Tax office claims Ross Pelligra’s new Perth Glory company failed to cough up after $946,880 demand lobbed

Melbourne construction mogul Ross Pelligra’s Perth Glory operating company has been accused of hanging on to more than $940,000 in tax as it faces a liquidation push. Documents just released by the Federal Court show the tax office launched a winding-up action against Perth Glory Football Pty Ltd after the company allegedly failed to deal with a $946,879.55 demand made on September 17. The tax office says the statutory payment was posted to Perth Glory Football Pty Ltd’s registered office in suburban Keilor East, next to the headquarters of Mr Pelligra’s construction and property group. Documents released on Wednesday have exposed a potential communications gap between the Perth Glory’s new Keilor East financial masters and the A-League soccer franchise being run from from Fremantle Oval. Perth Glory chief executive Anthony Radich said on Monday the club had not received any correspondence or notices of the tax office’s liquidation action until last Friday, two days after the tax office filed its Federal Court action. Due to tight Federal Court rules around the release of filed documents, news of the liquidation push broke on Monday without any details of the alleged debt or the statutory demand’s timing and destination. While declining to discuss whether a statutory demand was received at Perth Glory Football Pty Ltd’s office in September, Mr Radich said on Wednesday the tax office’s call for payment “would have been dealt with a lot quicker if we received it at this end”. He said he was confident it would now be promptly dealt with by Mr Pelligra and the liquidation application would “go away very quickly”. “From our end, we will have to keep up our communication with the financial team over east,” Mr Radich said. The Federal Court wind-up push comes less than 10 months after Mr Pelligra used this newly-incorporated company to acquire the Perth Glory A-League operations from receivers appointed by soccer governing body Australian Professional Leagues. The deal was supposed to give Perth Glory a fresh start after more than 16 years under the control of Perth investment promoter Tony Sage and his company Okewood Pty Ltd. Mr Pelligra made a minimal upfront payment to acquire Perth Glory. But he agreed to bankroll the A-League franchise, providing $4m in annual funding and financial support from his East Keilor-based operations. The statutory demand filed with the Perth Glory Football Pty Ltd liquidation application alleges the $946,879.55 debt relates to money owed by the company under business activity statement rules and income tax collection obligations. The demand does not given a breakdown of the allegedly unpaid collections. Accounts filed by receivers from KordaMentha for the seven months they managed Perth Glory indicated they were handling up to $190,000 of pay-as-you-go tax collections each month. The application is due for its first hearing on February 7.