Taxpayer Alert 2012/4 caused many advisers to reconsider the use of dividend access shares for their clients. However, subsequent ATO audit activity has shown that in many cases, these types of shares are not used for the purposes outlined in the Taxpayer Alert but for a variety of other legitimate purposes.
This paper will examine the use of dividend access shares for clients and the legal considerations needed to implement them properly, along with other issCompleteues in relation to their use such as access to the small business CGT concessions and tax rate differentials caused by the small business entity tax rate rules.