at or before settlement, or the purchaser must withhold up to 15% of the sale proceeds. Applications can take up to 28 days to process and certificates are valid for 12 months — apply early and file the certificate with the sale records.

How long to keep CGT records

Minimum retention periods, current at 12 July 2026
SituationMinimum retention
Standard property disposalAt least 5 years after you dispose of the property — the records run from purchase, so a 10-year hold means roughly 15 years of records
Capital loss offset against a gain in a later yearKeep the records from the year of the offset for a further 2 years (individuals and small businesses) or 4 years (other taxpayers)
Decline-in-value claims for depreciating assets5 years from the date of your last claim
Dispute with the ATOThe later of 5 years from lodgment or 5 years from resolution of the dispute
Vacant land exceptional-circumstances exemption claimedWritten records of the exceptional circumstance and its effect, kept for 5 years after the end of the income year the cost was incurred

There is one sanctioned shortcut. If you transfer the necessary information about an asset into a CGT asset register — with the entry in English and certified in writing by an approved person, such as a registered tax agent, after 31 December 1997 — you can discard the original documents 5 years after the entry is certified. For long-held portfolios, that converts an open-ended paper obligation into a managed register.

Format rules

Records can be paper or electronic, including photos of written evidence, provided each copy is a true and clear copy of the original. Records for expenses incurred in Australia must be in English. Back up electronic records — these retention periods outlast most phones and laptops.

What happens if records are missing

The ATO’s framing is blunt: without records showing every transaction, event or circumstance relevant to the gain or loss, you may end up paying more tax than necessary, because amounts that cannot be substantiated generally cannot reduce the capital gain. If the return is reviewed, unsupported claims can be disallowed, and penalties can apply for failing to keep or retain records.

If gaps already exist, the task becomes evidence reconstruction — settlement statements, duty assessments and loan records can sometimes be re-obtained from the parties who issued them, and past tax returns establish what was deducted. A registered tax agent can help work through what can still be substantiated; our capital gains tax service does this work when a sale is approaching.

Special situations to document early

Situations where a record must be captured at the time, not at sale
SituationRecord to capture now
Home first used to produce income after 20 August 1996The home’s market value at the time it first produced income
Inherited dwellingRelevant costs incurred by you, the previous owner and the trustee or executor, plus the dwelling’s market value at the date of death
Property transferred on relationship breakdownRecords showing how and when your former spouse acquired the property and its cost base at transfer — without them, you may be liable for CGT for periods that would have qualified for the main residence exemption
Property acquired before 20 September 1985Exempt from CGT — no CGT records needed unless you later add a capital improvement, so keep every improvement invoice; rental income records are still required for income tax

Two of these turn on the main residence exemption: when a former home starts earning income, the market value at that date becomes a figure your CGT calculation may need, and our companion resource on the main residence exemption six-year rule covers how long a former home can stay exempt. NSW investors keeping land tax paperwork alongside the CGT file may also want our NSW land tax resource.

Hypothetical example — a rental unit, a pergola and a depreciation schedule

Imagine Priya, a fictional Australian-resident investor with illustrative round figures. She buys a rental unit for $700,000 (first element), paying $28,000 in stamp duty, conveyancing and legal costs (second element). While the unit is rented, her loan interest, council rates and insurance are generally deductible against the rent each year, so they cannot also enter the cost base. She installs a $15,000 pergola (fourth element) and keeps the invoice. Over her ownership she claims $20,000 of capital works deductions per her quantity surveyor’s schedule — amounts that must come off the cost base at sale. She signs a contract to sell for $850,000 (the CGT event happens on the contract date) and pays $18,000 in agent’s commission and legal fees (second element). Her cost base is $700,000 + $28,000 + $15,000 + $18,000 − $20,000 = $741,000, and her capital gain — before any losses or discount she may be entitled to apply — is $850,000 − $741,000 = $109,000. Every figure traces to a record: contracts, settlement statements, invoices, loan statements, the depreciation schedule and the ATO clearance certificate she obtained before settlement. She keeps the file for at least 5 years after the sale.

This example is entirely hypothetical and illustrates the mechanics only. It is not a client outcome, a prediction, or advice.

Core CGT records for each property

  • Purchase contract and purchase settlement statement
  • Stamp duty assessment on the purchase
  • Conveyancing, legal, valuation and search invoices (purchase and sale)
  • Loan documents showing borrowing expenses — application fees and mortgage discharge fees
  • Invoices for initial repairs and every capital improvement
  • Quantity surveyor depreciation schedule, plus tax returns showing capital works and decline-in-value claims
  • Holding-cost receipts (interest, rates, land tax, insurance, repairs) with their deduction status
  • Sale contract, sale settlement statement and agent’s commission invoice
  • ATO clearance certificate given to the purchaser
  • Title records showing ownership shares for co-owned property
  • Dated evidence for every cost-base amount — the date each cost was incurred now matters as well as the amount, because indexation from 1 July 2027 attaches only to expenditure incurred on or after that date

