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Small Business Restructure Brisbane

Minimising debt, maximising profitability.


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Call 1300 621 284

About your recovery partner

Accountants Daily Finalists, Fastest Growing Firm
AFR Top 100 Accounting Firms
CA and CPA Qualified Accountants
National Team
ASIC Registered Liquidators
ARITA Professional Members

Talk to our Brisbane team

Based in the heart of Brisbane's CBD, we work with businesses across Brisbane and South East Queensland.

Level 14, 120 Edward St, Brisbane City QLD 4000
1300 621 284

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Small Business Restructure across Australia

Sydney (Head Office)

Level 12, 20 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Contact our Sydney SBR team

Melbourne

Level 12, 90 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Contact our Melbourne SBR team

Perth

Level 2, 68 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000

Contact our Perth SBR team

What is a Small Business Restructure?

A Small Business Restructure (SBR) is a way for an eligible company to deal with its debts on new terms while it keeps trading. Directors stay at the helm, working with a Small Business Restructuring Practitioner (SBRP) who helps shape the plan and put a restructuring proposal statement to creditors. No administrator is appointed to run the company.

The Small Business Restructuring (SBR) process sits under the Corporations Act 2001. It's a small-scale, lower cost alternative to Voluntary Administration for viable businesses with total liabilities under $1 million, and it lets you keep operating in the ordinary course of business. Act early and more paths stay open, including avoiding Liquidation.

Explore our SBR guide

How a Small Business Restructure benefits your Brisbane business

Retain control

Stay in control of the company throughout the restructuring process.

Reduce creditor legal action

While your company is in a Small Business Restructure, creditors generally can't pursue repayment.

Solve a director penalty notice (DPN)

An SBR can help protect you from becoming personally liable for the company's debt.

Take a breath

Space to steady the business while you work with experts on a plan to get back on track.

Turnaround efficiently

A simplified process means outcomes come faster than most formal insolvency options.

Cost-effective

Lower cost than Voluntary Administration, with a fixed fee agreed up front.

Is your company eligible for a Small Business Restructure?

Tick most of these? Speak to our experts to confirm where you stand.

Your next steps

Start your Small Business Restructure process with one free, confidential conversation. We're here to help.

Assessment

We review your financial position and find the right solution, which isn't always the one you first had in mind.

Strategic planning

We build a restructuring plan to manage debt, improve cash flow and reduce costs.

Creditor proposals

We prepare your restructuring proposal statement and put the plan to creditors, raising it with the tax office early where that strengthens your position.

Implementation

The approved plan goes into action, so you can stabilise operations and keep trading.

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Don't meet the criteria?

An SBR isn't the only way forward. Depending on your numbers, the better fit might be a Voluntary Administration and DOCA, a Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation or Simplified Liquidation. We'll point you to the option that suits your situation, not a default.

Voluntary Administration

Unsure your business can stay financially afloat? Enabling the company to move forward while distributing money to creditors. Most crucially, it gives you the breathing space and structure to continue trading in a viable way, with a plan to bring your business back to profitability.

Safe Harbour

Providing protection for directors from claims of insolvent trading, as long as they adhere to a formal restructuring plan. At Mackay Goodwin, we’ll guide you through. Working as your restructuring partner, we’ll put a strategy and plan in place for you to follow. Helping your business to strengthen, and succeed.

Creditors Voluntary Liquidation

In Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL), our ASIC registered liquidators can ease the process on the role of Company Liquidator. Dealing with the formalities of convening shareholders, and facilitating a procedure in which the company is placed into Liquidation. Helping to relieve stress at every stage.


Simplified Liquidation

Learn more

If your company is insolvent and total liabilities do not exceed $1 million, you may be eligible for Simplified Liquidation. A more streamlined version of CVL, we’ll work with you to close your business the right way, with clarity and understanding.


Members' Voluntary Liquidation

Eliminate the communication hurdle involved with dissolving a company through a MVL Mackay Goodwin will conduct a review, liquidate your company and distribute any assets to the relevant parties.

