The 30 June 2027 CGT reset: what business owners need to know

Most private business owners in Australia will need one number in 2027, and they will need it long after the reason for it has been forgotten. From 1 July 2027 the capital gains tax rules change, and the value of a business at 30 June 2027 becomes the starting point for everything that follows.

What changes on 1 July 2027

Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, the capital gains tax rules change for CGT events on or after 1 July 2027. For owners of private companies the practical effect is a transitional reset: rather than measuring a future gain against an original cost base that may be decades old and no longer meaningful, the gain is measured from the market value of the business at the transition date.

For most private businesses, that date is 30 June 2027 — the last day of the 2026–27 financial year.

Why the number has to be provable, not merely plausible

A market value is a conclusion about what a willing but not anxious buyer would pay a willing but not anxious seller, both properly informed, in an orderly transaction. It is not the highest price a strategic buyer might stretch to, and it is not the number that makes a tax position look best. It is a considered opinion — and an opinion is worth exactly as much as the evidence and the method behind it.

This is the part most owners underestimate. The valuation may be prepared years before anyone tests it. By then the person who commissioned it has moved on, the working papers are in an archive, and the assumptions are no longer fresh in anyone's mind. If the conclusion cannot be reconstructed from the record, it cannot be defended — and a valuation that cannot be defended is not worth much.

What a defensible value has to carry

• A stated basis and method, applied consistently and disclosed in full.
• Inputs that trace back to the business's own records: financial statements, owner benefits, contracts and trend data.
• Judgement applied by a qualified valuer rather than a template, with every assumption named and tested.
• A signature that accepts responsibility for the conclusion.

Our work is prepared to APES 225, the professional standard for business valuations, and every report is reviewed and signed by an independent qualified valuer.

Who feels the deadline hardest

Two groups. Owners of private companies, who need a defensible market value pinned to the transition date. And the accountants and advisers who will be asked for one by a large share of their client base at the same time — a volume of work no firm absorbs simply by working longer hours.

What to do between now and then

Start with the cheapest question: roughly where does your value sit? A free indicative range takes a few minutes, and it tells you whether you have a straightforward position that the ATO's apportionment method will resolve, or something more complex that deserves a signed valuation. From there the work is orderly — assemble the records, settle the basis, and get the number done while there is still time to act on it.

Begin with the free indicative range and find out which side of that line your business sits on before the date decides for you.