The tax treatment of your shares depends on whether you hold shares as an investor or carry on a business as a share trader.
Tax treatment
- If you hold shares as an investor:
- your shares are assets and are subject to capital gains tax when you sell them
- your costs are taken into account at the time you sell your shares
- income is earned from dividends and similar receipts.
- If you are a share trader:
- your shares are treated as trading stock in a business
- your gains are treated as ordinary income
- your losses and costs are treated as deductible expenses in the year they are incurred.
Source: ATO