NATHAN Tinkler's Hunter Sports Group has paid a tax bill of more than $365,000, averting a potential winding up of the Newcastle Knights Members Club.
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The bill formed the basis of a statutory demand issued on October 5 by the Australian Taxation Office against the Knights members club.
The 21-day deadline for that statutory demand meant the debt had to be paid by tomorrow - or application made through the courts to have it set aside - or the members club could have been deemed insolvent Members club chairman Nick Dan said HSG chief executive Troy Palmer had informed him and deputy chairman Allan McKeown yesterday that the bill had been paid.
Dan, who was elected unopposed at a meeting last Thursday to replace Peter Corcoran as members club chairman, spoke to the Newcastle Herald last night.
"It appears that the bill has been paid, in line with the commitments HSG had given the Knights members club," he said.
HSG would not comment when contacted last night.
HSG had attributed the debt to the former Knights administration.
The debt came to light during an ATO audit of the members club. Both sides agreed HSG would pay it.
Corcoran resigned as the members club chairman at the start of a board meeting last Thursday.
Dan was then elected unanimously as his successor, and McKeown was elected unanimously to replace Dan as deputy chairman.
Since a meeting with Knights advisory board chairman Paul Harragon last Friday, Dan and McKeown have engaged in regular correspondence with Harragon and Palmer over the tax bill, which was due to be paid before tomorrow.
Dan, whose election as members club chairman came exactly one week after HSG asked him to stand down from the Knights advisory board, hoped settling the debt would allow the members club and HSG to establish a more harmonious working relationship.
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"We've got to have a good relationship because we all want the Knights football department to perform well, and I believe it's only with a united front office that that will have a chance of happening properly," Dan said.
Dan said the Knights members club board, comprising himself, McKeown, Corcoran, Trevor Crow, Steve Doran and Leigh Maughan, would meet in the next few weeks to nominate their two appointed representatives to the Knights advisory board.
Crow is already on the advisory board as Newcastle Rugby League chairman and Doran is believed to be ineligible as he was appointed to the members club board by the Newcastle Rugby League, not elected by Knights members.