Beijing-linked Twin Creeks golf club’s tax woes exposed in ATO court proceedings

Under threat of being wound up, a cash-strapped Sydney golf club with ties to Beijing has promised to clear a multimillion-dollar tax debt.

Swanky Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club in Luddenham has had its tax woes exposed by Federal Court proceedings.

Swanky western Sydney golf club Twin Creeks has vowed to pay tax debts of $2.5 million to avoid being wound up.

The Luddenham-based club – which has ties to China’s communist party – is accused of owing more than $1.5m in GST, fringe benefits tax and income tax, as well as nearly $1m in superannuation guarantees charges, penalties and interest for late payment of worker retirement contributions due as far back as 2017.

The club’s financial woes have been laid bare in new proceedings brought by the Australian Taxation Office in Sydney’s Federal Court.

The ATO is seeking an order that the club – which until recently hosted the state’s top golf tournament – “be wound up in insolvency”.

The document filed on the taxman’s behalf contains a copy of a statutory demand served on the club in August.

Twin Creeks hosted the NSW Open as recently as 2018. Picture: AAP’s Brendan Esposito

The demand warns that “a failure to respond … can have very serious consequences for a company. In particular, it may result in the company being placed in liquidation and control of the company passing to the liquidator”.

The document filed with the court says “the defendant failed to pay the amount of the debt demanded or to secure or compound for that amount to the plaintiff’s reasonable satisfaction within 21 days after the demand was served.”

Twin Creeks was bought by Chinese interests in 2015, with new directors appointed including Hong Kong-based casino junket promoter “Jack” Yin Lok Lam, who has served as a member of the “Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference”.

Another of the directors who joined following the purchase was “Tommy” Zhao Qing Jiang, a Chinese-language media mogul who has co-invested with companies ultimately owned by Beijing-controlled China Radio International.

Mr Jiang has not been a director of the club since 2019, but Mr Lam remains on the board.

The most recent financial statements filed by Twin Creeks with the corporate regulator, for calendar 2018, show an annual loss of more than $500,000 and liabilities exceeding assets by nearly $3.9m.

Twin Creeks director “Jack” Yin Lok Lam. Picture: Penrith City Council's Facebook page

The company’s auditors said in the financial statements that “the results of operations as well as other factors cast a significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as going concern.

“The ability of the company to continue as going concern is dependent on the financial support extended by its ultimate parent company Australia Twin Creeks Holdings Limited.”

The club and Australia Twin Creeks Holdings have the same directors.

A club spokesman told The Daily Telegraph the impact of the pandemic plus flooding over the past three years had “destroyed the business.”

However, the spokesman added, “I have been informed that all payments of outstanding debt is currently in the process of being paid.”