Newsletter
December 2017 Newsletter
Consultation paper: combating phoenix activities

The Federal Government has released a consultation paper proposing company and tax law reforms to combat phoenix activities.
Phoenix activities involve stripping assets from a company that’s in debt and transferring them to another company to avoid paying the first company’s liabilities – that is, the new company “rises from the ashes” of the old one.
The government is considering a range of ways to combat this type of activity, including setting up a hotline for phoenix reporting, adding phoenixing to the offences specifically prohibited under the Corporations Act 2001, making directors personally liable for companies’ unpaid GST, and limiting the ability for sole directors to resign unless there is a replacement director or the company is wound up.