As a result of recent legislative changes, any person who is or wants to become a company director will be required to have a unique identification number which will be administered by a new national registry service.
This unique identification number will assist government and industry regulatory bodies to accurately identify directors. Failure to apply for an identification number may result in fines of up to $1.11 million. You may need to liaise with your clients to ensure that they have registered for Director ID or if they do not, they risk personal liability should ASIC seek to enforce fines. Should a company be wound up and the directors of that company not have obtained director identification numbers, then it will be a matter that will need to be reported to ASIC. Should you have any queries about the new regime, or any insolvency related matters, then please don’t hesitate to contact us directly to arrange a free consultation at your convenience.
At O’Brien Palmer, we are available for a “no fee, no obligation” conversation with your clients about their circumstances and the options available to address potential or actual insolvency as well as consideration of the safe harbour provisions which, when properly managed, provide a defence for Directors against insolvent trading whilst their companies reposition themselves to recover from these financially distressing times.