Capital Gains Taxes: High School Financial Literacy and Life Skills

This ready-to-use personal financial literacy lesson teaches high school students in grades 9-12 all about Capital Gains Taxes and the rules surrounding them in Canada and the USA.

Students use middle grades math skills (decimal operations, percentages) to calculate realistic capital gains taxes in real-life scenarios involving selling investments such as stocks or bonds, art, or property.

What is Included:

1) A Handout that clearly explains what capital gains are, what kinds of assets they are calculated on, and how capital gains taxes are calculated in both Canada and the USA.

2) Two Sample Scenarios of calculating realistic capital gains taxes after the sale of a vacation property and after the sale of some stocks and bonds.

3) A Two-Page Math Worksheet with five practice problems for students to use their math skills to complete (and a prompt for a written reflection).

4) Complete Answer Key: So there is no guesswork or prep required!

How to Use:

• Go through the first two pages (handout and sample scenarios) as a whole class. You can teach the vocabulary words and complete the sample scenarios together so your students can learn how to calculate capital gains taxes step-by-step.

• Let students complete the two-page worksheet independently or in small groups.

• Come back together as a class to review the answers and your students’ reflections. This could stimulate a great class discussion too.

If you would like to teach your students more about investing, such as the use of registered investment accounts as a strategy to avoid or reduce capital gains taxes, check out my Types of Investment Accounts Lessons!

Types of Investment Accounts in the USA: 401k, Roth IRA, Brokerage

Types of Investment Accounts in Canada: RRSP, FHSA, RESP, TFSA, and Cash

Or, teach your students about Compound Interest and how it can be helpful when investing!