Krukziener makes offer to avoid bankruptcy

Property developer Andrew Krukziener. Photo / Gilda Kirkpatrick

Inland Revenue's bankruptcy application against Auckland property developer Andrew Krukziener has been postponed until November.

The application was set to be heard on Tuesday but has been delayed until the end of the year after Krukziener signed a last-ditch deal with his creditors to avoid bankruptcy.

The exact amount in the dollar that Krukziener has offered his creditors has not been confirmed.

The deal has yet to be approved by the court but a hearing on the matter, scheduled to be heard with the bankruptcy application, could prevent the former rich lister from bankruptcy.

In November, the Taxation Review Authority successfully argued that loans of $5 million paid to the property developer between 1991 and 2002 from his trusts should be assessed as income. The judgment against him for $575,000 noted he did not receive a salary then and paid very little tax.

According to the judgment Krukziener said most of the loans had been repaid and fringe benefit tax had been paid on the interest-free loans. He claims the loans were capital and not salary.

He said his group entities rolled over profit from one development to the next, so eventually there would have been significant tax paid but this did not happen because the Metropolis tower in central Auckland failed.

Justice Patricia Courtney reserved her decision on the High Court appeal.