How we helped an IT services firm cut its tax debt by 51%

A professional IT services business, trading since 2008, came to us behind on its tax. A failed partnership, a sharp COVID revenue drop and three months of director downtime after surgery had left it owing $272,406, with the tax office its only creditor. The business was still viable, so Liquidation made no sense. We guided the company through a Small Business Restructure, reducing that debt by 51% to $133,450. It kept all five staff on and carried on trading on terms it could actually meet.

A Small Business Restructure can do the same for ATO tax debt in many viable businesses. Act early, get in touch today.

Meet your Brisbane restructuring team

When your business is under pressure, the people in your corner matter. Our Brisbane team brings more than 20 years of experience in corporate insolvency and turnaround, including ASIC registered liquidators who'll guide you through every step.

Andrew Quinn

Andrew Quinn

Director & ASIC Registered LiquidatorBrisbane

Andrew Quinn knows Mackay Goodwin from the ground up. He joined as an Analyst in 2016, ran the firm's Queensland operations as General Manager and became a Director and ASIC Registered Liquidator in 2022.

Based in Brisbane, Andrew works with business owners and their advisers on voluntary administrations, liquidations, receiverships and Small Business Restructures, across sectors including construction, hospitality and professional services. Years in client services before insolvency taught him to put the client first, and the advisers who refer to him say it shows.

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Fatima Deen

Fatima Deen

DirectorBrisbane

Fatima Deen sees every matter through two lenses. A solicitor and a Certified Practising Accountant, she brings both a legal and a financial view to insolvency, backed by 25 years in the profession.

Fatima began her career in law in 1998 and moved into insolvency in 2001, holding senior roles at several insolvency firms before joining Mackay Goodwin, where she is now a Director in Brisbane. Her work includes a managing role in the receivership of a regional medical centre, where the clinic kept trading while a sale of the business was negotiated.

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Sophie Quinn

Sophie Quinn

Head of Client OperationsBrisbane

When a business owner reaches out to Mackay Goodwin, Sophie Quinn makes sure they are looked after from that very first conversation. As Head of Client Operations in Brisbane, she oversees how the firm supports its clients, keeping them informed, reassured and moving forward at what is often the hardest point in their business life.

Sophie joined Mackay Goodwin in 2021 as a Client Manager and stepped into her current role in 2024. She brings more than a decade of people-focused leadership, including eight years leading retail sales teams and four years managing human resources.

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Trusted by Queensland business owners

4.3 Rating

Google Business Reviews

"I have only ever had excellent experiences with the team at Mackay Goodwin Brisbane. Their advice in the restructure, turnaround and insolvency space is second to none. Highly recommended."

- Samuel Speechly

"Over the years I've referred clients suffering insolvency and hardship to Mackay Goodwin. Andrew and his team always put the client first. What a positive impact they've made to the Brisbane insolvency market."

- Jarrad

"Mackay Goodwin were professional, supportive and efficient throughout the entire process. They made a stressful situation manageable with clear advice and genuine care."

- SMMJ AZ

Small Business Restructuring in Brisbane – FAQs

Timing is everything. If a restructuring practitioner is appointed before the court makes a winding-up order, a moratorium pauses most enforcement while your restructuring proposal statement is prepared. Once an order is made it's generally too late, so call the moment you're served.

Sometimes. For a non-lockdown director penalty notice, appointing a restructuring practitioner early may remove your personal liability for the company's tax, as long as you act within the ATO's timeframes. We'll check where you stand before anything is lodged.

It deals with the company's unsecured debts, such as trade suppliers and unsecured loans. Unsecured creditors vote on your restructuring proposal statement. A secured creditor, like a lender holding security over equipment, sits outside the plan and keeps its rights over that asset. Personal guarantees you've signed sit outside it too, so they aren't automatically cleared.

We see it most across South East Queensland trades, construction, hospitality and retail. A few slow-paying months can leave an otherwise sound business behind on its tax debt to the ATO, and an SBR resets that debt without closing the doors.

Yes. We act for companies across Brisbane and regional Queensland, and most of the process runs by phone, email and video. To get started we'll need your recent numbers, creditor list and details of any outstanding employee entitlements.

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Speak to one of our experts now for a free consultation. Enter your details below or call 02 8001 6520.