Our Latest Blogs

The Government will soon introduce a unique Director Identification Number (“DIN”) to combat illegal phoenix activity and to curb the activities of pre-insolvency advisors who will also be targeted and potentially held liable for their advice. As part of the reforms, the Government is consulting on widening the scope of directors personal liability to include […]

Like everybody else, company directors need to plan for their retirement, often through contributions made into a superannuation fund. As a business makes their contribution to superannuation on behalf of one of their employees, that contribution becomes a deductible expense of the corporation. This can also be true of a company owner or director in […]

Advisors who ignore unlawful conduct of clients may be exposed to penalties. In a recent case, Fair Work Ombudsman v Blue Impression Pty Ltd & Ors [2017] FCCA 810, it was found that the external accountant knew of, but ignored, the underpayment of wages by their client. Consequently, the advisor was found to be an accessory […]

You may think Liquidator’s are a pessimistic lot but a former government guru says there are 7 signs Australia is on the edge of economic Armageddon and it’s too late to change course. The signs, he says, are: Tightening monetary policy Inverted and flattening yield curves Sovereign and corporate defaults Falling confidence and credit downgrades […]

ASIC is warning the public not to use a website which promotes financial investments offered by ‘Skyllex’, a company incorporated in Australia. ASIC is concerned that Skyllex’s website https://skyllex.com contains false, misleading or deceptive statements in relation to financial services. The website states that ‘Our activity is totally legal and regulated by the Australian Securities […]

To his staff he was Tony Smith. To banks and financial authorities he was Tony Agius. To investigators he appears to be little more than a puff of smoke left behind by someone who could be living in Asia, possibly Hong Kong or Beijing. Iain Luck and his partner Sarah Taylor who paid $9999 for […]

It was only a matter of time before the scourge of identity theft forced an insolvency practitioner to validate their appointment and Sydney liquidator Steve Kugel has recently been enjoying the inconveniences that flow from discovering an appointor is not who he seems. Kugel was contacted on April 19 by a person identifying themselves as Tony […]

The Government’s response to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Business Set-Up, Transfer and Closure has just been released. Recommendation 15.1 (page 27) is for a simplified small liquidation process for companies with debts of less than $250,000. For such companies, the government supports: 1. A substantially reduced investigation into the control of a company and use […]

For the last few months, we have been updating you about raids undertaken by the ASIC and the Federal Police in relation to an alleged Phoenix Company promoter. Recently, the Court ordered that the assets of the phoenixer be frozen and a Provisional Liquidator appointed to companies under his effective control that appears to have […]