New laws can make directors personally liable for GST

The government recently passed new legislation designed to strengthen laws to “crack down on illegal  phoenixing  activity  by  dodgy  business operators who try to avoid their obligations to their customers, employees and creditors.”

In particular, the changes allow the ATO to collect estimates of anticipated GST liabilities, and make company  directors  personally  liable  for  their company’s GST liabilities in certain circumstances (basically by including these liabilities in the director penalty notice regime).

Importantly, the expansion of the director penalty notice  regime  to  include  GST  liabilities  will commence from 1 April 2020.