Checklist · Taxation
Director penalty notice: 21-day remission checklist
A checklist for the 21 days after a director penalty notice, and for whether the penalty can be remitted only by payment, using the Australian Taxation Office director-penalty page.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use on the day a director penalty notice is received, and when a person is about to be appointed or has just resigned. It does not draft the defence.
Used for these tasks
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may diary 21 days from the date the notice was posted or left, and sort reported amounts from estimates; the lawyer decides whether remission is still open and whether a defence is arguable.
AI may
- Calculate the 21-day date from the posting or delivery date on the notice
- Separate PAYG withholding and GST reported within three months from amounts reported later or estimated
- List the four company actions the page says can remit a penalty that is still open
AI must not
- Must not write the defence, or any statement of the director's illness or of steps they took
- Must not tell the director the penalty has been remitted
- Must not advise resignation as a way to end the penalty
The lawyer checks
- The 21 days are counted from the day the notice was posted or left at the ASIC address, or from the address the page allows if there is no ASIC address
- Each amount is classed as reported in time, reported late, or estimated, because the remission options differ
- A new director's 30-day window is diarised from the appointment, and resignation inside that window is not treated as an exit from liability
- Any defence covers the whole period the page describes, and is lodged in writing identifying which of the three defences is relied on
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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