DPN’s – #SVVoidables by Matthew Hudson

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February 27, 2020DPN's, Public Commentary

DPN’ing the corporate veil

Directors may start being held personally liable for ATO debts owed by their company from 1 April 2020. Any remnants of the corporate veil, are now well and truly gone. The move comes after the Government introduced new legislation designed to tackle illegal phoenix activities. I previously warned last year about this new legislation. When…

July 19, 2019DPN's, Insolvency, Public Commentary

DPN guestimate sheeted home to a related party director

A Directors Penalty Notice (DPN) issued on a c$19m tax liability ‘guestimate’ by the #ATO has landed a related party director in hot water. Although the amount was later reduced to c$4m (once the ATO issued an amended Estimate Notice), the Court found ([2019] FCA 1086) that the timing to comply with the DPN was…

March 18, 2019DPN's, Insolvency, Public Commentary

New directors need to be aware of DPN’s

A recent case from the WA District Court on director penalty notices issued by the Australian Taxation Office, shows just how unnecessarily complex DPN laws have become. Unfortunately, in this case, it looks like the Registrar has got it wrong by ruling against the ATO. Imagine the following: – you take over as sole director for…

May 30, 2018DPN's, Public Commentary

Broadening DPN’s to GST, LCT and WET

An extension of the Director’s Penalty Notice (“DPN”) regime to GST, luxury car tax (“LCT”) and wine equalisation tax (WET”) was announced in last night’s #Budget. All to supposedly combat #illegalphoenixactivity … Currently, directors can be held personally liable for unpaid superannuation and PAYG liabilities: (a) where they have lodged the relevant returns with the ATO (called a…