At first glance, schooling accountants on saving businesses when one of your own companies is hopelessly insolvent would seem presumptuous.
But maybe insights that cannot be acquired without enduring the stigma of unmanageable indebtedness imbue one with unmatched credibility?
Certainly the recent placing of two companies into liquidation – one of which owes the Australian Tax Office (ATO) $1.4 million – hasn’t discouraged prominent pre-insolvency advisor Hank de Jonge from presuming to speak on the topic of Saving Businesses: Accountants Guide to Tackling Corporate Insolvency at next week’s Accounting Business Expo at the International Convention Centre (ICC).
There seem to be no such misgivings for de Jonge, founder and executive director of pre-insolvency specialists de Jonge Read, as he prepares to address Expo attendees twice over the two day conference, and we won’t be surprised if he injects his recent experience with insolvency to good effect.
After all, how better to impart the urgency of avoiding a million plus dollars in tax arrears than by experiencing it yourself, as de Jonge has in respect of Carringsmith Pty Ltd and Warana Tops Pty Ltd, the latter of which owes the ATO $1.424 million according to a RoCAP lodged with ASIC by the companies’ liquidator, Richard Rohrt.
Just how somebody who presided as director of Warana Tops over the accrual of $1.5 million in tax debts can teach accountants how to save business is not immediately clear to your correspondent and de Jonge has so far declined to respond to inquiries in respect of the debt and whether either of the companies were issued with creditor’s statutory demands or if the tax office slapped him with a Director’s Penalty notice (DPN).
If de Jonge really wants to help accountants with distressed clients he could do worse than refer conference delegates to the Insolvency & Turnaround seminar being presented by ARITA chief executive John Winter on day 2 of Expo. Maybe he could even attend himself.
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