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Julia,

As Tarnor says, I think it can be a grey area with a number of factors considered. The extremes would be obvious, but in the middle it could be difficult to say one way or the other.

Ultimately I think it is the intention that is important: whether your intention is to invest for dividend income and longer-term capital gains, or to carry on a business to make profits by buying and selling shares. However, to substantiate your intention, you may need to show some of the things mentioned in that ATO article. A business-like approach is probably important if you intend to be a share trading business, meaning having things like a business and trading plan, profit forecasts, doing market analysis and research, keeping business records, etc.

See also the attachments in my message near the start of this thread.

A potentially risky thing to do, for that reason. If you got classed as a share trader, I think all shares in that same entity would then be classed as business trading stock and lose their 50% CGT discount. I think you'd have to be trading quite a lot though for that to happen.

That's one of the reasons why I have a trust for investment and a separate company for trading.

Cheers,

GP