Can the ATO stop abuse of deregistration?

In a joint submission to the Review of Tax Regulator Secrecy Exceptions the accounting bodies have proposed a solution to prevent phoenix company activity via deregistration which is to allow the ATO to inform ASIC if a company seeking deregistration has an unpaid tax debt. Although the extent of the problem has not been studied, anecdotally, some companies falsely declare they have no liabilities when seeking deregistration enabling a business to continue in a new debt-free phoenix company.

The ATO already receives a daily list of the status of all companies and, with a change to Division 355 of the TAA, would be able to notify ASIC if a tax debt existed which in turn would assist ASIC verify whether the declaration that the company had no liabilities was true.

Even though it would only help company initiated deregistrations (as distinct from ASIC initiated), this left field law reform suggestion seems like a good idea to me.