Brian Silvia.
When you profess expertise in cost control, cashflow management and the sundry other indicia of insolvency, acquired during a career spanning decades, receiving a winding up notice must come as a surprise.
When that notice is filed in a court by lawyers acting on behalf of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), along with affidavits in support and a liquidator’s consent well, surprise might concede the field to shock.
iNO can report however that in this case the recipient of the ATO’s unwelcome missive has assured he is on the front foot so the chances of a registered liquidator having his company liquidated from underneath him might be considered remote.
“I am aware of the subject matter of your enquiry which has arisen as a consequence of an administrative oversight, in part associated with a former external accountant,” Brian Silvia told iNO yesterday.
“These matters are currently being rectified and issues with the ATO resolved.”
This will of course please the ATO, which would prefer not to incur the expense of initiating winding up proceedings when a taxpayer is capable of remedying a situation without court-ordered enforcement.
iNO contacted Silvia after identifying an application in the Federal Court for the winding up of Cascap Advisory, a company to which Silvia is sole director appointed and sole shareholder.
Until late 2023 Cascap Advisory was known as FerrierSilvia, the business name Silvia took on after he parted company with the other partners of BRI Ferrier’s Sydney practice in 2020.
At the time Silvia boasted that he had been the “primary fee earner” in the proceeding 12 years.
How it’s come to pass however that his company owes the ATO a sum sufficient to attract liquidation proceedings was not something Silvia saw fit to share yesterday, though his reference to a “former external accountant” may well provide a clue.
We asked Silvia if he intended to apply to have the ATO debt set aside or was seeking to negotiate a payment plan but the 74 year old did not deign to provide specifics.
iNO did however have an interesting exchange with long time Silvia offsider Geoff Granger, who when asked if he had left Cascap advised that he was there as a consultant, for the foreseeable future until being advised that the marketplace was saying he had already left, at which point he declined to deny it.
The winding up proceedings were commenced on May 23 and while a first directions hearing is scheduled for July 19 the proceedings may well be dismissed beforehand, assuming the “administrative oversight” alluded to can be cured.
Further reading:
Be the first to comment on "Liquidator’s company facing insolvency over tax debt"