Your Business Angels - Under serious threat from the Australian Taxation Office?

Five chilli rating and skull and cross bones

There are 21 days to do something – how many days have gone already?

This is as serious as it gets – the windup notice means that on that date of the documents your company and its assets will be taken from you and given to a liquidator who is being appointed by the courts.

And it’s usually the tax department chasing a tax debt.

And for some people this can be a relief, and for others who always thought they could manage to somehow negotiate something, it’s time to get real help.

There have been many businesses even at this stage we have found a sensible solution for. Our experience has meant we can still find a strategy for the business.

Your Business Angels PTY LTD has worked with many business owners that knew the time was up and needed our help to make sure they weren’t just “driven over” by the system.

We have to work quickly and will be clear to you what your position is, what we can do, and in a day, have a plan in place to work with you. There is little time, so the quicker you talk to us, the quicker we have a solution.

By now the ambulance chasers are calling you and sending you mail. Many of them are commission agents working for others. We offer a plan that can work.

In a nutshell – After 23 years we have seen many windup notices, and many of them never went through as we had a plan for the business. We found a solution, dealt and negotiated where it was needed and saw the businesses up and running again.

We also worked to make sure that the client wasn’t “beaten-up” when they decided that they really wanted to get out.

Five chilli rating – there are 21 days to do something – how many days have gone already?

The DPN regime basically enables the ATO to hold company directors personally liable for the company’s unpaid tax liabilities under the PAYG withholding system and the superannuation guarantee charge (SGC) provisions. The DPN is issued by the ATO to the amount of the unpaid sum.

So, if you haven’t paid PAYG and superannuation, you as a director are made liable for these debts. It doesn’t just end there, the money – PAYG and superannuation isn’t yours, it belonged to your employees so no matter what action you take, the ATO will want to see a proper outcome.

There are 2 types of Directors penalty notice

1. One that can go away – if the company is liquidated prior to the end date (21 days on issue)
2. One that won’t go away – the debt cannot be removed even if the company is liquidated.

Warning – be careful around insolvency firms that “forget” to tell you the difference.  There may be a focus on getting the business liquidated when they first meet you but OOPS – after this you are still liable for the debt.

In a nutshell – After 23 years we have seen many directors penalty notices and know they are one of the “hottest” weapons of the ATO. We will immediately explain what it means, what the various consequences are and work out a plan for you.

Five chilli rating – there are 21 days to do something – how many days have gone already?

The Corporations Act 2001 allows creditors who are owed more than $2,000 to deliver to a company what is known as, a Creditor’s Statutory Demand. … The Form 509H is fairly simple to complete and must be accompanied by an Affidavit from or on behalf of the creditor verifying that the debt is due and owing.

This document if you received it, is a shortcut that allows your creditor to go to the court, send the document to you, and if you don’t have a good defence automatically have a judgement against you.

The Australian Taxation Office uses this it seems to us, more than court writs and other court proceedings. It’s a key action they will take to chase a tax debt.

If you receive one of these then your creditor is simply saying, unless you can lodge a defence that is valid, then as far as the courts are concerned we have a judgement and you owe this money NOW.

You receive this, when the Australian Taxation Office feel they have called you enough, they have sent you enough warning letter (of various colours and headings) and simply now want to be paid.

The Australian Taxation Department legal team in our experience is very efficient there isn’t usually a defence that could be offered up.

In a nutshell – After 23 years we have seen many creditors’ statutory demands and have worked through a solution with the client. In truth, it helps, as we know that the tax office isn’t wanting to deal with the debt anymore and we can work on some really robust solutions that really helps our client.

There are still opportunities to negotiate, but things have to happen so that the manager of your case believes you.

Three to five chillies, if you’re your account is frozen then its five chillies.

Three chilli rating – not legal action, but now you are really short of money.

But here is the real kicker – you receive the notice by snail mail, while the ATO emails the notice to the bank, so the money has gone in most cases before you know about it.

A garnishee notice has the effect of making the ATO a secured creditor over the debts or monies due to the tax debtor. … The notice is effective for amounts owed to the tax debtor prior to liquidation or bankruptcy.

There are a number of these – such as

1. Point in time – a one sweep of 30% of your available balance (can’t take anything that’s in overdraft)
2. The 3 month freeze, you have no access to your bank account and all money goes to the ATO – Ouch!
3. If they know someone owes you money, they can send it to your main contracting company, or debtors (how embarrassing) to hold all or a certain percent of invoices or weekly wages.

This isn’t legal action, but the Australian Tax Office, just got tired of asking for money so they use their statutory authority to put their hand – as it were – into your till and take some of what’s owed and offset it against whatever account they feel they want to offset it against.

In a nutshell – After 23 years we have seen many Garnishee Notices and we need to move on a quick solution – especially as the business will be short of cash, so we need a plan that keeps the business going, work out a solution to deal with the taxman and other creditors, and gets the business moving forward.

You can in most cases change a court date (we can engage a lawyer to help with this) so you have more time to implement a plan, but remember the date is going to come up.

Three chillies, because if you are getting a plan in place, you can obtain some more time.

In law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a government entity in the name of the sovereign power. In most cases, this government entity is a court. Two kinds of writs are warrants and prerogative writs, but there are many others.

In a nutshell – After 23 years we have seen a lot of court writs. More relating to late lodgements. What the Australian Taxation Office may do to legally chase money can vary from state to state. What’s important, is to implement a plan and initiate it. Often with court action, the ATO will give you breathing space if they see a real plan being implemented, and we engage a lawyer who can do this for you.

Your Business Angels PTY LTD will work with you and get a plan implemented, negotiate and deal with the ATO and your tax debt and help get you back on track.

“When you add up the cost of penalties, interest and in some cases a criminal conviction, not paying your taxes just doesn’t pay.” It can come as a bit of a shock to realise that by not lodging your taxes you can end up with a criminal conviction.