A Director Penalty Notice makes you personally liable for company tax debt. The clock is ticking, and an asset the business, a director or a third party owns can fund your response. Funding typically takes 24 to 48 hours once the asset is secured.
Dealing with wider ATO debt? See ATO debt funding. New to this? Read what asset-based lending is.
A Director Penalty Notice is how the ATO holds you personally liable for certain unpaid company tax debts. Once it applies, your personal assets, including your home, savings and investments, are at risk.
The liability was reported on time, or within 3 months, but not paid. You have 21 days to:
Any of these actions can remit the penalty and remove your personal liability.
The liability was reported more than 3 months after the due date, or not reported at all. There is no 21-day grace period.
Administration or liquidation will not remit the penalty. Payment in full is the only way to remit it.
We don’t negotiate with the ATO or give tax advice. We give you a way to release equity from an asset the business, a director or a third party already owns, so you can respond to the DPN and get the time you need.
When you’re out of time, you’re not out of options.
Get expert advice first. Speak to your accountant or a tax debt negotiation specialist about your options, such as payment plans, settlements or restructuring. Once you know your path, you need fast funding to make it happen. That’s where we come in. Accountants and advisors can refer a client through our accountants and advisors page.
The asset can be owned by the business, by a director personally or by a third party, as long as it is owned outright or mostly paid off, ownership is clear and we can secure against it. How we secure it depends on the asset.
If the asset earns for the business, such as a truck, van or machine, we secure it with a GPS tracker and you keep using it for the length of the loan. See Track It.
For a personal asset, or any asset you don’t need day to day, Park It gets you our best rate. We hold onto the asset for the length of the loan and return it when you repay. See Park It.
Personal liability means exactly that. Your personal assets are on the line.
The ATO can pursue personal assets, including the family home, to recover the debt. Even joint ownership may not fully protect it.
Bank accounts, term deposits and shares can all be reached through garnishee notices or court orders.
If you also work as an employee elsewhere, the ATO can garnishee your wages directly from your employer.
The company might be finished. But your personal liability doesn’t end when the company does.
In 9 out of 10 cases we can fund it. If it’s anything of value we can secure against, talk to us for a free desktop valuation. If you need help identifying assets, we can do that too.
Three ways to use what you already own. The right product depends on whether you can spare the asset, need to keep using it or are ready to release it entirely. Compare all three products.
| Park It | Track It | Sell It | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In a line | Asset stored. Capital now. | Keep using it. Capital now. | Capital now. The sale completes the loan. |
| Where the asset is | Securely stored | Stays with you, GPS-secured | Prepared for auction |
| Use during the term | None | Continued, as normal | None |
| Asset returns | Yes, when you’re done | Yes, when you’re done | No, the sale closes the loan |
| Best for | An asset you can park for the term | An asset that needs to stay in service | A strategic exit on an asset you’re ready to release |
| Learn more | View Park It | View Track It | View Sell It |
DPNs have deadlines. Indicative terms within 2 hours, and typically 24 to 48 hours to funded once the asset is secured. Our record is six hours.
Your credit score doesn’t drive the decision. We assess the asset, not the borrower.
No BAS. No tax returns. No P&L. Just the asset.
Use business equipment or personal assets instead. Keep your home off the table.
Equipment, vehicles, machinery and more: anything of value we can secure against, owned by the business, a director or a third party.
When the debt is paid in full, the director penalty can be remitted. ABL provides the capital to make that happen.
Steve Heavey, Managing Director of Asset Based Lending, explains how a cash out solution works and when it fits: you own the asset, time is short and your other options are slow or closing.
We had an organisation recently that was on the winding-up list at the ATO. The ATO were trying to wind up their transport company, and they were two days from losing the business to liquidation. Within two days we were able to provide enough money for the business to pay the ATO back, get off the winding-up list and keep trading. One of the best outcomes was that their broker came in and refinanced the family home, so they could pay us back, and the business continued. That saved 40 jobs. This business had 20 trucks on the road, and it lives to fight another day.
I think that's the greatest part of asset based lending. We're here to help businesses survive right now. We can do that because we can move quickly. Nine times out of 10, it's the urgency that's required in these situations where ABL is able to come to the fore, and we provide the bridging solution so they can resolve their issues and get the help they need, whether that's through their accountant or their finance broker.
This is a real equity release play. There are a lot of businesses out there that are asset rich but cash poor. They're sitting on assets because they know that at some point they may need them. If you're talking about a construction company, that could be trucks, cranes and excavators, all sitting around waiting for the next job. Those assets are doing nothing, when they could be used to resolve some of the short-term cash flow challenges the business may face.
