Shares - how do tax agents treat these scenarios?

Does anyone know how tax agents treat these situations for an individual classed as a share trader?

1. Say someone owns $5,000 of company issued options, eg. (ASX code: GEDO). The expire date of GEDO is 30th June 2021, but when you do an Portfolio Valuation export from your broker dated 30th June 2021, it's still listed GEDO there with a $5k value even they expired on that date. Will the tax agent write off the $5,000 as a loss on the 2021 tax return or will they do it in the 2022 tax return when they see it's not on the Portfolio Valuation the following financial year?

Do you need to tell your tax agent that GEDO has expired, or they get everything from the Portfolio Valuation & Trade Summary exports generated by your broker which you have provide them?

2. Say an ASX listed company delists off the ASX and gets listed on the NASDAQ six months later. When doing a Portfolio Valuation export from your broker on 30th June 2021 it's not listed anymore. Let's say it lists on NASDAQ January 2022 (in the future) and you sell it March 2022 (in the future). How does the tax agent treat all of this?

3. Say and ASX listed company changes codes throughout the year. Do you need to keep track & tell your tax agent about this, or they have access to some system that will track this? Eg. ABC changes code to XYZ throughout the year. The company name of ABC is also completely different to the company name of XYZ. Eg. ABC Energy N/L becomes XYZ Resources Limited.

 

I'm sure different agents will give you different answers. Also depends if you are a trader or an investor.

1. Tell your tax agent the GEDO have expired. Many possible answers for if/how the tax agent would use (or not use) the broker reports v. other software/excel/pencil & paper.
2. Again you will need to let them know you still hold this company. And in March 2022 you need to tell them the sale details.
3. This just depends, it's usually pretty obvious if it's a simple code change & the qty stays the same; or a well known change like the Endeavour Group spinoff.

 

1. Agree. Of course the costbase of many, but not all, ETO's (exchange traded options) is often $0.00....so expired opts will possibly trigger no CGT sum. If they do have a costbase this may affct the costbase of the shares.
2 Delisting isnt a CGT event. Many companies delist or disappear and may be liquidated YEARS later. Only then can a loss be recognised. Some resurrect and come good. Delisted.com.au is a decent site for guidance.
3. Code changes are not a CGT event and in the basic example its a change of name and the costbase may remain the same even if the qty of shares change. (Cost per share may alter) . However a corporate action could occur if company B buys company A shares and exchanges old A shares for cash and / or shares in B. The company will genreally issues guidance on the CGT issues. In many case the costbase just converts from (example) WES to COL using the Westfarmers to Coles example. Or its a costbase split if its a demerger event. The ATO tend to issue rulings for the big events like WES / COL etc.

 

Is option expiry a cg event?

 

It depends! Work your way through this:

Work out the correct treatment of rights or options

 

Yes absolutely. Every time. CGT event C3. So what was the costbase ?
Types of CGT events