The former chief financial officer of an Australian disability employment group has told a court he and his wife spent tens of thousands of dollars on the group's credit cards because he thought there was no limit to a tax exemption it received as a benevolent organisation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Mustafa Koraiem, of Mosman, was overseeing the $25 million annual turnover of Cumberland Industries when he was approving his wife's and his own private expenses as salary sacrifices through the company's accounts, the Federal Court has heard.

Professionals and people on high incomes are declaring bankruptcy faster than ever before in Australia, according to a study that reveals levels have risen by more than a third in the past four years, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Analysing the nation's cases over the past decade, the report shatters the myth that most people who file for bankruptcy are either the chronically poor who have no other options or the Alan Bond-style wealthy declaring complete financial free-fall.

Australia’s planned 40 percent tax on mining profits has set a benchmark for other countries weighing higher levies, reducing earnings forecasts for BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group and the attraction of mining stocks, Bloomberg reported. Mining companies’ earnings may be cut by almost a third when the tax starts in 2012, Moody’s Investors Services said this week. The tax would be broadly credit negative for the sector and raise uncertainty for some companies over the short- to-medium term, Moody’s said this month.

The first meeting of creditors to Clive Peeters Ltd is expected no later than May 28 after the discount appliance retail was placed into voluntary administration by its banker National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB), the Business Spectator reported on an Australian Associated Press story. The move comes just two weeks after Clive Peeters warned that deteriorating sales would lead to four months of operating losses. McGrathNicol was appointed voluntary administrators for the company and its controlled entities on Wednesday after executives from Clive Peeters met NAB officials.

A company which manages investment schemes in the Great Southern and around Western Australia has gone into administration, ABC News reported. Rewards Group Limited manages plantations of native Sandalwood near Narrogin and stone fruit and grapefruit orchards in Dandaragan and Kununurra. The company has been unable to pay debt amounting to tens-of-millions-of-dollars and is in the process of defending a multi-million dollar law suit from former Westpoint director Richard Beck. It's the fourth managed investment scheme in Australia to collapse in the past 18 months.

Transurban Group said Monday that its Canadian pension fund shareholders are considering whether or not to lodge a revised takeover bid for Lane Cove Tunnel after it agreed to pay 630.5 million Australian dollars (US$569.4 million) for the tollroad operator, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Sydney-based printing group Scott Printing has entered voluntary administration, though the director said he was confident of being able to return to trading, ProPrint reported. Director Andrew Scott told ProPrint that Crouch Amirbeaggi was appointed administrators on 27 April. The Scott Printing Group comprises Hippo Books, Centatime Publishing and Edgecliff Print, though the director said Edgecliff Print was not included in the administration. Scott said the group was continuing to trade, and he expected them to do so into the future.

A leading Australian fruit exporter has collapsed with debts in excess of A$10m (US$9.25m). Mildura-based JAK Fruit Pty Ltd, run by managing director Jason Kotz, went into voluntary administration on Tuesday 27 April, the Sunraysia Daily reported. The company's primary interests were exporting citrus and table grapes, and it also exported avocados. Administrator Wayne Benton from Melbourne-based insolvency company BRI Ferrier said Mr Kotz had called his firm to ask them to take control of the company, with JAK Fruit owing growers A$4.1m and its banks around A$6m.

The trend by banks in Australia to wind up small businesses that have fallen behind is likely to take off in New Zealand, a business turnaround specialist says, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. Trevor Thornton, of accounting firm Grant Thornton New Zealand, said Australian banks were starting to stop supporting small businesses "nursed for a couple of years", but now late with their repayments. "It would seem only a matter of time before banks on this side of the Tasman start to lose patience with companies that have not been able to effectively rehabilitate themselves," Mr Thornton said.

Receivers appointed to troubled Launceston timber company Forest Enterprises Australia are yet to decide on the need for more redundancies, The Examiner reported. After concerns from staff that former chief executive Andrew White had received a lucrative redundancy payout, a spokeswoman for receiver manager Tim Norman, of Deloitte, yesterday denied that was the case.