Latest News

Tax treatment of your payments

The amount of Residual Entitlement that eligible Participating ahm members are currently receiving should not be subject to either income tax or capital gains tax and need not be included in your income tax return for this tax year (that is, the year of income ending on 30 June 2010). This is also how your Initial Entitlements received in January 2009 should be treated for the purposes of your tax return for the income year ending 30 June 2009.

The non assessability of both Initial and Residual Entitlements has been confirmed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in a Class Ruling that was published on 8 July 2009 entitled CR 2009/34 Income Tax: Demutualisation of Australian Health Management Group Pty Limited. A copy of the Class Ruling can be accessed on the ATO's web site at http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw (then click on What’s New 8 July 2009 in the top right hand corner).

ahm encourages its members to seek their own independent professional advice in relation to the tax treatment for your Entitlement received under the merger.

Residual Entitlement mailing

As part of the ahm and Medibank Private merger process, ahm retained a Residual Amount of $5 million to deal with payments to ahm members whose request to review their circumstances was the subject of a positive determination by the Review Committee. This process is now complete and the Residual Amount is being distributed to eligible Participating Members in accordance with the Allocation Rules.

Notification of the Residual Entitlement payment was sent on July 14 (as either a cheque or direct credit advice if this option was nominated). This represents the final payment which will be made as part of the ahm demutualisation and merger with Medibank Private.

10 December 2008: Federal Court approves merger of Medibank and ahm

The Federal Court of Australia today approved the Scheme of Arrangement between ahm and the Participating Members which is necessary to implement the Proposal.

Review Process: In accordance with the Review Committee Charter set out in Schedule 6 of the Information Memorandum, the Review Committee is no longer considering requests in relation to whether a person should be treated as a Participating Member. As set out in the Information Memorandum, the Review Committee will now only consider requests for review relating to the number of Units to be allocated to a Participating Member. If you are requesting a review in relation to the amount of your Entitlement your request must be received by ahm’s Company Secretary by 5:00pm (AEST) on 31 May 2009.

You will need to complete an Allocation Request Review Form if you are requesting a review of your Entitlement. You can access this form by clicking here.

8 December 2008: ahm Members vote in favour of merger with Medibank.

The requisite majorities of Members have voted in favour of the resolutions to implement the Proposal at the General Meeting and Scheme Meeting held on 8 December 2008. Subject to Federal Court approval on 10 December 2008 and the satisfaction of any other outstanding conditions, the Proposal is scheduled to be implemented on 15 January 2009. Click here to read the full announcement.

1 December 2008: ahm Announces Results of Postal Ballot on Demutualisation Resolution.
Confirmation of General Meeting and Scheme Meeting. Australian Health Management (“ahm”) today announced that its Members have passed the necessary resolution for ahm to demutualise, one of the major approvals required in the Proposal for ahm to merge with Medibank Private Limited (“Medibank”). Click here to read the full announcement.

28 November 2008: In accordance with the Information Memorandum, voting on the Demutualisation Resolution by way of the Postal Ballot closed at 5.00pm (AEDT) on Friday, 28 November 2008.

Tax Law Amendment Act

On 3 October 2008 The Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 4) Act 2008 referred to in Schedule 12 of the Information Memorandum was granted Royal Assent and is now law.

For more information on the Tax Laws Amendment (2008 Measures No. 4) Act 2008 go to the ComLaw website (Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department).