Business Insolvency recipes
Corporate Insolvency numbers hit record high
ASIC have recently released their monthly corporate insolvency statistics. They reveal that February 2012 was the worst month ever for corporate insolvencies, and that last years floods in Queensland are now showing their effect on small business with record numbers of liquidations.
Bad News Continues in 2012 – Business Stress Report
Every quarter here at Dissolve we break down the most telling corporate insolvency, liquidation and restructuring statistics into our Business Stress Report. Our latest report reveals that the bad news for corporate Australia is continuing into 2012. January 2012 is another record high month for the number of corporate insolvencies and the cost of those insolvencies continues to run at over four times pre-GFC levels. You can download the full Report here and I’ve given a summary below. Click Here To Read More
ATO – the unwritten process of enforcement
Most businesses are aware that the ATO has a range of strong enforcement actions it can use in pursuing debts from companies: Director Penalty Notices; Garnishee Notices; Demands and Wind-up Petitions. What the ATO doesn’t publish is the order and timing of those actions. At Dissolve we receive calls from directors and their advisers every day so we get to see on-the-ground what actions the ATO takes and when. Click Here To Read More
December 2011 Corporate Insolvency Statistics Released
You may have got our early call last month that 2011 would be the worst year ever for insolvency numbers – well ASIC has just released the corporate insolvency statistics for December 2011 and they confirm our earlier prediction. They show that although December 2011 is down from November 2011, overall 2011 was the highest year on record for corporate insolvencies with 10,481 companies entering some form of liquidation, administration or receivership. This represents a 9.2% increase over the previous highest which was 9, 601 in 2010.
Insolvency and Restructuring Solutions – Handy Tools for Self Diagnosis
Sometimes, well… nearly always, directors don’t like to talk about their company’s problems. So we have developed two handy tools on our website where directors can do a bit of self diagnosis:
Tool 1 – Is my Company Insolvent? has nine tick-a-box questions on the topics of Cash Flow, Financial Statements and Creditor Relationships. I strongly recommend any director, or adviser, pondering the solvency of a company use the list. It’ll take about 1 minute and is done on a “best guess” basis. The case law on this topic is huge, confusing and very much open to opinion. So, believe it or not, I spent about a week distilling the contents of the many legal cases on the topic and in the end concluded it aint that hard – hence the tick-a-boxes.
Click Here To Read More
2011 Worst Year on Record for Corporate Insolvencies – Business Stress Report
Every quarter here at Dissolve we break down the most telling corporate insolvency, liquidation and restructuring statistics into our Business Stress Report. Our latest report reveals that 2011 was the worst year on record for corporate insolvencies. You can download the full Report here and I’ve given a summary below.
ASIC recently released statistics for insolvencies for November 2011 and the 9,718 corporate insolvencies in the 11 months to November 2011 is 10% higher than for the same period in 2010. The 11 months to November 2011 has already exceeded the full calendar year of 2010 which was the previous highest full year.
Interestingly, November 2011 itself, with 983 insolvencies, was up 17% on November 2010 but short of the highest ever November which was in 2008.
More records set – September insolvency statistics released
ASIC have recently released the insolvency statistics for September 2011. They reveal the number of corporate insolvencies in September 2011 is down slightly from August 2011 but it has still set a number of “highest ever” records for 2011. Liquidators in Tasmania and Western Australia are busy with further large increases in the number of appointments in those states.
The key statistics are:
- The number of companies entering some form of insolvency administration in the month of September 2011 was 991. That figure is down slightly from August 2011 which was 1,049. And here is an interesting comparison – the insolvency number for September 2007 (so pre-GFC) was 557.
- The September insolvencies are the highest on record for a September and continues the trend for the calendar year with six of the nine months of 2011 being the highest ever for each of those months.
- The rolling year to September 2011 has seen 10,228 insolvencies which is the highest yearly total since records have been kept.
- Geographically, the bad news continues in Tasmania and WA this calendar year – Tasmanian insolvencies have increased 94% when compared to the average of the same period over the previous 5 years and WA insolvencies are up 71%.
ATO gets tough on tax collections
After the GFC the ATO was very generous in extending payment arrangements to struggling companies and it also went easy on its use of its debt collection tools – Director Penalty Notices, Garnishees and Wind Up Notices. Those times are over. I’ve spent some time recently reviewing the ATO annual reports since 2008 (yes, really!) and it reveals a much tougher stance by the ATO in 2010/11. Click Here To Read More
Director Personal Liability for Tax Debts – the ATO and Treasury furphies
New legislation is currently before Parliament to dramatically extend Director personal liability under the Director Penalty Notice. I think the legislation is well founded but, make no mistake, it is a very significant legislation and I remain dismayed at the reasons being proposed by the ATO and Treasury in support of the legislation. Click Here To Read More
Liquidations up, again – August statistics released
This month’s release of ASIC insolvency statistics reveals that the number of corporate insolvencies in August 2011 is the second highest month on record. Director initiated insolvencies (mostly Creditors Voluntary Liquidations) make up a large portion (59%) of all appointments.
