Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

INCOME TAX ASSESSMENT ACT 1997 - SECT 166.255

  (1)   This section modifies how the ownership tests in section   166 - 145 are applied to the tested company if:

  (a)   at the * ownership test time, it is the case, or it is reasonable to assume, that persons (none of them companies or trustees) hold a * voting stake, a * dividend stake or a * capital stake in the tested company; and

  (b)   an entity has not, under section   166 - 225, 166 - 230, 166 - 240 or 166 - 245, been taken to control voting power or have rights in respect of the stake; and

  (c)   another company (the foreign listed company ) is interposed, at that time, between those persons and the tested company; and

  (d)   at all times during the income year of the tested company in which the ownership test time occurs, the * principal class of shares in the foreign listed company is listed for quotation in the official list of an * approved stock exchange; and

  (e)   at the ownership test time:

  (i)   voting stakes that carry rights to 50% or more of the voting power in the foreign listed company; or

  (ii)   dividend stakes that carry rights to receive 50% or more of any dividends that the foreign listed company may pay; or

  (iii)   capital stakes that carry rights to receive 50% or more of any distribution of capital of the foreign listed company;

    as the case requires, are directly held by way of bearer shares; and

  (f)   the beneficial owners of some or all of those bearer shares have not been disclosed to the foreign listed company.

Note 1:   See section   165 - 255 for the rule about incomplete test periods.

Note 2:   Other rules might affect this provision: see sections   166 - 270, 166 - 275 and 166 - 280.

Note 3:   For paragraph   (e), Division   167 has special rules for working out rights to voting power, dividends and capital distributions in a company whose shares do not all carry the same rights to those matters.

  (2)   The tests are applied to the tested company as if, at the * ownership test time, for each of those bearer shares whose owners have not been disclosed:

  (a)   a single notional entity controls, or is able to control, the voting power in the tested company that is carried by those shares at that time; and

  (b)   the entity * indirectly had the right to receive, for its own benefit:

  (i)   any * dividends the tested company may pay in respect of those shares at that time; and

  (ii)   any distributions of capital of the tested company in respect of those shares at that time; and

  (c)   the entity were a person (other than a company).

Note:   The persons who actually control the voting power and have rights to dividends and capital are taken not to control that power or have those rights: see section   166 - 265.

  (3)   To avoid doubt, the single notional entity mentioned in subsection   (2) is a different single notional entity from the one mentioned in section   165 - 207 and the one mentioned in section   166 - 225.