Shareholders interested in the availability of tax losses in 2007/08 on securities of companies suspended from quotation, delisted or in external administration, should read the following.

In our view there are four categories of capital loss companies in 2007/08:

1. Liquidators'/administrators' declarations issued this year:

Declarations have been issued during 2007/08 for the following companies and shareholders can choose to make a capital loss in the 2007/08 income year:

2. Liquidators'/administrators' declarations issued in previous years:

If shareholders did not choose to make a capital loss for the following companies in the income year the declaration was made, they can do so now only by disposing of their securities:

We recommend shareholders consider disposing of their securities in these companies, which they can do so quickly and simply at "Sell your worthless shares". The alternative is to wait until the company is deregistered before claiming the loss.

3. Companies suspended from quotation and/or in external administration:

We have reviewed the position of 134 relevant companies in order to produce the following list of 59 companies. In our view, securities in these companies are of little, if any, value.

Companies in italics - these are previous names - please find (see 3rd column) and use the current name for the company when selling worthless shares.

We recommend shareholders consider disposing of their securities in these companies, which they can do so quickly and simply at "Sell your worthless shares". The alternative is to wait until the company is deregistered before claiming the loss.

4. Other companies

If your company has failed or is suspended from quotation and does not feature in any of the above categories it is likely that:

• The company has been deregistered and the capital loss can be claimed, providing of course it has not previously been claimed. (note that the capital loss is only made in the year the company is deregistered - which also means if is not applied against a capital gain in that year, it is carried forward.) See our Deregistered Companies webpage for a list of deregistered companies.
  

or

• A liquidators or administrators declaration has been issued in a previous income year and the company is now in liquidation (as distinct from "in administration"). If you did not choose to make a capital loss when the declaration was made you will have to wait until the company is deregistered before you can claim your loss. Our Loss Declarations webpage features many of these companies.
  

or

• The company’s shares are still of value and we recommend you do not dispose of them as yet. (see the individual company record by searching on the company name or ASX code at this site)
  
  

Email us to admin@delisted.com.au if you have been through the above and are still uncertain of the status of your securities for capital loss purposes in the current income year.

Recapitalisation and requotation – many shareholders have asked us about the possible value of their shares if their company is restructured and able to regain quotation. In our experience the residual value of an average shareholding has been negligible in such circumstances. The best way to demonstrate this is to take two prominent companies that have recently been recapitalised and have regained quotation:

Western Metals Limited (WMT) – As part of the restructuring, this company’s shares were consolidated, with existing shareholders receiving 1 share for every 100 they held previously. The shares came back on the market in December 2005 at about 2.3 cents and an “average” shareholding of say 50,000 shares acquired at 28 cents* each (cost $14,000) had thus become 500 shares, worth about $15.

Gympie Gold Limited (now Lachlan Star Limited (LSA) - As part of the restructuring, this company’s shares were consolidated, with existing shareholders receiving 1 share for every 15 they held previously. The shares came back on the market on 4 April 2006 (the company was then called Toodyay Resources Ltd) at about 2 cents and an “average” shareholding of say 25,000 shares acquired at 56 cents* each (cost $14,000) had thus become 1667 shares, worth about $34.

* average closing price over the five years prior to suspension

While any value is better than nothing, in each case shareholders who had retained their shares were still faced with having to sell a less-than-marketable parcel to crystallise their capital loss. Clearly it would have been in their interests to dispose of their shares and take the tax benefit of the loss in the earlier years, providing of course it could be utilised then.

We also provide a STATUS position within each company record that can be found by searching on the company's code or name. Any change before 30 June 2008 will be reflected there immediately.

Further reading:

Shareholders seeking further background should see our Loss Declarations, Deregistered Companies and Capital Gains Tax Basics webpages.