How can we help?

Only available in Australian tax residency portfolios on Standard, Comprehensive and Sharesight Business plans.

The sale allocation method determines which buy parcels Sharesight assigns to a sell trade when calculating your capital gains. Sharesight tracks every parcel you hold — including partially sold parcels — so each unit can only be allocated to one sale, with no risk of double-counting across financial years.

The sale allocation method is set in the Capital Gains Tax Report.

Jump to:

• How parcel tracking works
• Available methods
• Changing methods across financial years
• How to change the sale allocation method

---

How parcel tracking works

When you record a sell trade in Sharesight, the system matches that sale against your available buy parcels using the selected method. Each parcel has one of three states:

• Available — the parcel has not yet been sold and is eligible to be matched against future sell trades.
• Partially disposed — some units from the parcel have been sold. The remaining units are tracked separately and remain available for future allocations.
• Fully disposed — all units from the parcel have been sold and it is no longer available for allocation.

Because Sharesight maintains this parcel state across all financial years, running the CGT Report in a future year will only draw from parcels that still have available units. There is no risk of the same parcel being counted twice.

---

Available sale allocation methods

First In, First Out (default)

Sharesight assumes the shares you purchased first are sold first. This is the most commonly used approach and aligns with the ATO default.

Last In, First Out

Sharesight assumes the shares you purchased most recently are sold first.

Minimise Capital Gain

Sharesight assumes the shares with the highest purchase price are sold first, which minimises the capital gain (or maximises any capital loss) on each sale.

Maximise Capital Gain

Sharesight assumes the shares with the lowest purchase price are sold first, maximising the capital gain on each sale.

Minimise Capital Gain Tax

Sharesight considers both the purchase price and the holding period to minimise your overall tax liability. Parcels held for 12 months or more — which are eligible for the 50% CGT discount — are prioritised where doing so results in a lower after-discount tax outcome compared to selling a shorter-held parcel at the same gain.

---

Changing methods across financial years

You can use a different sale allocation method each time you run the CGT Report. However, because the method determines how sell trades are matched to parcels, changing the method for a prior financial year can alter parcel allocation across all subsequent years — which may produce incorrect CGT figures.

To prevent this, use the lock-in feature to lock the sale allocation method for a completed financial year. Once locked, that year's allocation is preserved and will not be overridden if you change the method for a different period.

Important: If you have changed sale allocation methods between financial years without using lock-in, the parcel matching across those years may be incorrect. Review your CGT Report and use lock-in to fix each year in sequence from oldest to most recent.

---

How to change the sale allocation method

The sale allocation method is changed from within the Capital Gains Tax Report:

1. Run the CGT Report for the relevant financial year.
2. Click Change sale allocation method.
3. Select the method from the dropdown.
4. Click Update current report.

To lock the method in place for that year, click Lock in after updating the report.

Note: Sharesight does not provide taxation advice. If you are unsure which sale allocation method applies to your situation, consult your accountant or tax adviser.