What the ATO Looks For in a Valuation | CGT Valuations
The ATO does not audit valuations for their arithmetic. It tests whether the figure is supported — whether a qualified person inspected the property, researched genuine evidence, applied a recognised method, and wrote down enough for a reviewer to follow the reasoning. A report that does those four things is rarely disturbed even where a different valuer would have landed elsewhere.

Eight components of a defensible report

Every report we issue contains all eight. A report missing any of them is the sort we are later asked to replace.

What makes comparable evidence credible

The comparable sales schedule is the part of the report a reviewer scrutinises first. Credible evidence is settled rather than advertised, close in date to the effective date, drawn from the same locality and value bracket, and adjusted transparently for the differences that matter.

A schedule of three sales from the same street in the same quarter is stronger than a schedule of twelve sales spread across a region and two years. We would rather explain a small evidence set honestly than pad it.

Four reasons reports get questioned

In matters where we are engaged to review or replace an existing report, these are the recurring faults.

Common defects and their consequence

The extra burden on retrospective reports

A retrospective valuation carries everything above plus an account of how the property’s condition at the effective date was established. Where the property has since been renovated, cleared or sold, that account is the difference between a defensible report and an assertion.

We rely on council records, planning approvals, historical aerial photography, original contracts, prior valuations and owner photographs — and we state which of them we had and which we did not.

Questions we are asked about this

Keep reading

Why an agent appraisal is not substantiation, and what the difference costs when the ATO reviews a return. A reference table matching each common CGT event to the effective date a valuer must work to.
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