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Menzies Advisory

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Southport, QLD
Menzies Advisory

Liquidators & Receivers - Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Our expert team consists of Registered Liquidators and qualified Accountants.

Menzies Advisory Liquidators & Receivers are specialists in corporate insolvency, corporate turnarounds and corporate evaluations. We have over 40 years experience and offer professional, compassionate and trusted insolvency, company administration and consulting services. We understand the difficulties associated with external administration and seek to make this time as stress-free as possible for effected stakeholders. We have empathy for your situation.

21/07/2026

For years, the standard phoenix playbook was: strip the good assets out of Company A at a low price, sell them to Company B (often related), then let Company A go into liquidation with the debts.

Section 588FDB changed that.

A **creditor-defeating disposition** is a transfer of company property for less than market value (or the best price reasonably obtainable) that has the effect of preventing, hindering, or significantly delaying property becoming available for creditors.

What's significant:

→ The disposition can be **voided** by a liquidator or ASIC
→ Directors and "facilitators" (which can include advisors) can face personal liability and civil penalties
→ ASIC has dedicated phoenix taskforce resourcing
→ The provisions reach back **up to 10 years** before the relevant day in some circumstances
→ The "good faith" defence is narrower than the older preference defences

For accountants and lawyers: if a client is asking about restructuring assets out of an entity that's heading toward insolvency, you need to know exactly where the s588FDB lines are. The cost of getting this wrong has moved from "deal unwound" to "personal liability for everyone involved."

For directors: there are lawful ways to restructure and exit a business. Stripping value out of an insolvent company on the way down isn't one of them.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

16/07/2026

Every insolvency practitioner has had this conversation:

"If only you'd called six months ago."

It's not a sales line. It's the genuine difference between a client who has options and one who doesn't.

Six months ago, the company may have qualified for SBR. Today, the liabilities are over the threshold.

Six months ago, the director could have engaged with the ATO. Today, the garnishee has cleared the bank account.

Six months ago, the books were behind but fixable. Today, safe harbour is off the table.

Six months ago, a DOCA was viable because there was still a trading business to save. Today, the customers have left.

The honest reality: the cost of an early conversation with an insolvency practitioner is zero. The cost of a late one is measured in personal liability, lost businesses, and outcomes that were avoidable.

If you're a director with that quiet feeling in the back of your mind, or an advisor with a client you keep thinking about — that's the conversation. Make the call early. The options only narrow from here.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

13/07/2026

A payment your client made six months ago could be clawed back by a liquidator. Most directors find this out the hard way.

**Unfair preference payments** are payments made to an unsecured creditor in the six months before liquidation that gave that creditor more than they'd have received in the liquidation. The liquidator can recover them.

Common scenarios:

→ Catching up arrears with the ATO to avoid a DPN
→ Paying the key supplier in full to keep them onside
→ Settling a chasing creditor under pressure
→ Paying down the director-related loan

Yes — even payments to the ATO can be preferences, and the ATO defends these claims like anyone else.

There are defences. The "good faith" defence is the main one, and it depends on what the creditor knew or suspected about the company's solvency at the time. The "running account" principle can also reduce the exposure.

The point isn't that preferences are wrong — it's that creditors who took payments late in the piece need to know recovery action is possible, and directors need to know which of their late-stage decisions could create complications.

If you're a creditor who's received a demand letter from a liquidator, don't pay it without advice. There's almost always more nuance than the letter suggests.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

10/07/2026

Every director of an Australian company is required to have a Director Identification Number. This isn't new — new directors have needed one **before appointment since 5 April 2022**, and the deadline for existing directors under the Corporations Act passed on **30 November 2022**. Yet we still see new appointments and file reviews where directors haven't obtained one.

The basics:

→ Apply once, keep for life — a unique 15-digit identifier
→ Free to obtain via ABRS (Australian Business Registry Services)
→ Required for all directors of registered Australian companies, including corporate trustees
→ Required **before** becoming a director (new directors)

Consequences of not having one:

→ Civil and criminal penalties of up to **$1.11 million** for serious offences
→ Lower-tier penalties for straightforward non-compliance
→ ASIC and ABRS enforcement is active and increasing

Why it exists: to stop phantom directors, illegal phoenix activity, and identity fraud in director appointments. It works because every director is now traceable across every company they've ever been on the board of.

If you're a director and you don't have one — fix it today. The application takes about 15 minutes through **myID** (formerly myGovID).

