The end of the financial year does most of its damage in the last two weeks of June, when traders who haven’t planned scramble to undo months of drift. The Australians who handle EOFY well treat it as a process that runs through May and June, not a panic at the end. This is the practical checklist — twelve items, ordered by what to do when — that takes you from now through to 30 June 2026 without nasty surprises in your tax return.
First pass — second half of May
1. Pull a full transaction history from every platform
Export CSVs from every exchange, broker, and wallet you’ve used during the financial year. Do it now, while exchanges aren’t under load and your accounts are easily accessible. Several Australian traders have been caught by exchanges that retired, lost data, or made historical exports harder to access without warning. The data you can’t pull on 30 June is data you can’t report.
2. Reconcile your records against the ATO’s view
Log in to myGov and check the ATO pre-fill screen for any crypto holdings the ATO is aware of through data-matching. If something appears on their side that doesn’t reconcile with your records, that gap is worth resolving now — not on 31 October when you’re trying to lodge.
3. Estimate your year-to-date taxable position
Get a rough estimate of where your taxable income will land for the year, including realised gains and other income. The estimate doesn’t need to be perfect — it needs to be accurate enough to tell you which tax bracket you’re sitting in. That determines whether bringing forward gains or losses is worth the effort.
Second pass — first half of June
4. Identify positions for potential loss harvesting
List every position carrying an unrealised loss. Order them by size of loss and by how aligned the loss is with your view of the asset. Genuinely deteriorated thesis at the top of the list, “I still believe in it but it’s down” at the bottom. The ones at the top are candidates for realisation. The ones at the bottom probably aren’t worth the wash sale risk.
5. Identify gains you may want to bring forward
If your taxable income is well below the bracket boundary at $135,000, there may be value in realising selected gains this year while you’re inside the 30% bracket rather than next year if you expect to push higher. The 50% CGT discount still applies until July 2027, so long-term positions get particularly favourable treatment if realised this year or next.
6. Review your superannuation contributions
The concessional contribution cap is $30,000 for FY2025–26. If you haven’t maximised it and you have spare cash, additional contributions before 30 June reduce taxable income at marginal rate and grow inside super at 15% (or 10% on long-term gains). For higher earners, this is one of the most effective tax-reduction tools available.
Third pass — week of 15 June
7. Execute planned loss realisations
Realise the loss positions you decided to exit. Document the reasoning at the time of the sale — why you’re exiting, what the alternative exposure (if any) looks like, why this isn’t a wash sale dressed up as a thesis change. Save the notes with your tax records.
8. Execute planned gain realisations
If you’re bringing forward gains, do it now. Pacing the disposals across several days reduces market impact and gives you time to handle anything unexpected. Avoid the last two trading days of June if you can help it.
9. Top up super if planned
Concessional contributions must hit your super fund’s account by 30 June to count for the current financial year. Most funds have processing delays — submit the contribution at least a week before EOFY to be safe.
Final pass — week of 22 June
10. Buffer week for cleanup
Anything that didn’t settle from the previous week. Positions you reconsidered. Final reconciliation of records. By 25 June you want every decision made and every transaction executed. The last days of June should be quiet for you.
11. Take dated screenshots of key balances
On 30 June (or as close to it as you can), capture screenshots of every exchange balance, every wallet balance, and the closing prices of major positions. For SMSF trustees this is a hard requirement. For individual investors it’s still a good idea — it creates an evidentiary trail if the ATO ever wants to verify your year-end position.
12. Book in with your tax agent for July
Good tax agents are busy from mid-July through October. Get on their calendar early. Send them your records as soon as you have them — typically mid-July when exchanges finalise their year-end reports. Lodging in August rather than October avoids the late-season rush and gives you faster certainty about your final position.
The mistakes the checklist prevents
Three patterns Australian traders fall into without a checklist.
The 29 June scramble. Waiting until the last few trading days to harvest losses leaves you exposed to exchange outages, wash sale risk if you re-enter quickly, and execution risk on illiquid positions. Spreading the work across May and June removes all three.
Missing the super contribution window. Concessional contributions are one of the cleanest tax-reduction tools available, and they get missed every year because the super fund’s processing time eats into the window. Submit at least a week before 30 June.
Lost transaction history. Traders who don’t export early discover the gap when they’re trying to file in September. By then, that small exchange that closed in August is no longer answering emails. The data isn’t recoverable.
The bottom line
EOFY rewards process over reflexes. Twelve items, six weeks, no panic. The Australians who handle this well in 2026 are the ones who treat May and June as a sequence of small decisions made calmly, not a sprint at the end. Print the checklist, work through it, lodge in August.
For deeper context on the specific moving parts, see our pieces on tax-loss harvesting before 30 June, reporting crypto on ATO myTax, the Stage 3 tax bracket changes, and the CGT discount being scrapped from July 2027. To see how Impulse Cashholm helps with the record-keeping side of EOFY, visit How It Works or the FAQ.
This article is general in nature and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Tax laws and ATO guidance change. Contribution caps and other thresholds are subject to indexation. Speak to a registered tax agent for advice tailored to your situation.