So it's about educating people that this is a short-term solution that helps businesses smooth out their cash flow and resolve those issues, using assets they already own instead of taking on more lending, which puts them under even more pressure.
Well, you could do that, but a lot of our clients are in urgent need of cash. If you go down the traditional path of selling an asset, or going to a bank to secure finance, you can safely say it's going to take at least two to four weeks before that even happens. In some cases with banks, it could be up to three months before you get a decision on commercial finance.
Asset Based Lending can provide a solution the same day. If you've got assets sitting idle and you're willing to park those assets with us, we can release funds on day one.
Steve: We'll lend money for up to six months. We've probably had several customers in that situation at the end of the term, and every one of them has said to us that they were going to sell the asset anyway. It was one of their exit strategies from the start. What Asset Based Lending does is buy people time. We allow them to resolve the issue and get out the other side. Because you can access the funding straight away, you can resolve that tax debt straight away, take the pressure off, get the wolves from the door, and really focus on your business and get yourself out of trouble.
Update, October 2026: the maximum term is now nine months.
At the end of the term, every single person we've talked to has said, "Steve, we were going to sell the asset anyway, but you provided a short-term solution and got us out of trouble at the time. What we're doing now is what we were going to do right at the start, and it's been a great outcome for us."
Interviewer: That time piece is really interesting. If you're going to sell, you need a valuation anyway, but then the time keeps going while you try to find the person who's going to pay at that valuation. And we know the market: you're never going to get the price it's valued at. It's always going to be under.
Steve: Yeah. You never get full price at a liquidation sale, I can tell you that. So in the situations where we do sell assets at the end of the term, we run a proper four-week campaign. It's all transparent and all online. We've got a business partner in Lloyds Auctions & Valuations, where everything's transparent and you can see live bids coming in on your asset. Because we're lending 70% of the forced liquidation value, not the market value, there's always a surplus at the end of the term. We take our principal and interest back, and whatever's left after the asset's sold goes back to the client.
A DPN is how the ATO makes company directors personally liable for certain unpaid company tax debts: PAYG withholding, GST and the super guarantee charge. There are two types, depending on how late the liability was reported: a 21-day DPN and a lockdown DPN.
A 21-day DPN applies when the liability was reported within 3 months of the due date. You can remit the penalty by paying in full, or by appointing an administrator, a small business restructuring practitioner or a liquidator. A lockdown DPN applies when the liability was reported more than 3 months late or not reported. Only paying the company's debt in full remits the penalty.
No. We are specialist funders. We don't negotiate with the ATO or give tax advice. We give you a way to release equity from an asset the business, a director or a third party already owns, so you can respond to the DPN and get the time you need. Speak to your accountant or a tax debt specialist about your position first.
We release funding once the asset is secured. Indicative terms come within 2 hours, and funding is typically 24 to 48 hours from enquiry. Our record is six hours. The main variable is how quickly the asset is made available, so get it valued as early as you can.
Yes. The asset can be owned by the business, by you personally or by a third party, as long as it is owned outright or mostly paid off, ownership is clear and we can secure against it. Work assets can stay in use with Track It. Personal assets are usually best suited to Park It, which gets our best rate because we hold the asset for the length of the loan. Paying the debt in full keeps your home and savings out of the ATO's reach for that debt.
We can fund against multiple assets for multiple DPNs. The total advance depends on the combined value of the assets, and transactions over $500K are documented.
Most terms are one to three months, and we can extend up to nine if you need more time. The minimum is one month. You can exit any time after month one with no penalty, and after that you pay only for the days you use.
No. We assess the asset, not the borrower. There are no credit checks, no BAS, no tax returns and no financial statements.
Traditional business loans assess your trading history, financials and credit. ABL assesses one thing: the value of your asset. That is why we can move much faster.
Talk to us early. We work with you on options. If repayment isn't possible, we sell the asset to clear the loan and return any surplus to you.
You could, but it is rarely as fast, and you may be selling under pressure. With ABL you get funding when you need it without being forced into a discounted sale.
Australia's dedicated cash-out solution specialist. We provide a fast equity release against assets we can secure, with no credit checks.
More questions? See all ABL FAQs.
Every day you wait, your personal assets stay at risk. Put an asset forward and we’ll give you a free desktop valuation, with no obligation.
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ABL is a specialist funder, not a tax adviser or tax debt specialist. Speak to your accountant about your tax position. ATO rules checked 7 October 2026. Page last updated 7 October 2026. ABL provides short-term secured commercial lending. Loans are secured against your asset.
