FIFO Capital Gains Calculator (Shares & Mutual Funds)

About the FIFO Capital Gains Calculator (Shares & Mutual Funds)

When you sell part of a holding you bought in several goes, the tax law decides which units you sold: for shares and fund units in a demat account, the oldest ones first — first in, first out (FIFO). That sets the cost and the holding period of every unit sold, and so whether each part of the gain is short-term or long-term.

Enter or paste your buys and sells — from a broker’s tradebook or a fund statement — with any bonus issues and splits. The calculator matches every sale lot by lot, gives the holding period and class of each lot, applies the 31 January 2018 grandfathering to older equity, and adds the gains up for FY 2025-26 and Tax Year 2026-27 by the categories the tax return asks for. It also lists the units you still hold and the date each lot turns long-term. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

First in, first out

For securities held through a depository (a demat account), the Income-tax Act says the cost of acquisition and the period of holding are determined on the first-in-first-out method — section 67(7)(c) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, section 45(2A) of the 1961 Act, following CBDT Circular No. 768. A sale therefore uses up your oldest units first, whatever units you meant to sell. Each security is matched separately; this calculator matches every security you enter that way, transaction by transaction in date order.

Short-term or long-term

• Listed shares, equity-fund units, other listed securities (bonds, ETFs): long-term if held more than 12 months before the sale — section 2(101). The Finance (No. 2) Bill, 2024 memorandum put it as “for all listed securities, the holding period … 12 months”.
• Other fund units that are not listed: more than 24 months.
• Debt mutual fund units bought on or after 1 April 2023 (funds with more than 65% in debt and money-market instruments, by whatever name — debt and liquid ETFs too): always short-term, taxed at your slab rates however long you hold them — section 76 (section 50AA of the 1961 Act). Bought before then, debt-fund units are long-term after 24 months, and units of a listed debt ETF after 12 months; choose Debt ETF (listed) for those.

The months are counted date to date: shares bought on 10 April 2025 are long-term when sold on or after 11 April 2026.

Bonus issues and splits

• Bonus units cost nil (section 90(6)(d)) and are held from the date they were allotted (section 2(101)(c)). Enter them as a Bonus row with the units received. With FIFO, a sale still uses the original shares first.
• A split or consolidation changes the number of units, not what you paid: the cost of the new shares is worked out from the old ones (section 90(9)(d)). Enter a Split row with the new units for each old unit — 5 for a ₹10 share split into ₹2 shares, 0.5 for two shares consolidated into one. Every lot held then is multiplied by the ratio and its cost per unit divided by it; each lot keeps its purchase date.

Equity bought before 1 February 2018

For listed equity shares and units of equity-oriented funds or business trusts bought before 1 February 2018 and sold long-term, the cost is the higher of your actual cost and the lower of their fair market value on 31 January 2018 and the sale value — section 90(7) (section 55(2)(ac) of the 1961 Act). The fair market value is the highest price quoted on a recognised stock exchange on 31 January 2018 (or on the last day before it with trading), or the NAV on that date for units that were not listed. Enter it per unit as it stood on that day; later splits are applied to it for you. Gains up to 31 January 2018 are not taxed: the cost is raised at most to the sale value.

What goes in the charges, and what the totals mean

Put brokerage, exchange and SEBI charges, GST on them and stamp duty in the charges: on a purchase they are added to the cost, on a sale they are deducted as transfer expenses. Do not include securities transaction tax (STT) — it is not deductible (section 72(3)(b)).

The summary groups each year’s gains the way they are taxed: short-term equity at 20% (section 196; 111A of the 1961 Act), long-term equity at 12.5% on the year’s total above ₹1,25,000 (section 198; 112A), other long-term gains at 12.5% (section 197; 112) and other short-term gains at your slab rates. The equity rates need STT paid on the sale (and, for shares, on the purchase). A short-term loss can be set off against any capital gain of the year, a long-term loss only against long-term gains (section 108(2)); what is left can be carried forward for eight tax years (section 111). Work out the tax itself with the capital gains tax calculator.

Pasting a tradebook or statement

A header row is matched by name: date (trade date), security (symbol, scrip, scheme, name), type (trade type, transaction, action), quantity (units), price (rate, NAV), and optionally ISIN, asset class and amount — when there is no price, the amount divided by the units is used. Every charge column is added up: brokerage, exchange and clearing charges, SEBI fees, GST, stamp duty, exit load (a “total charges” column is used on its own); STT columns are left out. Without a header the columns are Date, Security, Type, Units, Price, Charges. Type words such as buy, purchase, SIP, switch-in, sell, redemption, switch-out, bonus and split are understood; without a type, negative units are a sale. Columns can be separated by tabs, commas or semicolons, and lines that cannot be read are listed with the reason.

A pasted security starts as listed shares unless the data has an asset-class column; a name that reads like a fund gets a reminder to choose its class under Securities.

Limitations

• Sales are classified under the rules of FY 2025-26 and Tax Year 2026-27, which are the same. Sales in other years are matched (so later sales use the right units) but not classified.
• Not covered: intraday and F&O trades (business income), mergers, demergers, buybacks, ESOPs, foreign shares, crypto and other virtual digital assets, and unlisted bonds, unlisted debentures and market-linked debentures (always short-term under section 76). Rights shares can be entered as purchases on their allotment date.
• For residents. The 31 January 2018 values, the asset classes and the charges are what you enter; the calculator does not look them up.
• Bought before 1 April 2001: you may take the fair market value on 1 April 2001 as the cost instead of what you paid (section 90(9)(a); section 55(2)(b) of the 1961 Act). Enter that value as the purchase price.
• It adds up gains and losses by category but does not set losses off for you or work out the tax.
• Up to 3,000 transactions at a time. The page lists the first 500 lots of each table; the CSV files have all of them.

Privacy

Everything is calculated in your browser. Your transactions, statements and files are never uploaded or stored on a server.