**One important trap:** ASIC does not require a Director ID to be quoted when registering a new company. The system will let the registration go through without one. But it is **illegal to be appointed as a director without a Director ID** — and the appointment occurs at registration. So the company gets formed, the director thinks everything's in order, and they're already in breach.

If you've registered a company recently without holding a Director ID at the time of appointment, that needs addressing immediately.

If you're an accountant or lawyer with a client base of directors, a quick file review and prompt to non-compliant clients is a five-minute job that prevents a meaningful penalty exposure.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

08/07/2026

The ATO is no longer the patient creditor it was during the COVID years.

What we're seeing in 2026:

→ **Garnishees** issued without warning on bank accounts and trade debtors
→ **DPNs** issued faster, and in greater volume
→ **Statutory demands** for older debts that had been sitting quietly
→ **Disclosure of business tax debts** to credit reporting bureaus for debts over $100k where there's no engagement
→ Less tolerance for repeat payment plan failures
→ Higher scrutiny on SBR proposals (see earlier post)

If your client has ATO debt and hasn't engaged, the position is changing under their feet. Engagement matters — even a partial payment plan keeps them out of the firmer-action queue.

The window to negotiate proactively is much wider than the window to negotiate reactively. By the time a garnishee lands, the conversation is on the ATO's terms.

If you're aware of an ATO debt sitting on a balance sheet you advise, now is a better time to deal with it than next quarter.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

06/07/2026

To the suppliers, equipment financiers, and trade creditors reading this:

If your customer goes into administration or liquidation tomorrow, can you get your goods back?

Only if your security interest is properly registered on the PPSR. And only if it was registered **in time** — generally within 20 business days of the agreement, or 6 months before insolvency, whichever applies.

What we see all the time:

→ Retention of title clauses in supply contracts, but no PPSR registration
→ Registrations made against the wrong entity (trustee vs trust, group company confusion)
→ Registrations with the wrong collateral class
→ Late registrations that get caught by s588FL and vest in the company on insolvency

The result: a supplier who thought they had security finds out they're an unsecured creditor at 5 cents in the dollar.

This is fixable — but only before the insolvency event. Once the administrator or liquidator is appointed, the registration position is locked in.

If your business extends credit, lends equipment, or supplies on retention of title terms, a 30-minute PPSR review is the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

02/07/2026

Most directors think personal liability only kicks in if they do something wrong. Wrong.

Four common ways directors get exposed in an insolvency, even when they thought they were doing the right thing:

**1. Insolvent trading** — continuing to incur debt when the company can't pay its debts as they fall due. The defence requires evidence, not assertion.

**2. Unpaid PAYG, GST, and SGC** — DPN regime makes these personal if reporting was late.

**3. Personal guarantees** — given to landlords, suppliers, banks, and forgotten about. They survive the company.

**4. Loan accounts in debit** — money taken from the company that has to be repaid to the liquidator, often as the director's last surprise.

What protects you:

→ Lodge everything on time
→ Document what you knew and when
→ Get proper advice early
→ Keep personal and company affairs cleanly separate
→ Don't sign personal guarantees without reading them

Personal liability is rarely about bad intent. It's about decisions made without a clear view of where the lines are.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

30/06/2026

When a company goes into liquidation, most directors imagine the liquidator turns up, sells everything, and disappears. That's not how the first 30 days actually look.

Here's what happens behind the scenes:

→ **Day 1–3:** Take control of records, secure assets, notify ASIC, notify employees, freeze bank accounts, change signatories, take possession of premises if needed

→ **Day 5–10:** Initial review of books and records, identify the ATO position, identify secured creditors and PPSR registrations, identify related-party transactions

→ **Day 11-20:** Initial report to creditors (required within 10 business days), creditor enquiries, initial investigations into voidable transactions and director conduct

→ **Day 20–30:** Realisation planning for assets, employee entitlement claims (FEG referrals where eligible), early-stage discussions with parties of interest

What we're not doing in those first 30 days: rushing to sell things below value, ignoring the director's perspective, or running the investigation on autopilot.

The early phase is where the realisation value of the business is preserved or destroyed. A liquidator who arrives, takes inventory, and acts decisively typically returns more to creditors than one who sits on appointments.

If you're a director or advisor wondering what happens after the appointment, the short version is: a lot, quickly, and with structure.

Learn more at www.menziesadvisory.com.au or you can call us on 1300 948 593.

Address

Services Available In:
Southport, QLD
4212

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 5pm
Thursday	8:30am - 5pm
Friday	8:30am - 5pm

Website

http://www.menziesadvisory.com.au/

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