When people in
Darwin come to me looking to speak about Bankruptcy,
they are constantly full of questions. The internet has lots of information,
but far too much of it is baffling or contradicts itself, so I make it my
mission to try and make it more clear. One of the most standard worries is
'Will I lose my business if I declare bankruptcy?' The brief answer is no. If
you are a manager of a company any shape or size you can maintain your business
if you want to. In Darwin, businesses that end up being insolvent have a few
options such as liquidation, voluntary administration and so on. It's people
who go bankrupt not businesses.
Bankruptcy is a
complex area so get some reliable advice on this one if you have a business.
Generally speaking, the financial debts in a business and personal debts go
hand in hand when a business owner goes bankrupt. There are a few important
implications for directors of companies when it pertains to Bankruptcy in
Darwin: A bankrupt can not be a director of a company, so if you have a pty ltd
company you definitely will need to resign as a director after you're bankrupt.
A constraint
that applies when you are actually bankrupt as a business owner is that you may
be in your very own business as a sole trader only. Certainly there are things
you should disclose as an aspect of that but in a nutshell you can still run
your company. For some business owners, bankruptcy affects their ability to run
the business because of the licensing issues. As an example, if you run a
building company, your license will be suspended once you're bankrupt and
consequently you can not trade without that license, so make sure you are
asking the ideal questions when it concerns licenses and Bankruptcy in Darwin.
But if your
business is not impacted directly by such issues, then you'll have to
restructure the way you run your business. There are considerations when and if
you go bankrupt as a business owner: you can not acquire heaps of debt in your
business, then go bankrupt then open the doors the next day like not a single
thing had happened. There are laws in place to prevent what is called phoenix
companies popping up out of the ashes of an old company.
Having said
that, it's just a point of talking to the correct people about Bankruptcy. Here
in this situation you may think you need a liquidator for your company, and you
could be right, but remember that every liquidator is different and have their
own motives. Liquidators make money from your liquidation - heaps of money - so
exactly what advice do you think you will get?
When it comes to
Bankruptcy, I consider that giving generic advice in this area is possibly
dangerous as it can have very serious implications for directors and business
owners. This is because it is one of those cases where what the right advice
for one business owner is the inappropriate advice for the other. There are
some fundamentals however, that you may benefit from. There is no reduce to the
size of the business you run even though you are bankrupt. You can employ
staff. You can constantly deal with your vendors under certain conditions, the
main one being you will need to meet the payment terms agreed upon.
So when it
concerns Bankruptcy, don't get extremely uneasy about what you can and can't do
as a business owner, just get the right advice ... If you would like to learn
more about what to do, exactly where to turn and what questions to ask about Bankruptcy,
then feel free to get in touch with Bankruptcy Experts Darwin on 1300 795 575,
or visit our website: .bankruptcyexpertsDarwin.com.au.
