Do you want your company wound up but don't want to be subject to the insolvency law?  Why not allow it to be deregistered by A S I C, no questions asked ?

ASIC has been deregistering companies simply because they have not paid their "review fee". (See ASIC initiated deregistration.)

The target company is first given a warning by ASIC.  Then if the company does not respond, it's deregistered, which means that as far as ASIC is concerned the company no longer exists.

But what if the company has changed it's registered office and forgot to inform ASIC, with the result that the notice is sent to a former address and not received by the company?

I have seen this happen to some insolvent companies.  The companies have been stripped of assets by their directors, who have then set up new companies to carry on the same business using the same assets.  Usually the only creditor left behind is the Taxation Office.  This is what is commonly referred to as a phoenix scheme.

The insolvency divisions of ASIC are trying to wipe out phoenix company activity.  (See ASIC welcomes insolvency reforms package.)

But in a case of the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, ASIC's deregistration division is deregistering these companies without giving any thought to the consequences.

For example, if the company is a phoenix, and it's simply deregistered by ASIC, no insolvency appointment will be made and no investigation will take place.

Consequently, there will be no prosecution by ASIC.  It is only in cases where a liquidator is appointed that ASIC provides funds for investigation from its Assetless Administration Fund.

By the time the Taxation Office comes chasing its unpaid debt  (assuming that it knows about it), the company will have ceased to exist.  Sure, it can be reinstated and then put into liquidation.  But who is going to bother.  The ATO will write of its debt with a shrug of the shoulders.  And the directors can continue on their merry way.

As a liquidator I am working on a case at the moment which, although slightly different than the scenario described above, shows how this loophole works.  The director has been a previous director of several companies, all of which have been deregistered by ASIC.  He has now moved on to another company, leaving this one assetless.  But I am not eligible for AAF funding under ASIC's "director bannings" program because the director has not "been involved with one or more companies which have gone into liquidation".