What does a director penalty notice look like?

What is on the notice

Layouts change, but a DPN will always contain the same core parts:

• your name and the address it was posted to;
• the company name and ABN;
• a schedule of the unpaid amounts: the type of liability (PAYG withholding, GST, SGC), the tax period, the due date and the amount still outstanding;
• the total director penalty, which mirrors those company amounts;
• the date of the notice, which is the date the 21 days run from;
• the remission options available for those amounts, and how to pay or contact the ATO.

One notice can cover several periods, and you may receive more than one notice over time as new periods fall due. Each co-director gets their own copy.

Reading the remission wording

The most important lines are the ones describing what will remit the penalty. If the notice says the penalty can be remitted by the company paying, or by the appointment of an administrator or small business restructuring practitioner, or by the company being wound up, those amounts are non-lockdown and the 21 days genuinely matter. If it says the penalty can only be remitted by payment of the company liability, those amounts are lockdown.

Check the notice against the company's actual lodgement dates. The 3 month rule for BAS and the due date rule for SGC decide which category each amount falls into.

What a DPN is not

It is not a scam. The ATO does send DPNs by post, and a real one never asks you to click a link, pay by gift card or transfer money to a personal account. If you are unsure, compare it with the common ATO letters and call the ATO on 13 11 42 rather than any number printed in a suspicious email.

It is not a company letter. Letters of demand and payment reminders addressed to the company are about the company's debt. A DPN is about your personal liability.

It is not the warning letter. The ATO often sends a director penalty warning letter first. That letter has no 21 day clock. The DPN does.

Keep the envelope. The postmark can matter if there is ever a dispute about the date the notice was given.

What to do next

1. Find the date on the notice and count forward 21 calendar days. Write the expiry date somewhere you will see it every day.
2. Read the remission wording for each amount and mark which are lockdown and which are non-lockdown.
3. Get the notice, the envelope and the company's lodgement history to an adviser this week, not next.

More questions: 16 Director penalty notice questions questions answered · Full guide: Director penalty notices