How do I treat the non-assessable payment?

You received a non-assessable payment of $1.01 per consolidated Westfield America Trust unit.

This amount reduces the cost base of your units. If the cost base of your consolidated units was less than $1.01 per unit, you would make a capital gain of $1.01 minus the cost base for each unit. You cannot make a capital loss on the receipt of a non-assessable payment.

The following table will help you to work out your capital gain or loss.

For Westfield America Trust units with a	you have made	equal to	You must reduce the cost base of your consolidated units
cost base greater than $1.01 per unit	no capital gain (or loss)	-	by $1.01 per unit
cost base equal to $1.01 per unit	no capital gain (or loss)	-	to nil
cost base less than $1.01 per unit	a capital gain	$1.01 minus the cost base of the unit	to nil

How do I work out the cost bases of the elements of the stapled securities that I received?

Each Westfield Group stapled security is made up of:

• one Westfield Holdings Limited (WSF) share
• one Westfield Trust (WFT) unit, and
• one Westfield America Trust (WFA) unit.

For CGT purposes, each element of the stapled security is a separate CGT asset. The non-assessable payment that you received was compulsorily used to purchase one WSF share and one WFT unit for each WFA unit that you held. Under this arrangement the purchase price of the WSF shares was $0.01 per share and the purchase price of the WFT units was $1.00 per unit. The following table gives the cost base (reduced cost base) of each element of your new stapled securities immediately after the stapling arrangement was completed:

Element	Initial cost base (reduced cost base)
WSF share	$0.01
WFT unit	$1.00
WFA unit	Cost base of consolidated units after the non-assessable payment - as per the previous table

Example - staple

Amber acquired 1,000 units in WFA in July 2000. Immediately before the merger, the cost base of her units was $1,740 (or $1.74 per unit). Amber's units were consolidated as the first step of the stapling arrangement. After consolidation, she held 150 (1,000 x 0.15) units with a cost base of $1,740 (or $11.60 per unit).

Amber's WFA units participated in the stapling arrangement. Amber received a non-assessable payment of $151.50 ($1.01 x 150). This payment will reduce the cost base of her consolidated WFT units. As it is less than the cost base of these units, it will not result in a capital gain to Amber.

Note: This non-assessable payment was compulsorily applied to buy WSF shares and WFT units, which were stapled with her units to make up Westfield securities.

Working out new cost bases

Amber retains her consolidated WFA units at their original cost base less the amount of the non-assessable payment. She has acquired new WSF shares at the cost of $0.01, and WFT units at the cost of $1.00 each. The cost base of each of the elements of Amber's Westfield securities immediately after the staple was completed on 16 July 2004 was as follows:

There are no CGT consequences for Amber as a result of the stapling of each WFA unit to each new WSF share and WFT unit.