Tax payable in your annual SMSF tax return is made out of 3 components…
1. ATO Supervisory Levy
Each year when your tax return is lodged your fund is required to pay a supervisory levy to the ATO (currently $259). Note that new funds in their first year need to pay this amount twice when lodging their first tax return then once a year from then on.
2. Income, Dividends & Contributions / Expenses & Fees
All the income into your fund from employer and personal contributions (up to $27,500) and dividends is taxed at 15%. The taxable amount is offset by any expenses and fees your fund paid throughout the year. (eg accounting fees, hardware wallet etc). Contribution taxes are covered in this blog post: http://newbrightoncapital.com/blog/f/how-are-super-contributions-taxed
3. Capital Gains / Capital Losses
Any time a single asset is sold for a profit. For example, if you buy an asset for $100 and then you sell it for $200, you are taxed 15% on the $100 profit you made ($15 tax).
If you make a loss on the sale of an asset, your loss will be offset against your gains for the financial year and if you make a loss overall, your capital loss is carried forward into the next financial year.
Please note: It is possible for the “on paper” value of your fund to have gone down in value and the fund may still have to pay tax. This is because it is not the value of the assets that determines the tax payable but whether or not any of the assets sold during the year were sold at a profit.
Profits in super is taxed at 15%. If an asset is classified as property like realestate or crypto currency, then capital gains tax exemptions apply. This means that if you buy and sell the property within one year and make a profit you’ll be taxed the normal 15%, however, if you sell an asset after owning it for 1 year or more, the profit will be taxed at only 10%.