Written by Kevin Ayers, Daily Mail Australia
Updated January 11, 2024 03:46, January 11, 2024 07:38
- Celebrity hairdressers pay less than $100,000 to ATO
- She owed the taxman $915,000 but agreed to a payment agreement
- Kristin Fischer toasts deal with $600 bottle of Dom Perignon
- Read more: Big blow to the eyebrow queen’s empire
Eyebrow queen Kristin Fischer struck an incredible deal with the taxman to wipe out nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes and celebrated by opening a $600 bottle of champagne.
The hairdresser will avoid paying almost the entire $915,000 she owes the Australian Taxation Office after entering into a life-saving deal through administrators to avoid bankruptcy.
Creditors of her Double Bay salon in Sydney’s upmarket eastern suburbs, including the ATO, will now receive between six and nine cents on every dollar owed.
The agreement will reduce Ms Fisher’s tax liability to less than $100,000, less than half the amount she had offered the ATO in a previously rejected compromise offer.
She toasted her financial victory with a $600 glass of 2008 vintage Dom Perignon Champagne and a bowl of shoestring fries in a photo posted to Instagram on Tuesday.
Fisher, 38, also had a $100 bottle of Hurley Vineyard Garamond Pinot Noir from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula that he cracked open when the bubbles ran out.
He had previously offered to pay the ATO $200,000 over two years under a turnaround plan drawn up by former administrator Mr Worrells in July, but the ATO ignored this offer.
The mother-of-two joined her new company, Co Cordis, on November 30 after meeting financial adviser Banjo Bond, grandson of her sister Kate’s husband and notorious businessman Alan Bond. I changed jobs.
The new team managed to make an impressive signing in the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Administrators Jeremy Nipps and Rahul Goyal said a week ago that they were investigating new restructuring options and a document of company agreement (DOCA).
DOCA made a discount offer to Kristin Fisher Eyebrow’s creditors over the Christmas break, which has now been accepted by the ATO.
Mr Co Cordis told Daily Mail Australia that Kristin Fisher Eyebrows had “successfully emerged from self-management”.
The company acknowledged that the decision to accept the terms of DOCA was “not unanimous”, but said it protected “Double Bay’s operations from the possibility of closure”.
Fisher recalled the moment she learned she was facing financial ruin a year ago, but insisted it was business as usual for her salon.
“Last December, I received a call that no small business owner wants to receive,” she said.
“I was in a state of shock for 24 hours. I didn’t leave my bed. I stared at the ceiling for 24 hours wondering how on earth this could have happened.
“Thankfully, I was in Perth with my family at the time. They cried with me, hugged me, took care of me. And when I was finally ready, the whole family got together and we immediately did this. I started working on ways to correct this.
“There was a proposal by some advisors to fold the company…
“There was no way on this earth I would do something like that.”
She said a year after opening her flagship salon in Double Bay, coronavirus decimated her business and stripped her of all income.
“During the lockdown period, I had absolutely zero income. The renovation work and the accumulated rent on the premises have increased my debt,” she posted on social media in September.
“What I’ve spent the last nine months trying to figure out is how things have gone wrong and how to actually take stock of your financial situation (not happy thinking your ‘adviser’ is taking care of you”) I learned everything I could about (instead of living in). ”
“Honestly, I think the amount I’ve learned in the last nine months could almost make me an accountant.”
She added: “Having said that, we cannot shift the blame.
“We should have gotten through it all, but as the old saying goes, you can’t be in business and business at the same time.” Especially when she has two little people, each of whom is her top priority. every day.
“So I dropped the ball. And here I am.”
Her administrator’s rescue plan gave creditors the choice of receiving nothing or between 6.22 and 8.82 percent of the total $932,000 Fisher was owed.
She owes about $450,000 to relatives and another $100,000 from unnamed parties, according to creditor reports.
Ms Fisher has been at the center of controversy in recent years after splitting from her personal trainer husband Chris Burns after being caught with a cocaine stabbing by police during the coronavirus lockdown.
She then ended her marriage to celebrity Double Bay hairdresser Tom Cole, and then appeared to have a falling out with former best friend and socialite Nadia Fairfax, who followed her on social media. I removed it.
She also suffered tragedy in 2021 when one of her staff members, Michelle Singh, committed suicide after spending the night with her boss in Sydney.
Despite the turmoil, the administrator found that her business was still viable, making a total of $300,000 in profits from 2020 to 2023.
Their report said Mr Fisher’s downfall was due to his “failure to manage significant debts owed to the ATO since at least the beginning of 2020”.
The report also said there were “substantial director drawings during the same period to cover the living expenses of individuals with limited repayments made”.
Administrators blamed Covid-19 trading conditions, poor financial advice and the breakdown of Ms Fisher’s marriage and resulting “personal distress” for impacting on the business.
They said up to $1.4 million had been extracted from the company in “potentially unreasonable director-related transactions”, but warned against legal action.
“We reviewed the statement and conducted other research from company records and public information, including property searches,” he said.
“Our preliminary investigation indicates that even if a claim is successful against the directors, the directors appear to have limited solvency and therefore do not have the ability to pay the estimated claims on the insolvency transactions and/or director loans. “Such charges may be subject to the full amount.”
The report also said Mr Fisher may have breached company law by failing to act with “care and diligence” as a director.
Nips said she may not have “controlled the company’s financial and strategic matters” or “acted in good faith, including withdrawing funds from the company to the extent that affected the company’s solvency.” He said that there is a sex.
“A significant second meeting of creditors was convened in Sydney on 29 December 2023, culminating in the acceptance of the company agreement,” Mr Co Cordis told Daily Mail Australia. .
The Administrator’s decision was based on the benefits of the proposed arrangement: job security for employees, fostering continued business relationships with suppliers, and maintaining the company’s goodwill.
“There was a strong consensus that this outcome was in the best interest of all creditors, recognizing that there would be no benefit to creditors by liquidating the company.
“Although the decision to accept the Company Agreement was not unanimous, the administrators concluded that this course of action offers superior prospects for the Company’s employees and stakeholders compared to the alternatives.
“For Kristin Fisher Eyebrows Pty Ltd, this marks the beginning of a new chapter and is a testament to our resilience and dedication to keeping our promises to both our employees and stakeholders.”
An ATO spokesperson said it could not comment on individual cases “due to our statutory confidentiality and privacy obligations”.