Do you own shares in Telstra?

In 2014 there was a Telstra share buy-back and if you participated then there are implications for your 2015 income tax return!

Any shareholders who participated in this buy-back arrangement are deemed to have sold or disposed of their shares on 6th October, 2014, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued a fact sheet in relation to this for taxpayers who are residents for tax purposes and who hold their Telstra shares on capital account (ie: are subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT)).

For each share disposed of you would have received $4.60 comprising $2.27 as a fully franked dividend and $2.33 as a capital payment – but things get a little tricky because the ATO deem you to have received a capital component of $2.77 per share – are you confused??

The capital component is allocated as proceeds on sale and is used to determine if you have a capital gain or capital loss on the sale of these shares.

If you find yourself in this arrangement, I encourage you to seek professional advice, and I would be happy to help!

If you are interested in reading the ATO fact sheet, you can do so here.

Regards