thanks. I get that. Was just trying to understand though why...

thanks. I get that. Was just trying to understand though why some posters are saying that paying an unfranked dividend means the tax man gets more money than paying a smaller franked dividend. Because of the franking system, it makes no difference. So I don’t buy the reasoning that the company should pay a franked dividend in order to minimise tax.
I think the reason for waiting till they have tax credits is simpler than that. They will pay tax once they have made a profit - they can’t avoid that. If they haven’t made a profit, declare a loss to the ATO, and still pay a dividend, it’ll look very suspicious to the ATO. I’m not an accountant either, so I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone even told me there was a law against it. Either way, though, it would look like dodgy business and just invite distracting regulatory scrutiny, so it seems sensible to me that they stay above board, act responsibly, pay tax on their profits, and distribute taxed profits as dividends. That’s exactly what they’re doing.
I expect most analysts realised that long ago, and no big money is expecting a dividend in July. And any small investors who do sell out when it’s confirmed there isn’t one will be more than offset by the bigger money coming in from those who are waiting for the August announcement confirming when dividends will restart.
im not selling yet.