ProfCo. Such class B shares could have their rights changed by ProfCo, rendering them worthless, instead of StripperCo selling them back. ProfCo might lend money to StripperCo for the transaction, instead of the latter needing bridging finance. The tax treatment for each party in an exercise like this will vary from country to country. The operation may well be caught at some point by tax laws, and/or provide no benefit. Australia In Australia, ordinary external investors are free to buy shares cum-dividend and sell them ex-dividend, and treat the dividend income and capital loss the same as for any other investment. But schemes involving a deliberate arrangement by a company's owners to avoid tax are addressed by anti-avoidance provisions of Part IVA the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. Investors Dividend stripping by investors has the general advantages or disadvantages described above, but in addition in Australia there are franking credits attached to dividends under the dividend imputation system. Those credits can only be used by eligible investors (see the dividend imputation article), so there's a tension between different investors for the amount shares should fall when going ex-dividend. A rationally priced drop for one group is a bonus or trading opportunity for the other. But the difference is not large. In a franked dividend, each $0.70 cash has $0.30 of franking attached (at the 30% company tax rate for 2005). To eligible investors it's worth $1.00, to others it's worth only $0.70 (of before-tax income in both cases). A typical half-yearly dividend (in 2005) of 2% of the share price would mean an extra 0.85% in franking credits, an amount which might easily be swamped by brokerage and the general risks noted above. Tax avoidance The kind of dividend stripping tax avoidance schemes described above presently fall under anti-avoidance provisions of the Income Tax Assessment Act part IVA amendments introduced in 1981. Part IVA is a set of general anti-avoidance measures addressing schemes with a dominant purpose of creating a tax benefit. Section 177E specifically covers dividend stripping. That section exists to avoid any difficulty that might arise from identifying exactly where a tax benefit arises in dividend stripping. Dividend stripping will generally result in money to owners being taxed as dividends, irrespective of interposed steps. Section 177E also applies to related schemes which draw off profits from a company, benefitting its owners, not just to the formal payment of