How to Track DRP Shares in Australia (Cost Base, CGT and Parcels)

By Mitchell Shad  ·  29 October 2026  ·  7 min read

A dividend reinvestment plan (DRP) is the easiest way to grow a share or ETF holding: the dividend never reaches your bank account, it buys more units instead. It is also the easiest way to lose track of what you own, because every reinvestment is a small purchase you did not make by hand, at a price you did not choose, on a date you probably did not write down.

Those small purchases matter twice. They move your balance away from the one your broker shows, and years later they decide how much capital gains tax you pay when you sell. This guide covers how DRPs are treated in Australia, what to record, where the numbers come from, and how to keep it tidy without a second job.

What a DRP actually does to your holding

When a company or ETF pays a distribution and you are in its DRP, the registry allots you new units equal to the dividend divided by the plan price, usually rounded down. Any cents left over are carried forward as a residual balance and added to the next reinvestment. Some companies offer a small discount on the plan price (1 to 2.5% is typical); most ASX ETFs do not.

So a holding of 500 units of an ETF that pays quarterly becomes 503 units, then 506, then 510, with four separate purchase dates and four separate prices in the year. After five years that is twenty parcels, none of which you bought on purpose.

How the ATO treats DRP shares

The tax treatment is simple once you see the two halves:

1. The dividend is still income. Reinvesting it does not change that. The dividend, and any franking credits attached to it, go in your tax return the same way a cash dividend would.
2. The new units are a new purchase. The ATO treats you as having received the dividend and used it to buy the units. Their cost base is the amount of the dividend applied (not the market price on the day, which is how a DRP discount quietly becomes a small tax advantage), and their acquisition date is the allotment date.

The second half is the one people miss. Each DRP allotment is its own CGT parcel, with its own date and cost base. That means:

• The 12-month discount is counted per parcel. Units allotted eleven months before you sell do not get the 50% CGT discount, even if you have held the "same" ETF for a decade.
• You can choose which parcels you sell, as long as your records identify them. Selling the highest-cost parcels first can cut the gain; selling the oldest can lock in the discount. Without parcel records, you are usually left with first-in, first-out.
• Averaging is wrong for tax. A spreadsheet that keeps one "average price" per holding will give you a reasonable idea of performance, but it cannot produce the parcel-level gain the ATO wants, and it will be wrong on the discount.

ETFs add one more wrinkle. Most ASX ETFs are attribution managed investment trusts, so your distribution is not just a dividend: part of it may be capital gains, foreign income or a tax-deferred amount. Once a year the fund issues an AMMA statement with a net cost base adjustment that moves the cost base of your units up or down. Reinvested distributions and cost base adjustments both land on the same holding, which is why ETF DRPs are the ones that most often end up a mess at tax time.

Where the numbers come from

You do not need to work any of this out from the share price. The registry does it for you:

• The DRP statement (allotment advice) arrives after every reinvestment, from the registry that runs the plan: Computershare, MUFG Corporate Markets (formerly Link Market Services) or Automic for most ASX companies and ETFs. It shows the dividend amount, the plan price, the units allotted, the amount applied and the residual carried forward.
• Your dividend statement shows the cash and franked amounts for your tax return, whether or not it was reinvested.
• For ETFs, the AMMA statement after 30 June gives the components and the cost base adjustment.

Log in to the registry once, turn on electronic statements, and the paperwork turns up as PDFs you can file. If you hold through a broker's custodial or "sponsored" model where the broker holds the units, the DRP election and statements come from the broker instead, but the numbers you need are the same.

What to record for each reinvestment

Treat every DRP allotment as a buy. For each one, write down:

That is one row per reinvestment, per holding. Five holdings paying quarterly is twenty rows a year, which is manageable by hand for a while, and painful after a few years.

A spreadsheet layout that works

If you track shares in a spreadsheet (our guide to tracking shares and ETFs in Australia covers the basics), the mistake to avoid is one row per holding. Use one sheet of parcels instead:

• Columns: ticker, date, units, cost (amount applied or purchase price plus brokerage), source (buy, DRP, sold), and a note.
• A second sheet summarises by ticker: total units (sum of parcels), total cost, current price and value.
• When you sell, mark which parcels you sold and the sale date and proceeds, so the gain is worked out parcel by parcel.

The reason this is worth the trouble: a holding bought once and left on a DRP for ten years is forty parcels. The day you sell is not the day to reconstruct them from registry logins and old emails.

Keeping the balance honest

The practical, everyday problem with DRPs is simpler than tax: your tracker says 500 units and your broker says 510, and the drift grows every quarter. Set a reminder for the months distributions land. For most ASX ETFs that is January, April, July and October; for individual companies it is usually twice a year, around March and September. Add the units when the statement arrives, not when you remember.

Doing it in Compound

Compound records a DRP as what it is: a buy. In the portfolio, each ticker ETF or share holding has a DRP option alongside buy and sell. You enter the units from the statement, Compound values them at the plan price and logs a parcel with that amount as its cost base and a "dividend reinvested" note, so your unit count matches the registry and the parcel is there at tax time.

Every January, April, July and October, Compound shows a distribution-season reminder in the portfolio listing the ETFs you hold, so adding reinvested units is two taps rather than a job you put off. At year end the investment tax report lists your parcels, dividends and franking by entity for your accountant. The share and ETF tracker prices your holdings live, in AUD, beside your property, super and the rest of your net worth. New accounts get 7 free days, cancel anytime.

If you want parcel-level CGT reports with every method and broker trade imports, a specialist like Sharesight or Navexa goes deeper on that one job; our Sharesight alternatives guide compares them. Whatever you use, the rule is the same: one row per reinvestment, kept as you go.

This is general information, not tax advice. DRP and CGT rules have exceptions (bonus shares, demergers, foreign plans and employee schemes are treated differently), so confirm your position with your accountant or a registered tax agent before you lodge.