Private ruling: Market valuation of property for capital gains tax (CGT) purposes
Published: October 2013
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2013
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2012

Ruling: Q1: Are you able to use information provided by a real estate agent as a basis for establishing the market value of your property for CGT purposes? | A1: Yes.

Relevant facts and circumstances: Sometime after 20 September 1985 you and your spouse purchased a property. You and your spouse resided in the property for a period of time and then you moved out and rented the property to tenants. Sometime in the relevant income year you and your spouse sold the property. You have obtained information from real estate agents in an attempt to ascertain the market value of the property at the time it became an investment property.

Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 Subsection 121-20(5).

Reasons for decision: Summary: Where the market value of an asset needs to be determined, a taxpayer can choose to: · obtain a detailed valuation from a qualified valuer; or · compute their own valuation based on reasonably objective and supportable data. A real estate agent will be considered to be a qualified valuer if they are registered as one. The registration of a qualified valuer is not administered through the Australian Taxation Office. You will need to verify whether or not the real estate agent that you have selected to perform the valuation is registered as a qualified valuer. However, a real estate agent is able to provide you with reasonably objective and supportable data that would form a strong basis from which you could compute your own valuation. This is the case regardless of whether or not the real estate agent is registered as a qualified valuer.