Cross-border and international
ASIC’s initial claim of illegal phoenix activity by a liquidator now the subject of a 160 page statement of claim
This post is further updated on 26 February 2021 to reflect that ASIC filed its statement of claim against Mr ...
Winding up a foreign company – Blumenthal’s Tipsy Cake
Tipsy Cake was wound up on 12 February 2020, having had provisional liquidators appointed on 20 December 2019, who then ...
Too much independence? a re-issue of my 2016 commentary
My analysis below of the law of insolvency practitioner independence, written in October 2016, is reissued in February 2020 in ...
A not so simple fix for franchise insolvency?
The financial collapse of a franchisor can have a severe impact on its franchisees but a “simple fix” proposed to ...
Disclosure of business tax debts to credit agencies
Law allowing the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to disclose tax debt information of businesses – corporate and personal, over AU$100,ooo ...
What has happened to the proposed beneficial ownership of shares register?
A review of the ASIC Annual Report 2018 by a parliamentary committee was tabled only in February 2020. The report ...
Cross-border insolvency hearing between Australia and New Zealand
The Federal Court of Australia requested the High Court of New Zealand to help it jointly hear applications on 18 ...
A review of Australia’s insolvency practitioner regulation system
Given a choice between a good insolvency law and poor practitioners, and good practitioners and a poor insolvency law, the ...
Independence of debtors’ chosen liquidators
If directors apply to the court have their company wound up in insolvency, or in fact support an application for ...
Three year ‘imprisonment’ for bankruptcy debt
Australia has historically been seen as severe in its approach to unpaid debt and opposition to changing the 3 year ...
Does insolvent trading work? The UK may not think so.
In the context of the review of the safe harbour provisions in Australia, there have been recent articles on insolvent ...
A deferred tax debt can remain due and payable
If a company owing a debt enters into an agreed payment arrangement with the creditor, that can serve to defer ...
Don’t be too harsh on non-compliant directors of failed companies?
The laws regulating the conduct of directors of companies in liquidation and laws regulating persons who go bankrupt exist in ...
Million pound fines for breach of insolvency standards
The million pound fining of an insolvency firm and its administrators by the English accounting body ICAEW illustrates the differences ...
A pointless distinction in corporate insolvency
In the 19th century, where much corporate insolvency law thinking still remains, a distinction was made between court ordered liquidations ...
Review of Australia’s insolvency safe harbour – s 588GA
Australia’s ‘safe harbour’ regime under s 588GA is due for review, since September 2019, as to whether it offers the ...
Dangers in liquidators running a ‘skinny case’
” … it might not be seen to be unreasonable [for insolvency practitioners] to avoid expending funds producing affidavits in ...
All over a rooster
A bankrupt who claimed that noise attributed to her unauthorised rooster was in fact made by her peacock, which was ...
Special administration of an Aboriginal Corporation – Urapuntja Health
A major Aboriginal corporation in Australia’s Norther Territory – the Urapuntja Health Service Aboriginal Corporation – has been placed under ...
ARITA’s response to the Ombudsman’s small business insolvency inquiry
ARITA has offered a 60-page submission to the Ombudsman’s inquiry, which, given the quality of the inquiry, may be rather ...
A liquidator disciplinary decision – some regulatory insights
A decision of a tribunal in Australia gives some insight into the insolvency practitioner discipline processes introduced in 2017, which ...
Selfies of Australian insolvency practitioners – not looking good …?
A recent Australian academic thesis reveals an insolvency industry comprising practitioners with low self-identity, lacking in self-confidence and with a ...
The 2020 insolvency practitioner codes
New insolvency practitioner codes have issued in Australia, with the UK and NZ perhaps not far behind. It remains to ...
Ombudsman’s insolvency inquiry and the nature of small business debt
The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has written a newspaper article about the ‘Insolvency Practices Inquiry’ in the ...