Limitations of this information

  • General information reflecting enacted law on ATO pages current at 12 July 2026, with the Act 49 of 2026 position verified against the Act text at 13 July 2026 — it is not tax advice, and how the rules apply depends on your circumstances and each property’s history.
  • The Act 49 of 2026 CGT changes are law but do not apply yet: they apply to CGT events happening on or after 1 July 2027, and the ATO confirms they do not apply to Tax Time 2026. This resource covers only what they mean for record-keeping. It does not work through a post-1 July 2027 calculation — the Subdivision 112-E deemed sale and reacquisition and the Division 119 interactions are complex and were not independently verified, and the ATO had published no guidance on Schedule 1 at 13 July 2026.
  • Penalty amounts for failing to keep or retain records are deliberately not quoted — none were verifiable at the verification date. Do not infer that missing records are consequence-free.
  • Special rules for major capital improvements to pre-20 September 1985 property (the improvement threshold test), the full main residence exemption mechanics, and foreign-resident CGT beyond the clearance certificate requirement are outside this checklist’s scope.
  • State taxes appear here only as records to keep — NSW transfer duty and land tax figures are not covered and were not verified for this resource.

Practical next steps

  1. Open a single file per property — paper or digital — the week contracts are exchanged, and lodge the contract, duty assessment and settlement statement in it first.
  2. Reconcile your depreciation schedule against past returns so the capital works deductions to subtract at sale are already tallied.
  3. Record the date each cost-base amount was incurred, not just the amount — and from now on, file expenditure incurred before 1 July 2027 separately from expenditure incurred on or after it.
  4. If a sale is planned, apply for the ATO clearance certificate early — processing can take up to 28 days.
  5. For long-held portfolios, ask about a certified CGT asset register so original documents do not need to be kept indefinitely.
  6. For help assembling a cost base or preparing records before a sale, see our capital gains tax service or contact the practice.

Frequently asked questions

At least 5 years after you dispose of the property. Because the records start when you buy, a property held for 10 years means keeping records for about 15 years in total. If a sale produces a capital loss that you later offset against a gain, the ATO says to keep the records from the year of the offset for a further 2 years (individuals or small businesses) or 4 years (other taxpayers).

Official sources

The facts in this resource are drawn from the following official sources, each read on the date shown. If a source has changed since, the source prevails.

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026 (No. 49 of 2026)Federal Register of Legislation · retrieved 13 July 2026 · supports: Schedule 1 — that the measures are enacted law (Royal Assent 26 June 2026) applying to CGT events happening on or after 1 July 2027; the rewritten s 115-100 discount percentages (0% for resident individuals and non-super trusts on ordinary assets under para (f); 33⅓% retained for complying superannuation entities; 50% under s 115-102; up to 60% under s 115-125); cost-base indexation under s 110-36(1A) subject to Division 114 (including s 114-25); the s 960-275(1B) limit of indexation to expenditure incurred on or after 1 July 2027; the Subdivision 112-E deemed sale and reacquisition just before 1 July 2027; and that indexation cannot create or increase a capital loss
  • Cost base of assetATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: the five cost base elements, the incidental costs list, third-element restrictions, the no-deduction rule and the 2026-27 Budget alert wording
  • Keeping records for propertyATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: the property record list, the 5-years-after-disposal rule, pre-20 September 1985 property, and the market-value, inherited-dwelling and relationship-breakdown records
  • Capital gains tax asset recordsATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: what CGT records must show, the 15-year retention example, capital-loss retention extensions and the certified CGT asset register
  • Records you need to keepATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: record format rules, depreciating-asset and dispute retention periods, and that penalties can apply for record-keeping failures
  • Capital gains tax when selling your rental propertyATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: rental cost base inclusions including initial repairs, contract-date timing, co-ownership splits, the capital works subtraction example and the second-hand depreciating asset note
  • Deductions for vacant landATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: the denial of vacant-land holding cost deductions from 1 July 2019, their inclusion in the cost base, and the exceptional-circumstances record rule
  • Australian residents and clearance certificatesATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: the 15% withholding rate from 1 January 2025, the clearance certificate requirement, 28-day processing and 12-month validity
  • Property improvements and additionsATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: that a capital improvement to a pre-20 September 1985 property can have its own CGT consequences (a major improvement can be treated as a separate CGT asset), and the improvement threshold test named as out of scope in the limitations — the threshold figures themselves are deliberately not published here
  • CGT discountATO · retrieved 12 July 2026 · supports: the worked example’s statement that the capital gain is figured before any capital losses or CGT discount the investor may be entitled to apply
Discuss your situation with us

This resource is general information for Australian residents, not tax advice. It does not consider your circumstances, and tax outcomes depend on individual facts. Speak to a registered tax agent before acting. It is also not financial product advice — we are not an Australian financial services licensee. Decisions about superannuation or other financial products should be discussed with a licensed financial adviser.

Last verified against official sources: · Next scheduled review by 13 October 2026 · Update sensitivity: high

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