Louise remembers receiving a notice from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) telling her she had just 21 days to pay about $20,000 of tax debt racked up in her name without her knowing.
Last year, Louise (her real name has been concealed for her protection) received a director penalty notice (DPN) from the ATO for unpaid GST and withheld PAYG linked to a company she had no idea she was a director of.
Despite her not knowing the company existed, the notice made her liable for the debt.
"That was the first time I realised the situation I was in and I was so overwhelmed," she told ABC News.
A separate, new national study of coerced business debt — the first in Australia — has revealed its devastating impact on domestic abuse survivors.
The research, led by Jasmine Opdam, senior policy and advocacy officer at Redfern Legal Centre's financial abuse service, and Monash Business School associate professor Vivien Chen, was done in collaboration with the Economic Abuse Reference Group.
It was based on detailed interviews with frontline professionals and community organisations who regularly assist victims.
Ms Opdam says they described how perpetrators of financial abuse commit fraud by impersonating their partners, signing them up as company directors and putting business and tax debts in their name.
"These coerced business debts rob women of their financial autonomy and often take years and years to recover from, if at all,"
Ms Opdam said.
The federal government is proposing a crackdown on perpetrators of financial abuse, including making it harder for directors to be appointed without clear consent.
Assistant Treasury Minister Andrew Leigh says the government wants to make it easier for people to leave a coerced directorship and ensure there are proper penalties in place for perpetrators who sign people as directors without their consent.
"It's a matter of economic justice and social justice," Dr Leigh said.
Read the full article published on ABC News December 10 2025
