Share buy-backs
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This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances.
End of attentionAs a shareholder, you may have received an offer from a company to buy back some or all of your shares in the company. If you disposed of shares back to the company under a share buy-back arrangement, you may have made a capital gain or capital loss from that CGT event.
You compare the capital proceeds with your cost base and reduced cost base to work out whether you have made a capital gain or capital loss.
The time you make the capital gain or capital loss will depend on the conditions of the particular buy-back offer. It may be the time you lodge your application to participate in the buy-back or, if it is a conditional offer of buy-back, the time you accept the offer.
If shares in a company:
- are not bought back by the company in the ordinary course of business of a stock exchange - for example, the company writes to shareholders offering to buy their shares (commonly referred to as 'off-market share buy-back'), and
- the buy-back price is less than what the market value of the share would have been if the buy-back hadn't occurred and was never proposed
the capital proceeds are taken to be the market value the share would have been (if the buy-back hadn't occurred and was never proposed) minus the amount of any dividend paid under the buy-back. In this situation, the company may provide you with that market value or, if the company obtained a class ruling from the Tax Office, you can find out the amount by visiting our website at www.ato.gov.au.
Under other off-market buy-backs where a dividend is paid as part of the buy-back, the amount paid excluding the dividend is your capital proceeds for the share.
Example: Buy-back
Sam bought 4,500 shares in Company A in January 1994 at a cost of $5 per share. In February 2006, Sam applied to participate in a buy-back offer to dispose of 675 shares (15%). Company A approved a buy-back of 10% (450) of the shares on 15 June 2006. The company sent Sam a cheque on 5 July 2006 for $4,050 (450 shares × $9). No part of the payment is a dividend.
Sam works out his capital gain for 2005-06 as follows.
If he chooses to use the indexation method:
Capital proceeds
|
$4,050
|
Cost base 450 shares × $5
($2,250 × 1.118 including indexation)
|
$2,515
|
Capital gain
|
$1,535
|
If he chooses to use the discount method:
Capital proceeds
|
$4,050
|
Cost base
|
$2,250
|
Capital gain (before applying any discount)
|
$1,800
|
Sam has no capital losses to apply against this capital gain and decides that the discount method will provide him with the better result. He takes $900 ($1,800 × 50%) into account in working out his net capital gain for the year.
End of example
Example: Off-market buy-back including dividend
Ranjini bought 10,000 shares in Company M in January 2003 at a cost of $6 per share, including brokerage.
In January 2006, the company wrote to its shareholders advising them it was offering to buy-back 10% of their shares for $9.60 each. The buy-back price was to include a franked dividend of $1.40 per share (and each dividend was to carry a franking credit of $0.60).
Ranjini applied to participate in the buy-back to sell 1,000 of her shares.
Company M approved the buy-back on 1 May 2006 on the terms anticipated in its earlier letter to shareholders.
The market value of Company M shares at the time of the buy-back (if the buy-back did not occur and was never proposed) is $10.20.
Ranjini received a cheque for $9,600 (1,000 shares × $9.60) on 8 June 2006.
Because it was an off-market share buy-back and the buy-back price was less than what the market value of the share would have been if the buy-back hadn't occurred, Ranjini works out her capital gain for 2005-06 as follows.
Capital proceeds:
Market value
|
$10.20
|
less Dividend
|
$1.40
|
$8.80 × 1,000 shares
|
$8,800
|
Cost base: $6 × 1,000 shares
|
$6,000
|
Capital gain (before applying any discount)
|
$2,800
|
Ranjini takes her capital gain into account in completing item 17 on her tax return (supplementary section). She also includes her dividend at item 11 on her tax return ($1,400 at T and $600 at U).
End of example