Capital gains are income. Incomes are capital gains.

We can transform one into the other with accounting tricks.

When an individual owns an asset, like a company share, asset value changes are known as capital gains or losses.

These are treated as a special type of economic return in the tax system.

Australia, for example, provides a 50% capital gains tax discount on income for capital gains realised after owning an asset for 12 months.

If you make a capital gain …