In Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, the US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision held that the US Bankruptcy Code does not permit a debtor to confirm a chapter 11 plan that releases non-debtors from similar or related claims the creditors could assert directly against them.

Recently, insolvency law was fundamentally amended in terms of reorganization procedures. The tax legislation was subsequently adapted to these new procedures, at the same time changing the content of some important tax rules.

The most important change is that a waiver of debt within the framework of a reorganization agreement becomes less interesting from a tax point of view. You will find out exactly how this works in this article.

Het insolventierecht onderging recent een grote wijziging op het gebied van de reorganisatieprocedures. De fiscale wetgeving werd vervolgens aan deze nieuwe procedures aangepast en daarbij werden tegelijk ook de inhoud van een aantal belangrijke fiscale regels gewijzigd.

De belangrijkste wijziging heeft als gevolg dat een schuldkwijtschelding binnen het kader van een reorganisatieakkoord fiscaal minder interessant wordt. Hoe dat precies zit, verneemt u in dit artikel.

Le droit de l'insolvabilité a récemment fait l'objet d'un changement majeur en ce qui concerne les procédures de réorganisation. La législation fiscale a ensuite été adaptée à ces nouvelles procédures, tout en modifiant le contenu de certaines règles fiscales importantes.

Le changement le plus important a pour conséquence qu'un apurement des dettes dans le cadre d'un accord de réorganisation devient moins intéressant du point de vue fiscal. Dans cet article, vous découvrirez comment cela fonctionne exactement.

On August 17, 2023, China Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest real estate developers, and its affiliates filed chapter 15 petitions in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan seeking recognition of foreign restructuring proceedings in the High Court of Hong Kong and in the High Court of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the British Virgin Islands.

How did we get here?

The crypto markets were rocked again last week by the collapse and bankruptcy of FTX and Alameda Research. Within a few short days, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and his companies went from a stabilizing force for markets and acting as an industry leader to causing one of the greatest disruptions in digital asset market history.

Volatile commodity prices in 2020 led to the bankruptcy of many oil and gas producers. While some analysts expect oil and gas prices to rise during 2021, the US Energy Information Administration’s 2021 annual outlook advises that a return to 2019 levels of US energy consumption will take years.[2]

Introduction

The concept of winding up does not exclusively apply to insolvent companies. Solvent companies can also be wound up, on the initiation of the company’s directors and shareholders (for example, as part of a corporate reconstruction or to close down non-operating or redundant entities). 

An overview of the two key procedures to effect the dissolution of a solvent Australian company, being Members’ Voluntary Liquidation and Deregistration, is set out below. 

In brief

Even with the fiscal stimulus and other measures taken by the Federal and State governments in Australia, corporate insolvencies are likely to increase in coming months.

Under Australia's insolvency regimes, a distressed company may be subject to voluntary administration, creditor's voluntary winding up or court ordered winding up (collectively, an external administration). Each of these processes raises different issues for the commencement and continuation of court and arbitration proceedings.

In summary

In our previous alert we discussed how Justice Markovic in the Federal Court of Australia had granted the administrators of retailer Colette Group relief from personal liability for rent in respect of 93 stores.