Small Business Restructure Assessment
Screen company facts and keep appointment conditions separate from plan readiness.
Company facts
Use the registered legal entity seeking the appointment.
Include administration, liquidation, a current plan or an unterminated DOCA.
Include a related body corporate of an APRA-regulated body.
Liabilities and history
Use the confirmed admissible-debt total for the appointment date.
Confirm the total on the admissible-debt basis explained below.
Restructuring or simplified liquidation in the preceding seven years.
Check current directors and those who left within the preceding 12 months.
For prior director history, assess related-company and 20-business-day facts.
Appointment and plan
Record the insolvency opinion and resolution to appoint a practitioner.
Amounts due and payable, including superannuation.
Required tax documents, including returns and activity statements.
Resolve unknown facts
Read each condition and the separate plan-readiness checks below.
Appointment conditions
- Company entityMet
- Company supplied. Confirm its registration.
- Existing appointment or planMet
- No listed appointment or continuing plan supplied.
- APRA restrictionMet
- Neither APRA restriction is reported.
- Liability capMet
- The confirmed supplied amount is within the $1 million cap.
- Company historyMet
- No restructuring or simplified liquidation in seven years is reported.
- Director historyUnknown
- Check every current director and anyone who left within 12 months.
- Directors’ resolutionMet
- The insolvency opinion and appointment resolution are supplied.
Before proposing a plan
- Employee entitlementsMet
- Payment of due and payable employee entitlements is reported.
- Tax lodgementsUnmet
- Tax documents remain overdue. Lodge them or obtain a substantial-compliance assessment.
Supplied facts only. A registered restructuring practitioner assesses the legal position.
What the Assessment Checks
This small business restructure assessment screens the facts you supply against published conditions. Each result records Met, Unmet or Unknown. The initial screen covers appointment conditions. Employee payments and tax lodgements appear separately as prerequisites for proposing a plan.
A registered restructuring practitioner determines the full legal position and appointment suitability. A met screen grants no permission to appoint. The tool runs locally and collects no company identifiers.
Company Facts and Liability Basis
Start with the legal entity and existing appointments or continuing plans. A company already in administration, restructuring or liquidation needs its status resolved. A continuing restructuring plan or deed of company arrangement also prevents the appointment. The restriction includes an APRA-regulated body and its related bodies corporate.
The liability test is a total of no more than $1 million on the appointment date. Use liabilities to pay admissible debts and claims under regulation 5.3B.03. That basis excludes employee entitlements and claims excluded by regulation 5.3B.01. Have the practitioner reconcile the total with the creditor records, including secured and contingent claims. A balance-sheet total alone does not confirm this basis.
Check the company’s preceding seven-year restructuring and simplified-liquidation history. For director history, include current directors and anyone who left within 12 months before appointment. Review their other-company processes over seven years.
A possible director-history exception stays Unknown. It requires a related body corporate and the relevant other-company appointment or simplified-liquidation commencement within the prescribed 20-business-day window. Record those dates and relationships for assessment under the Corporations Regulations.
Tax Lodgements and Employee Entitlements
Before proposing a plan, the company must pay due and payable employee entitlements and give the documents required by taxation laws. Substantial compliance can satisfy the requirement, subject to professional assessment. The tool leaves a claimed substantial-compliance answer Unknown.
Employee entitlements include superannuation. Leave and other entitlements not currently payable are outside this payment prerequisite. Tax lodgements include required returns and activity statements. Lodging those documents and paying tax debt are separate tasks. Unpaid tax debt does not itself require payment in full before proposing a plan.
Use ASIC’s restructuring guidance to distinguish appointment conditions from these plan prerequisites. An overdue-lodgement result remains separate from the initial screen.
Read Met, Unmet and Unknown Results
The fictional example screens a company with $740,000 of confirmed applicable liabilities. It passes the existing-appointment, APRA and prior-company-history screens. Directors have passed the required resolutions and employee amounts due are paid. Director history is unknown and tax lodgements are overdue.
The headline reads “Resolve unknown facts”. The liability cap is Met, director history is Unknown and tax lodgements are Unmet under plan readiness. Obtain the director-history records and identify the outstanding tax documents. Paying a tax balance alone does not resolve a missing return.
A Met condition reflects the supplied answer. Unmet identifies a reported conflict with that condition. Unknown identifies a missing fact or an exception needing assessment. None of these results calculates insolvency from debt or cash. Directors must form the required opinion and pass the appointment resolution under section 453B of the Corporations Act.
Prepare the Practitioner Discussion
Download the workpaper to retain the supplied answers, condition results and rule references. Keep creditor schedules, director-history records and evidence of employee payments with it. Add the required tax-lodgement list to your own file. The download is created on your device.
Use the small business restructure eligibility calculator as a referral record. The practitioner assesses the full legal position, appointment suitability and plan feasibility. The result predicts neither creditor acceptance nor debt forgiveness. Take each Unknown item to the practitioner with the fact or record needed to resolve it.