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The Daily Insight

Is stock market gain taxable?

Author

James Craig

Published Mar 28, 2026

Short term capital gains are taxable at 15%. Special rate of tax of 15% is applicable to short term capital gains, irrespective of your tax slab. Also, if your total taxable income excluding short term gains is below taxable income i.e Rs 2.5 lakh – you can adjust this shortfall against your short term gains.

Are stock sales taxed as income or capital gains?

If you sell stock for more than you originally paid for it, then you may have to pay taxes on your profits, which are considered a form of income in the eyes of the IRS (bummer!). Specifically, profits resulting from the sale of stock are a type of income known as capital gains, which have unique tax implications.

Is capital gain amount taxable?

The capital gains tax in India, under Union Budget 2018, 10% tax is applicable on the LTCG on sale of listed securities above Rs. 1lakh and the STCG are taxed at 15%. Besides this, the both long term and short term capital gains are taxable in case of debt mutual funds.

How do you calculate capital gains tax on stock sales?

Short-term capital gains can be computed by subtracting the following 3 items from the total value of sale:

  1. Full sales value – Rs. 48,000.
  2. Brokerage at 0.5% – Rs. 240.
  3. Purchase price – Rs. 38,750.

Do you have to pay taxes on stock gains?

Everyone has to pay taxes on stock gains, as well as returns on other kinds of investments (AKA the capital gains tax). Here’s an introduction into capital gains tax rates and how to calculate what you owe. Capital gains are earnings on assets like stocks, bonds, real estate and more.

What kind of tax do you pay on capital gain?

1 Short-term Capital Gain (STCG) Tax. For the short-term capital gain, investors/traders have to pay a flat 15% as STCG Tax on their profits. 2 Long-term Capital Gain (LTCG) Tax. According to the updated tax rules announced in budget 2018 by Mr. 3 Speculative Business Income Tax. 4 Non-Speculative Business Income Tax. …

What happens to capital gains when you sell stock?

If you sell your securities for a lower rate than you initially paid for them, you’re incurring capital losses. To offset your capital gains tax, you can deduct capital losses (short-term losses can offset short-term gains, and long-term losses can offset long-term gains).

Do you have to pay capital gains tax on preference shares?

Debt-oriented mutual funds and preference shares, however, are subject to general long-term capital gains tax rules. Accordingly, they have to pay a 20% tax for no-equity assets after inflation indexation and 10% tax without indexation. Indexation increases the purchase price and the capital gain decreases accordingly.