Capital gains tax on shares in Nepal: what you pay in FY 2083/84
Updated 25 October 2026 · Nepsense Markets
The short answer
From 22 September 2026, a resident individual selling listed shares on NEPSE pays capital gains tax of 3.75% of the gain if the shares were held more than 365 days, and 5% if they were held 365 days or fewer. Institutions pay 10%.
The tax is on the gain, never on the sale value. It's withheld at settlement, before the money reaches your account. For most people there's nothing to file and nothing to pay by hand.
The rates on listed shares, as of October 2026
| Who is selling | Held more than 365 days | Held 365 days or fewer |
|---|---|---|
| Resident individual | 3.75% of the gain | 5% of the gain |
| Resident institution or company | 10% of the gain | 10% of the gain |
| Others (in practice, non-residents) | 25% of the gain | 25% of the gain |
Every figure in that table applies to the gain, not to the amount the shares sold for. A Rs 2 lakh sale with a Rs 1.9 lakh cost base is a Rs 10,000 taxable gain, and at the long-term rate the tax is Rs 375.
The rate depends on your holding period, not on which stock you sold or where today's NEPSE index happened to be that day.
Unlisted shares run on a different schedule: 10% for an individual whatever the holding period, 15% for a company, 25% for others. There's no exchange in the middle, so the company whose shares change hands collects the tax before it records the new owner.
What changed in FY 2083/84, twice
This fiscal year has already produced three rate schedules for the same investor. Which one applies depends on the settlement date of your sale, not on when you bought.
| Sale settled | Held over 365 days | Held 365 days or fewer | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 16 July 2026 (FY 2082/83) | 5% | 7.5% | Finance Act 2082 |
| 17 July to 21 September 2026 | 7.5% | 10% | Finance Act 2083, from Shrawan 1 |
| From 22 September 2026 | 3.75% | 5% | Cabinet decision under section 18(1), Finance Act 2083 |
The Finance Act 2083 raised the individual rates from Shrawan 1, which was 17 July 2026. Two months later the Cabinet cut them again.
The route matters if you're wondering how a rate Parliament set in Jestha got halved in Asoj. Section 18(1) of the Finance Act 2083 lets the government reduce, increase or exempt any rate set under the Act, effective on publication in the Gazette, and report the change to Parliament afterwards. It wasn't an ordinance and it wasn't an amending bill.
The Gazette notice is dated Asoj 5, 2083. This guide uses 22 September, the date the withholding tables follow. Some readings place the change a day earlier, so if your sale settled on 21 or 22 September, read your contract note rather than any table, including this one.
One early report printed the long-term rate as 3.5%. The Gazette notice and the withholding tables say 3.75%.
And because the cut came by Cabinet notice, the rate can move again the same way, without a new Act. Check the date on any rate you read.
Who deducts it, and when
You don't file and pay this by hand. It's collected at source when the trade settles. The law makes the body performing the securities market's functions the collecting party, which in practice means CDSC, and the gain is computed on your weighted average cost. Your broker then settles the net amount into your account.
CDSC keeps the cost record behind your demat account, which is why that record, not your memory of the buy price, is the number the tax is actually calculated from.
Listed trades settle two trading days after they execute, so the settlement date is the one that picks your rate row. That also means a trade that settles on or after 22 September falls under the new rates even if you clicked sell a day or two earlier. The mechanics are in how T+2 settlement works on NEPSE.
How your gain is calculated
Nepal doesn't let you pick which lot you sold. The system uses weighted average cost, or WACC, which CDSC adopted in place of the older scrip-by-scrip method.
WACC = total amount invested ÷ total shares held
A new buy at a higher price pulls the average up. A cheaper buy pulls it down. Bonus shares add to the count without adding money, so they drag the average down and enlarge the taxable gain on a later sale. Right shares enter at the price you paid, usually Rs 100 par, which pulls the average down too.
Buy 100 shares at Rs 100 and 50 more at Rs 300, and your average is (10,000 + 15,000) ÷ 150 = Rs 166.67. A 10% bonus takes the count to 165 while the money invested stays Rs 25,000, so the average falls to Rs 151.52.
