When do the 21 days start on a DPN?
Short answer
The 21 days start on the date the ATO posts the notice to your address on the ASIC register, which is normally the date printed on the notice. They do not start when the letter reaches you or when you open it. All 21 are calendar days, weekends and public holidays included, and the ATO cannot extend them. Details are in our 21 day deadline guide.
Counting the days
Take the date on the notice and add 21 days. A notice dated 3 August expires on 24 August. It makes no difference that some of those days fall on a weekend or a public holiday, and it makes no difference that Australia Post took a week to deliver it.
There is no mechanism to extend the period. The ATO cannot agree to a longer window, and lodging an objection, asking for a payment plan or sending a letter does not pause it. If the notice sat unopened for ten days, you have eleven left.
If you are unsure of the posting date, call the ATO on 13 11 42 and ask. They can tell you the date the notice was issued and the address it went to.
Why the notice date beats delivery
The law treats a DPN as given when it is posted to, or left at, your ASIC-registered address (or your last known address if you have no ASIC record). Delivery is not required. That means:
- being overseas, in hospital or simply not at that address does not stop the clock;
- an out-of-date ASIC address is your problem, not the ATO's;
- a co-director's notice tells you roughly when yours was posted, because they usually go out together.
Keep the envelope. If there is ever a dispute about when the notice was posted, the postmark is evidence. The full director penalty notice guide covers what happens if the address was wrong.
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What actually fits inside 21 days
TREAT DAY 14 AS THE DEADLINE
Insolvency appointments take days to arrange, and practitioners often cannot act on a day 20 phone call.
For non-lockdown amounts, personal liability is removed if within the 21 days the company pays in full, or a voluntary administrator is appointed, or a small business restructuring practitioner is appointed, or the company goes into liquidation. Each of those needs documents, a board resolution and a practitioner willing to consent.
A payment plan does not remit a DPN. It can stop the ATO enforcing the penalty while you keep to it, but the personal liability stays. For lockdown amounts, only payment removes the penalty and the 21 days simply mark when the ATO can start recovery against you.
What to do next
- Find the date on the notice, add 21 days, and write the expiry date where you will see it daily.
- Sort every amount on the notice into lockdown or non-lockdown using the company's lodgement dates.
- If any amount is non-lockdown and the company cannot pay, speak to a restructuring adviser before day 14.
Related questions
Do weekends and public holidays count in the 21 days?
Yes. The period is 21 calendar days from the date of the notice. If day 21 lands on a Sunday or a public holiday, it is still day 21. Plan any payment or appointment for a business day well before the expiry date.
Can the ATO extend or pause the 21 days if I ask?
No. There is no power to extend a director penalty notice period, and the ATO cannot waive it by agreement. Requesting a payment plan, lodging an objection or disputing the amount does not stop the clock. If the deadline is close, the decision is which of the four remission actions the company can complete in time, if any.
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