The taxation of rights and premiums paid to retail shareholders has improved where those shares are held on capital account.

If the shareholder is an Australian resident then there is no assessable income on the timing of the grant of the entitlement and any retail premium received, can be treated us the realisation of a CGT asset.  Most years at least one large public company structure an equity deal to provide this opportunity to its shareholders – in 2016 it included Origin, in 2017 it included Boral, JB Hi-Fi, and Vocus Communications.

The right to be issued shares is a CGT asset, which if no action is taken and the resultant is sale by the company and subsequent premium is paid to the shareholder, capital gain will result.  What is more significant is that the shareholder is considered to have required the rights when it acquired the original shares.  There is a discount capital gain (i.e. 50%) if the shares were held for twelve months or longer.

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