If you own securities, including stocks, and they become totally worthless, you have a capital loss but not a deduction for bad debt. Worthless securities also include securities that you abandon.
If a company's stock is delisted from an exchange, shareholders still own their shares in the company, but the stock may trade over-the-counter, which could lead to decreased liquidity and less transparency for investors.
Losses on worthless shares
You may be able to claim a capital loss on worthless shares before a company is dissolved. You can do this if a liquidator or administrator declares in writing that you will not receive any further distribution from the company.
Though delisting does not affect your ownership, shares may not hold any value post-delisting. Thus, if any of the stocks that you own get delisted, it is better to sell your shares. You can either exit the market or sell it to the company when it announces buyback.
So though the shares are not traded on the stock exchanges after delisting, they are still there in your demat account. So, delisting cannot amount to extinguishment of the shares or your rights in the shares.
You don't automatically lose money as an investor, but being delisted carries a stigma and is generally a sign that a company is bankrupt, near-bankrupt, or can't meet the exchange's minimum financial requirements for other reasons. Delisting also tends to prompt institutional investors to not continue to invest.
If you still hold shares after they are delisted, you can sell them—just not on the exchange on which they traded before. Stock exchanges are very advantageous for buying and selling shares. When they delist and trade over the counter (OTC), selling shares and getting a reasonable price for them becomes much harder.
Your maximum net capital loss in any tax year is $3,000. The IRS limits your net loss to $3,000 (for individuals and married filing jointly) or $1,500 (for married filing separately). You can reduce any amount of taxable capital gains as long as you have gross losses to offset them.
Usually, allowable capital losses can only be set against chargeable gains. If the losses are not fully utilised against gains in the year in which they arise, the excess is carried forward to use against future gains.
The Impact of Delisting on Investors
However, a delisted stock often experiences significant or total devaluation. Therefore, even though a stockholder may still technically own the stock, they will likely experience a significant reduction in ownership. In some cases, stockholders can lose everything.
If the security cannot be sold in the market, it may be possible to dispose of the worthless security by gifting it to another person who can be related or unrelated to you. If you gift the worthless security to a family member, you will need to ensure that the person is not your spouse or minor child.
One of the primary benefits of delisting is the significant reduction in compliance costs and the regulatory burden that accompanies being a publicly traded entity.
However, if you had significant capital losses during a tax year, the most you could deduct from your ordinary income is just $3,000. Any additional losses would roll over to subsequent tax years. The issue is that $3,000 loss limit was established back in 1978 and hasn't been updated since.
165(g)(1), a loss related to a security that is a capital asset and becomes worthless during a tax year is treated as from a sale or exchange of a capital asset on the last day of that tax year. Thus, a loss on such a worthless security is a capital loss.
Under the wash sale rule, your loss is disallowed for tax purposes if you sell stock or other securities at a loss and then buy substantially identical stock or securities within 30 days before or 30 days after the sale.
If you own a stock where the company has declared bankruptcy and the stock has become worthless, you can generally deduct the full amount of your loss on that stock — up to annual IRS limits with the ability to carry excess losses forward to future years.
The simplest and most effective way to protect your equity through risk management is to establish strict loss parameters and abide by them. One popular method is the 2% Rule, which means you never put more than 2% of your account equity at risk (Table 1).
Selling a stock for profit locks in "realized gains," which will be taxed. However, you won't be taxed anything if you sell stock at a loss. In fact, it may even help your tax situation — this is a strategy known as tax-loss harvesting. Note, however, that if you receive dividends, you will have to pay taxes on those.
You must fill out IRS Form 8949 and Schedule D to deduct stock losses on your taxes.
A put option is a contract under which the buyer has an option to sell a share at a certain price. If the underlying share is not on the strike price and if you are not in the money you cannot enforce anything. So if the underlying share is delisted, you don't really have any right.
If the delisting happens a year after the security has been purchased, capital gains tax is not charged. However, if the delisting takes place within a year, whatever gain is made will be taxable, based on the tax slab of the individual.
When a company delists, investors still own their shares. However, they'll no longer be able to sell them on the exchange. Instead, they'll have to do so over the ounter (OTC).
If the firm has been delisted for more than a year, the shareholder might approach the company and negotiate a private sale of the shares to the promoters. This will be an off-market transaction, with the price agreed upon by the seller and buyer.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that the loss from a worthless security be claimed in the tax year that the security became worthless. This can be a complex determination since it is not always obvious when a security loses all value.