Capital Gains Tax Calculator

There is no common international treatment of capital gains. Four distinct designs appear among the countries below: a flat rate applied to the whole gain (Germany, France, Poland, Japan); an inclusion rate or discount that brings only part of the gain into tax (Australia, Canada); rates that step with the taxpayer's own income band (United Kingdom, United States); and a holding-period split that separates short-term from long-term gains (United States, Australia).

Two design choices explain most of the gap in what people actually pay. The first is whether the country cares how long the asset was held — the United States taxes a short-term gain as ordinary income but a long-term one at 0%, 15% or 20%, while Germany applies the same rate either way. The second is whether a tax-free allowance comes off before the rate applies: the UK deducts an annual exempt amount of £3,000 from the gain first, which matters far more on a small disposal than on a large one.

The table below states the assumption each calculator actually uses, with the tax authority it comes from. Surcharges, regional taxes and account-specific exemptions are listed where the model leaves them out, so you can see what an estimate does and does not cover before relying on it.