When you sell a business in Australia, the proceeds — whether from goodwill, plant and equipment, or shares in your company — arrive in your account alongside a set of decisions that most sellers aren’t ready for. The right approach is roughly this: sort the tax position, fund superannuation optimally, park the remaining cash somewhere liquid, and give yourself 60–90 days before making any irreversible investment choices. This article covers what that actually looks like in practice.
Sort the Tax Before You Move Anything
You can’t sensibly plan the rest until you know your after-tax position. For most Australian business owners selling a business worth between $1M and $15M, that means understanding:
- Whether your sale qualifies for the small business CGT concessions under Division 152 of the ITAA 1997
- Whether you’re selling assets (plant, goodwill, equipment) or shares in the company entity — the treatment differs meaningfully
- The timing of the sale relative to the financial year and your other income
The concessions are substantial. The retirement exemption can shelter up to $500,000 of capital gain from tax entirely — tax-free in your hands if you’re over 55, or tax-free if contributed to super if you’re under 55. The 15-year exemption can eliminate the gain completely for owners who’ve held the business for 15 years and are aged 55 or over at the time of sale. The 50% active asset reduction halves the remaining gain on qualifying assets. Combined, eligible sellers can reach an effective CGT rate close to zero on goodwill — which is typically the largest component of a business sale.
For a detailed breakdown of how these concessions work, read Miro’s guide to tax on selling a business in Australia. The key point here: this analysis needs to happen before settlement, not after. Getting the structure right before contracts are signed is essential — fixing it retroactively is difficult and sometimes impossible.
Rule of thumb: A business owner in their late 50s selling a business they’ve held for 15+ years may pay no CGT at all on the sale. A business owner in their 40s selling a business held for four years might pay CGT on 50–75% of the gain, subject to the active asset reduction and other conditions.
One thing I see consistently: sellers who’ve worked with a good accountant pre-sale know their after-tax number before the deal closes. Sellers who haven’t are sometimes uncertain by $400K or more. (That’s an uncomfortable range to be vague about.)
The Superannuation Window — Don’t Miss It
Superannuation is where most business owners leave real money on the table after a sale, and it’s genuinely reversible in only one direction — once you’ve missed the contribution window, it’s gone.
When you sell a qualifying business asset, you can make a CGT cap contribution to super — currently $1.78 million lifetime (2024-25 financial year) — that sits completely outside the normal non-concessional contribution limits. This isn’t a loophole; it’s a specific provision designed to recognise that small business owners build their retirement savings inside the business, not inside super. The catch is it requires a valid election lodged with your super fund, and it has to happen in the right sequence.
If you’re over 55 and also planning to downsize the family home in the next year or two, a downsizer contribution allows a further $300,000 per person ($600,000 per couple) into super from residential property proceeds. That’s a separate pool from the CGT cap.
Combining the CGT cap contribution, catch-up concessional contributions (if your super balance is under $500K), and possibly a downsizer contribution: a business owner in their late 50s could get $2M+ into a concessionally-taxed super environment in the year of sale and the year or two following it. That’s money that grows at a maximum 15% tax rate inside super versus up to 47% outside.
The sequencing matters. Your total super balance at 30 June of the prior year affects which contributions you can make. The election for the CGT cap needs to accompany the contribution. All of this needs to be coordinated — ideally by a financial planner and accountant working together on your situation before settlement.
What Happens to the Remaining Cash
After tax is sorted and superannuation is funded optimally, most sellers end up with somewhere between $300K and $3M sitting in a bank account. (For larger deals — a $10M+ sale with minimal tax — it might be significantly more.)
The three most common destinations:
Listed equities. Shares, ETFs, or managed funds. Simple to access, liquid, diversified. Many sellers gravitate here because it requires the least effort to set up. The risk is making large allocation decisions quickly, while the market is doing something you’ll regret reacting to.
Property. Residential investment property or commercial property. Higher capital commitment, less liquidity, and meaningful concentration risk in a single asset. Still an appropriate part of a diversified strategy for many people — just not the entire strategy, and not necessarily on the first call from a mortgage broker.
A new venture or business investment. Some sellers can’t sit still. Others back businesses they know well. This can make good sense if the decision is deliberate and the capital isn’t needed elsewhere — and poor sense if you’re doing it to feel busy again three months after settlement.
There’s no universally correct answer. What’s consistent across poorly made decisions is speed — commitments made in the first few weeks after settlement, before the seller has processed what they actually want their life to look like.
The First 90 Days: A Practical Sequence
I sat across from a fellow in his late 50s who’d sold his warehousing business in Perth after 22 years for $4.1M. He was an organised, systematic guy who’d run a good operation. The proceeds hit on a Thursday. By the following Monday he’d received three calls from financial planners, two referrals from his accountant’s partner for property investment, and an invitation from a mate to invest in a restaurant in Cottesloe.
He called me because he wanted to know what order to do things in.
The order is roughly this:
- Confirm your after-tax position — within two weeks of settlement, sit with your accountant and get the actual number
- Lodge any CGT cap election with your super fund — this has a hard deadline linked to your contribution
- Park remaining cash in a high-interest savings account or term deposit — you’re not losing money by thinking; you’re gaining clarity
- Take 60–90 days before any major investment decision — the restaurant in Cottesloe, the managed fund your wealth manager is “very excited about,” the commercial property your brother-in-law found — none of these need an answer this month
- Engage a fee-for-service financial planner — one who works on a flat fee, not commissions from the products they recommend, and who has specific experience with business exits
Nothing in that list is complicated. The hard part is the pause — because most business owners are wired to act, and sitting on cash that feels like it’s doing nothing goes against everything that got them to this point.
The Investors Who Will Find You
After any business sale that becomes known — through an announcement, a broker’s marketing, or simply word getting around — a predictable set of people will approach you. Financial planners looking for large lump sums to manage under an ongoing percentage fee. Property developers with “exclusive opportunities.” Acquaintances who’ve always wanted to “do something together.”
This isn’t surprising and isn’t necessarily sinister — you have capital, and capital attracts people who want to deploy it. Your job is simply to distinguish the approaches you sought from the ones that found you.
A useful heuristic: any investment opportunity that requires a fast decision, doesn’t give you time to get independent legal or financial advice, or involves a person you met after the sale was announced — those are the ones to pass on, regardless of what the numbers say.
The opportunities that are actually good for you will still be good for you in 90 days.
Getting the Structure Right Before You Invest
One decision that doesn’t get enough attention in the post-sale period: where your investment assets are held. Whether you hold shares, property, or other investments personally, through a discretionary family trust, through a company, or inside superannuation affects:
- The tax rate on income generated by those assets
- How capital gains are treated if you sell in the future
- Estate planning and asset protection
If the business sale proceeds arrived in your company’s bank account (common in an asset sale), getting those funds into the right structure requires a separate conversation about Div 7A loans, dividends, and the company’s tax position. This is not straightforward and should be sorted before you make investment allocations — otherwise, you might be investing from a structure that’s inefficient for the assets you’re buying.
If you’re planning the sale of your business, our free valuation calculator can give you a starting estimate of what it’s worth. And when you’re ready to talk through the exit process and what follows, get in touch — this is exactly the kind of conversation we have with business owners across Western Australia and beyond.
The money from selling your business is the result of years of work, risk, and probably a few periods where you weren’t sure it was going to come good. It deserves better than a rushed decision in the weeks after settlement. Take the time, get the right advice, and give yourself space to figure out what you actually want your life to look like on the other side. The rest tends to sort itself out from there.