That's the quiet trap. If the cost recorded against your account is wrong after a bonus or a rights issue, every sale after it is taxed on the wrong base. Check the record before you sell, not after.
A worked example in rupees
Buy 200 shares of a commercial bank at Rs 500, so Rs 1,00,000 invested. Hold past 365 days. Sell all 200 at Rs 650, so Rs 1,30,000. The gain is Rs 30,000.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale value (200 × Rs 650) | Rs 1,30,000 |
| Sell-side charges: commission 0.33%, SEBON fee 0.015%, DP charge | Rs 473.50 |
| Capital gains tax at 3.75% of Rs 30,000 | Rs 1,125 |
| Net to your account | About Rs 1,28,400 |
The same trade, settled under the earlier schedules, would have been taxed at Rs 1,500 before 17 July and Rs 2,250 between 17 July and 21 September. The full cost stack on a buy and a sell, including the commission slabs, is in what a NEPSE trade actually costs.
Sell the same position inside 365 days and the short-term rate applies: Rs 1,500 now, against Rs 3,000 in August.
The 365-day line, in rupees
The gap between the short and long rate is 1.25 percentage points of the gain. On a Rs 30,000 gain that's Rs 375. The gap used to be Rs 750.
Set that against the market. Nepsense's own records put the average absolute daily move on the NEPSE index at 0.72% over the last 250 sessions. On a Rs 1,30,000 position that's about Rs 936 a day, more than twice what the tax difference is worth. A year on this market can hold much more than a day: the index closed at 3,198.19 in August 2021 and was 43.2% lower by September 2022, which is visible in the NEPSE index history.
None of that is an argument for trading more. It's an argument for making the holding decision on the chart and letting the tax follow, rather than holding a position you'd otherwise sell for a Rs 375 discount. Start from the NEPSE index and the stock's own chart, not from the rate table.
Is it a final tax?
The FY 2083/84 budget speech says capital gains tax on listed securities is to be final. The Act's own wording is less explicit than the speech, and the September package promised final-tax treatment for individuals again. In practice nothing changes: the amount cut at settlement closes the matter, the same way tax deducted on fixed-deposit interest does.
Two things around it are not settled.
Loss set-off. The same September package promised that a loss on one listed security could be offset against a profit on another in the same income year, with tax charged only on the net gain. The Ministry said that needs amendments to the tax law and to the settlement system, and the Gazette notice that cut the rates didn't include it. Until it's implemented, tax is withheld on every profitable sale on its own. Sell one stock at a Rs 50,000 gain and another at a Rs 50,000 loss in the same week and you still pay tax on the first.
The Rs 40 lakh line. Under the rule that came in with final-tax treatment in FY 2080/81, if your total income from share gains in a fiscal year crosses Rs 40 lakh you must file a return and obtain tax clearance. Most retail portfolios never get near it. If yours might, take the question to a tax adviser this year, given how unsettled the finality wording is.
What to check before you rely on any of this
- The rate and its effective date, against the Finance Act 2083 as amended and current Inland Revenue Department guidance.
- Your DP's cost record for every scrip you've held through a bonus or a rights issue.
- The settlement date on your contract note, not the date you placed the order.
- Whether loss set-off has been implemented by the time you sell.
Nepsense charts NEPSE with the floorsheet and the order flow behind each stock. If you want to see a name's price history before you decide on a holding period, you can start a free account.
Key takeaways
- Resident individuals pay 3.75% of the gain on listed shares held more than 365 days, and 5% on 365 days or fewer, for sales settling from 22 September 2026.
- Institutions pay 10%. Non-residents pay 25%.
- FY 2083/84 has had three schedules. The settlement date of the sale decides which one applies.
- The tax is on the gain over your weighted average cost, withheld by CDSC at settlement. Most people file nothing.
- Loss set-off was promised and isn't in force. Every profitable sale is still taxed on its own.
- The current rate came by Cabinet notice under the Finance Act, so it can move again without a new Act. Check the date on any rate you read.