Articles

In vogue The relatively new corporate insolvency option of Small Business Restructuring (SBR) was hastily introduced in 2021 (a Government Covid-19 response) to assist small businesses in financial difficulty. The novel feature of an SBR is that it allows a small business to propose a Plan to its creditors to restructure its debts while the…

From 1 July 2026, employers will be required to pay their employees’ super at the same time as their salary and wages. Employers will be liable for the super guarantee charge (SGC) unless contributions are received by their employees’ super funds within seven ordinary or calendar days of payday (with some limited exceptions). Payday is…

Construction industry: Retention monies At a time when the construction industry is under unprecedented financial strain, and experiencing the lion’s share of business failures, the important second phase of the Retention Trust Scheme has come into effect. Contractors and sub-contractors in the construction industry can be hit particularly hard with problems and delays in getting…

In insolvency work, we often see speculation, all kinds of speculation. Some measured, calculated, rational and controlled, some bold, imaginative and creative, and other rash, reckless and without substance. One of the earliest recorded and often quoted speculative bubble is that of Tulip Mania during the Dutch Golden Age (early to mid 1600s), when speculation…

The recent case of Gadsden v MacKinnon (Liquidator), in the matter of Allibi Pty Ltd (in liq) [2023] FCA 647 is an unequivocal endorsement of the proposition that serious allegations and claims by a liquidator with no proper foundation, or evidence to justify the claims, may be seen as an abuse of process. Liquidators are…

Life is full of surprises; you never know what will happen next. Sometimes good things will happen. Sometimes bad things will happen. Can things be good all the time? Hardly. But do some have it better than others? Is that why some people seem happier, more often, than others? Maybe some people have charmed, amazing…

How often in your busy life when faced with an issue or a problem do you consider subtraction? Every day, with big and small challenges, we neglect a basic way to make things better. We don’t subtract. We are great at adding to our “to dos” but we don’t consider “stop-doings”. We collect new-and-improved ideas…

With DPNs The Director Penalty Regime (“DPR”) encourages directors to ensure their company continues to lodge its BAS, even if the company can’t pay the resulting liability. However, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the ATO paused its debt, audit and lodgement work, many companies in financial difficulty stopped lodging their BAS because…

You are being watched (Director Identification Numbers (DINs) update) “It’s on the way – a director ID (Director Identification Number)” I heralded in my June 2020 LinkedIn article (Directors – numbered for life). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/directors-numbered-life-jennifer-low/ A year later, where are we at with DINs? The DIN was announced as part of the 2020 Federal Budget’s Modernising Business…

With his successful appeal against his 2020 convictions for fraud and insolvent trading, former Kleenmaid founder and director Andrew Young may have won that fight but possibly not the war. Following the failure of Kleenmaid in 2009, an ASIC investigation and prosecution by the CDPP, there were a number of successful convictions of officers of…

The question we have been asked so many times since the COVID pandemic hit. Given the huge disruption to our lives that COVID has caused, and the resulting uncertainty, financial mayhem was predicted. The speculation of a tsunami of insolvencies dominated conversations and the media. In response, the Government took fairly immediate action to implement…