People keep saying that profit on shares held >12months get a 50%profit discount. NOT TRUE. Be aware that the >12 month 50% deduction doesn't relate to just a parcel of shares, but to your overall trading activities for the year. If you have losses (who doesn't) these need to be deducted from your gains (at full rate). Then only those shares which remain having a >12month hold can have the 12month 50% applied. As an extreme, if you had say $100k profit on your >12month shares, but this equaled the losses of your <12month shares you can't use the 50% reduction on the $100k as your overall profit =<$0. Tax wise your gain is $0, not -$50k. So there is often times when its not advantagous to take the risk to hold shares for >12months as it would be offset by those shares making a loss.
