Direct taxation of persons who receive distributions of surplus assets in the liquidation of Australian companies occurs under either the deemed dividends or capital gains regimes. Section 47 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) has deemed dividends for income taxation for over 80 years...

The law of insolvency can trace its early modern beginnings to the equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. It is therefore unsurprising to note that throughout the development of the subject of insolvency numerous questions surrounding the law of trusts have percolated through for...

An unacknowledged fact about the Bankruptcy Code's definition of "insolvent" is that it requires unmatured interest to be counted as debt. Ignored in practice, this statutory requirement makes no economic sense, but remains a trap awaiting a litigant in front of a court compelled to apply the...

Since 1978, dismissals of involuntary bankruptcy petitions due to petitioning creditors' bad faith have proliferated. In the process, a textual oddity has not gone unnoticed: even as “bad faith” is denominated as the basis for an award of punitive damages, nowhere in the Bankruptcy Code's...

It is well understood that the equity of an insolvent firm can trade for a positive price so long as there is some positive probability that the firm will become solvent at some future point. Currently, however, this insight exists in the case law in an informal sense, while its use in the...

In a contested matter or adversary proceeding, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7004(h) sets forth the requisites for service on an “insured depository institution.” Subject to three exceptions, a motion or complaint must be served by certified mail on an officer of these statutorily...

For more than two decades, a debate has raged over what to make of vindicatory contempts, a class of ostensibly civil contempt orders intended to punish a debtor for his or her defiance of prior judicial orders issued pre-petition by a state court. Because § 362(a)(1) applies to all judicial...

Municipal bankruptcies are unpredictable. There are several reasons for this statement — municipal bankruptcies are rare, involvement of the state itself in the process varies according to the governing state law, and chapter 9, the Bankruptcy Code chapter governing the municipal bankruptcy...

Systemically important financial institutions are broadly considered to impose a risk to the entire economy upon failure; thus taxpayers act upon their failure, providing them with an implied insurance policy for ongoing liquidity. Yet taxpayers frequently provide de-facto liquidity insurance for...