PSX Tracker guide
Capital gains tax basics for Pakistani stocks
Capital gains tax (CGT) on listed shares is about taxable profit when you dispose of holdings — not about how much cash you withdrew from a broker. Rules and rates change with budgets and ordinances. This article explains the ideas investors usually track so conversations with a tax professional start from cleaner facts.
Gain versus cash in your pocket
A simplified picture of realized gain is sale proceeds minus the cost of the lots you sold (and related selling costs you include). That figure is not the same as “I transferred money to my bank.”
Deposits, withdrawals and dividends follow different stories. Mixing them with capital gains is a common source of confusion at year end.
Holding periods and changing rates
Pakistan has used different treatments depending on how long shares were held and which rules applied for that tax year. Do not memorize a percentage from an old blog post.
Check current FBR guidance and your advisor for the year you are filing. PSX Tracker fields that look CGT-oriented are informational aids, not a filed computation.
Why lot matching shows up in tax season
Which buys a sale closes changes the gain. If your records cannot reconstruct lots, you will struggle to explain numbers on statements.
FIFO-style books and saved contract notes make that reconstruction possible. Fix import duplicates early — before December urgency.
What a tracker can and cannot do
PSX Tracker can show realized P&L with fees and help you review sells. It does not submit returns, apply every exemption automatically, or replace a qualified tax advisor.
Export your ledger, keep broker PDFs, and reconcile large disposals before you sign anything.
Good habits year-round
- Save contract notes when trades fill
- Record dividends and withholding separately from share sells
- Export after messy imports and spot-check quantities
- Ask a professional when rules look unclear — do not guess from WhatsApp
This guide is educational and describes how PSX Tracker works. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Confirm rules and figures with your broker, FBR guidance and professional advisors.
What counts as a disposal
A disposal is the sale or other transfer that closes shares, not the day you withdraw cash from the broker. You can sell shares and leave the proceeds in the broker wallet. You can also withdraw cash that came from a deposit, a dividend, or an older sale. Only the closing of lots creates a capital gain or loss for that trade.
Gifts, transfers between your own accounts, and inheritance are not ordinary market sells. Treat them as their own events and ask a tax adviser which cost carries over. Recording them as a sale at the market price will invent a gain you did not earn from a buyer.
Same-day buys and sells need care. If the sell is listed before the buy in a file, a naive ledger can claim you sold shares you did not yet hold. A usable book applies the day’s purchases before it closes lots, then reports only the quantity that was actually open.
Build the file you would hand an adviser
For each sell, an adviser eventually wants the date, symbol, quantity, sale price, sale charges, and the buy dates and costs of the lots that sale closed. Contract notes and CDC statements are the originals. A tracker is the index that makes those originals searchable.
Keep dividends and withholding in a separate column from share sales. A cash dividend is income, not a capital gain, even when it lands in the same broker wallet. Mixing the two makes both the tax conversation and your personal return harder to explain.
Export the ledger after a large disposal and tick it against the contract note before you rely on the figure. Duplicated imports are the usual error: the same fill entered twice doubles the quantity and the gain. The reconcile guide covers that check.
Holding period is a date problem
Pakistan’s treatment of listed-share gains has depended on how long the shares were held and on the rules for that tax year. The percentage is not a constant you should copy from an old post. What you can prepare, any year, is the dates. FIFO makes the holding period of a partial sell a fact instead of a guess, because you know which lot closed.
Filer and non-filer status, funds versus shares, and debt securities are different questions. This guide is about listed shares you bought and sold through a broker. Mutual-fund redemptions follow the fund’s distribution and the statement the asset manager issues.
PSX Tracker can show a realized gain from the lots and fees you entered. It does not submit a return, apply an exemption, or know which ordinance applies to your year. Use the public capital-gains calculator only as arithmetic on numbers you type. NCCPL’s computation and your adviser remain the authority.
A labeled illustration, not a filing
Suppose you bought 500 shares at 100 and paid 200 in buy charges, then sold all 500 at 130 and paid 250 in sell charges. Proceeds are 65,000. Cost is 50,200. Gain after the sell charge is 14,550. That arithmetic is the personal record. The tax is 14,550 multiplied by whatever rate actually applies to that holding period and tax year, and only if the gain is taxable in your situation.
If you had bought 200 shares earlier at 80 and 300 later at 110, a partial sale of 200 shares does not use the blended price. FIFO closes the earlier lot first. Average cost would report a different gain from the same contract note. The FIFO guide works that contrast with another set of round numbers.
Write the illustration’s result next to the contract note, not instead of it. If the two disagree, the contract note wins and the ledger needs a correction.
Habits that survive a rule change
Save the PDF when the trade fills, not at tax time. Name it with the date and symbol so you can find it. Enter the trade, including fees, in the same week. Once a month, match open quantities to the broker.
When a budget announcement changes a rate, your old ledger is still useful. Dates and costs do not expire. Only the rate you apply on top of them changes. That is why a tracker should store the trade, not a hardcoded tax percentage.
If you are unsure whether a corporate action, a gift, or an off-market transfer is a disposal, stop and ask. Guessing inside the app creates a number that looks precise and is wrong. The app is a notebook. It is not the Federal Board of Revenue and it is not NCCPL.
Which tax source and date should you use?
The Rs 14,550 example above explains a fee-inclusive gain. It does not establish the tax payable. Keep the acquisition date of each closed lot, the disposal date, the relevant tax year, taxpayer status and the official computation together.
The linked NCCPL circular describes the Finance Act 2025 schedule effective from 1 July 2025 and labels its table Tax Year 2026. A tax-year label is not the same as every trade made during the calendar year 2026. Check later legislation and NCCPL notices for the period of your disposal.
Source scope noted 16 October 2026: the public calculator implements the Finance Act 2025 schedule. Later amendments have not been verified on this page. Use its tax output as a schedule illustration and reconcile to NCCPL before filing; personal fees, loss offsets and other adjustments can differ from the official computation.
- NCCPL capital gains tax information — Start with the official computation, applicable rules and your tax certificate.
- NCCPL circular: Finance Act 2025 schedule (PDF) — Historical schedule effective 1 July 2025, labelled Tax Year 2026; not evidence of the rules for every later sale.
Common questions
Does PSX Tracker file my capital gains tax?
No. It can estimate realized gains from the trades you enter. NCCPL, your broker, and FBR guidance remain the records that matter for tax.
What changes the gain on a PSX share sale?
Sale price, the cost of the lots you close, fees, and how long you held the shares. Holding-period rules change, so confirm the current schedule before you rely on a number.
Why should I keep my own trade history?
Broker screens show today’s book. A personal ledger lets you reconstruct which lots a sale closed and reconcile that against official statements.
Related guides
FIFO cost basis on the Pakistan Stock Exchange · Realized vs unrealized P&L: meaning and example · Tracking PSX dividends and cash income · How PSX Tracker works: video and feature guide